AWESOME ASTRONOMY

Welcome to AstroCamp!

In this podcast extra episode, we welcome you to the practical astronomy arm of the Awesome Astronomy empire, as we take a run through what people can expect at our AstroCamp star party in the Brecon Beacons International Dark Sky Reserve on the extended weekend of 14-17th April 2018.

We also take a look at the social and educational aspects of star parties and round everything off with some of our favourite solar system and deep sky objects visible this spring to observe for yourself.

If you haven't booked a place yet and would like to come, head over to www.astrocamp.org.uk We're taking bookings all the way up to the 13th April 2018.

See you under the stars!

The Discussion: The Beast from the East makes practical astronomy difficult and we take a look at listeners' emails that accuse us of imperialism, suggest we throw away some solar filters, provide an alternative look at solar system creation and reveal their own astronomy outreach experiences.

The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have:

• China's space station is about to fall out the sky
• Genetic sequencing looks at an alien find
• Did a year in space alter Mark Kelly's DNA?
• More delays to the James Webb Space Telescope
• A new European Space Agency telescope gets the green light

Famous Astronomer: This month we give you a primer on an upcoming podcast extra on the life of recently departed Stephen Hawking.

Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we take a look answering difficult questions:

I live in a part of the World with very strong religious beliefs and often get asked sensitive questions relating to faith and astronomy. I'd be interested to hear your take on this and what "polite" stock replies you give. Stefan Zietara, undisclosed location in the Middle East.

What to look out, and up, for in December.

Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month's skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers:

• The features visible on Mars
• Jupiter visible in the morning sky
• Venus in the evening sky
• The Lyrid meteor shower

Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year.

• Ralph – The Beehive and King Cobra open clusters in Cancer
• Jen - M82, The Cigar Galaxy, and M81, a starburst galaxy in Ursa Major
• Paul – A tour of the Virgo cluster of galaxies and Markarian's Chain

And we finish this sky guide with April's moon phases.

An extended Hat of Woo if you like, but for this podcast extra episode we dip our hands back into the festering corners of Paul's hat to take a look at the root causes and the psychology of belief in conspiracy theories.

Not why are they wrong but why do humans believe in conspiracy theories at all?

Do we shoot ourselves in the foot through our educational policies and methods of teaching?

Are we just hardwired to believe in falsehoods, whether more elaborate or more simple than the truth?

The Discussion: Jeni and her Welsh brethren suffered an Earthquake and Ralph takes a look through listeners emails which prompts a discussion about the range of educational outreach that AweAst listeners undertake.

The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have:

• A new and pointless star 'graces' our night sky
• We wave goodbye to the concept of the Late Heavy Bombardment
• Astronomers publish results on the oldest supernova detection
• Astronomy Concept: We delve into the wide array of visual observation and astrophography filters in response to John Lonergan's request.

Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we take a look at the nature of black holes:

1) I heard in the reporting that the black hole had a physical spin. Does that support the idea that a black hole cannot be a singularity/point since it has a physical spin?

2) The merging black holes lost multiple solar masses in the merging process. If the mass loss wasn't from outside the event horizons, then what was that huge mass loss mechanism when supposedly "nothing can escape from a black hole"?

3) Can gravitational waves eventually be used by astronomers to probe the interior of a black hole?" Lt Col Dave from Florida USA

What to look out, and up, for in March.

Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month's skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers:

• Prepare for this year's Mars opposition as it increases in brightness
• Jupiter at 21 degrees in the pre-dawn sky
• Bright Venus, Mercury and the moon in conjunction on 18th March
• Comet 2016 R2 PANSTARRS in Perseus
• A lunar conjunction with the Hyades Cluster and occultation of Aldebaran.

Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year:

• Ralph – Messier 81 & 82, Bode's Galaxy & The Cigar Galaxy in Ursa Major
• Jen - Messier 3, globular cluster in Canes Venatici
• Paul – The Leo 1 group of Galaxies in the constellation Leo

And we finish this sky guide with March's moon phases.

This Awesome Astronomy episode is inspired by last week's incredible SpaceX launch and listeners' requests to talk a bit more about SpaceX and the advances in commercial spaceflight. In this Podcast Extra, we're joined by spaceflight aficionado Gavin Price (@pilliarscreatio) to discuss:

• The inaugural Falcon Heavy launch and what it achieved
• Was the launch awesome or all hype?
• How good is the Falcon Heavy really?
• Will Falcon Heavy or Elon's next ambitious rocket make NASA's rocket redundant?
• How about other organisations? (ULA/Arianne/Blue origin etc)
• Where do the commercial companies leave the likes of Soyuz? (TsSKB-Progress)
• Where do we see access to space in ten, fifteen, twenty years time?
• Will Elon make good on his plan to colonize Mars?

The Discussion: Friend of the show and lecturer at Jeni's Cardiff University, Dr Ed Gomez is launching a Kickstarter project to create and distribute a children's comic book to encourage children to take an interest and career in science. Jeni tells us about Ada's Adventures in Science, which you can give your support to at http://kck.st/2DI43hg. Paul suffers the adverse effects of being travelling science salesman and Ralph reads out some listeners' emails - including one interesting email that suggests 'Kim Jen Un' may be getting into peoples' heads.

The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have:

• An update from Cassini on the strange orbits of Saturn's moon Janus and Epimetheus and a look at a research paper shedding light on the ring they create around the gas giant.
• We mourn the loss of yet another Apollo astronaut as we say goodbye to John Young with a look back at his NASA career.
• Recent analysis of Martian meteorites and current Martian atmospheric constituents tempers our optimism that Mars had a long history of habitability.

Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we take a look at the end of our galaxy as we know it:

In 2 million years or so, when we merge with Andromeda, would you notice anything much different from Earth? Or just another Milky Way type structure in the night sky, assuming we merge at an angle? Sean Mulcahy from Yorkshire, UK via Twitter (@sfgmulcahy)

What to look out, and up, for in February.

Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month's skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers:

• Track Mars' passage through Scorpius & Ophiuchus
• Jupiter in Libra gives us a shadow transit and a look at its Great Red spot
• Dwarf Planet Ceres at opposition on 1st February & Comet Heinze in Pegasus

Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year:

• Ralph – Open clusters Messier 67 and the Beehive Cluster in Cancer
• Jen - Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, in Ursa Major
• Paul – NCG 40, the Bow Tie nebula, in Cepheus

And we finish this sky guide with February's moon phases.

In this podcast extra episode, we're joined again by The Essex Space Agency's Phil St Pier as we take another sideways diversion into science fiction movies as we cast a critical eye over the recent big sci-fi blockbusters:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Blade Runner 2049

This episode is dedicated to Matt & Ali's arrival of their daughter Evangeline Rosa Kingsnorth.