AWESOME ASTRONOMY

The Discussion: Paul avoids the big freeze with astronomy cheats, Ralph reads out the latest good and bad reviews, while Jeni becomes a 'Who's Who' question at Cardiff University!

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

• Voyager 1 shows it still has the skills and prolongs its own life
• An update on the extrasolar asteroid that just buzzed our solar system
• Physicists observe a reversal of the arrow of time in laboratory experiments
• The European Southern Observatory image convective cells on another star
• NASA reveals its next two major planetary exploration missions

Science Concept: This month we return to astronomy-related concepts as we delve back into the quantum world for a primer on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and why you cannot know both the position and velocity of a particle.

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 upcoming astronomical highlights:

What is the one thing in the world of astronomy that each of you is looking forward to in 2018? Steve Brown from Yorkshire via Twitter (@sjb_astro)

What to look out, and up, for in January!

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

• The Red Planet Mars, makes a welcome return to our skies
• The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on the night of 3rd/4th January
• Dwarf planet Ceres is at opposition on 31st January in Cancer
• Mercury is at greatest wester elongation on 2nd January
• And comet C/2017 T1 Heinze reaches mag 7-9 on 6th January

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

• Ralph – Messier 42, the Great Nebula in Orion
• Jen – NGC 2244 and the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros.
• Paul – NCG 2903, Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo

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

There's trouble in paradise as Christmas evening in the Cydonia bunker turns ugly. Alcohol may be the culprit. But equally, the blame may lie with suffering a whole day of pretending to like one another and f***ing Christmas songs!

So, while tensions rise and arguments flare, Ralph, Paul and Jen run through the memorable space and astronomy events of 2017 and look forward to the treats in store for 2018.

Then there's the small matter of John's annual outtake reel specifically designed to embarrass the hosts and push the bounds of decency as far as politeness will allow!

Main music courtesy of Star Salzman

Additional free music archive tracks:

• Silent Night by Hyson
• Christmas on Mars (Dance Mix) by Spinningmerkaba

In this podcast extra we begin a series, suggested by listener Sean Smith, of explaining the considerations involved in choosing practical astronomy equipment. This first in the series discusses one of the most important items in your amateur astronomy tool kit: Eyepieces.

This discussion takes in:

• Why eyepieces are important
• The differences between 'good' and 'bad' eyepieces
• Choosing the right price point
• Our suggestions for good quality cheap and expensive eyepieces

Don't forget our end of year review and Newtonmass panotmime will be available to download on Christmas Day.

The Discussion: Jeni gets her name in lights – well, bold print, as she contributes (what else but graphs) to a published research paper and Ralph takes a look at Ben Cacase's very own new asterism in the heart of Auriga and reads a defiant message from Michelle of 'ze resistonce'.

The News: It's a very rocky month as we round up the following space and astronomy news stories:

• Earth's moon had an atmosphere thicker than Mars' for more than 70 million years
• Observations suggest Proxima Centauri has a Kuiper Belt and maybe a Oort Cloud
• A sci-fi like asteroid from another star system is now passing through the inner solar system

Hat of Woo/Astronomy Concept mash-up: This month Paul's festering Hat of Woo is a little less fetid as we discuss a plausible but untested concept that has just a faint whiff of woo about it. This month we look at The Nemesis 'Theory' which suggests the sun has a brown dwarf companion which causes periodic extinction events – and, of course, we're long overdue an extinction and NASA are covering it all up!!!

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're tackling a question about meteor showers and how we calculate their orbits:

I was wondering if all known meteor showers are definitely associated with a comet? Also, how do astronomers determine the orbit of a comet using just a few locations on the sky? Ben Cacase, Manhattan, New York via email

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 Geminid meteor showers peaking on 13/14th December
• Uranus sitting in the constellation Pisces
• Mars & Jupiter lunar conjunctions

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

• Ralph – A binary star, a planetary nebula and 4 open clusters in Gemini
• Jen - The Pleiades open cluster in Taurus
• Paul – The Crab Nebula supernova remnant also in Taurus

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

In this podcast extra episode Jeni discusses the recent detection of two colliding neutron stars and their observation in both gravitational waves and all areas of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Jeni chats with Dr Edward Gomez, Education Director at the Las Cumbres Observatory and Cardiff University's Gravitational Physics Research Group Leader, Professor Patrick Sutton about the historic observations, what we can learn from these events, the future of gravitational wave astronomy and how this new window into the universe can help us improve some of the fundamentals of our knowledge of space and time.

We also put listeners' questions on these subjects from Raoul Van Eindhoven, @FuzzySemi and @calcomega to Patrick.

The Discussion: Britain shows that it won't just roll over and let America take the lead in intimidating academic freedom and Jen recounts her gravitational waves research conference in Brighton in October.

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

• Astronomers make the 1st observation of a neutron star collision
• Astronomers discover a missing chunk of the universe
• 3D videos of aurora that you can see at http://www.iap.fr/aurora3d/

The Interview: This month Cardiff University's Professor Mark Hannam tells us more about the recent observation of colliding neutron stars and this window into a new realm of astronomy.

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're tackling a question about the Drake Equation:

"It strikes me that the Drake equation sets the probability of life at either (1) pretty close to zero - in which case surely we'd be worth a visit. OR (2) very numerous - in which case there's every chance alien life might be driving past on their annual holiday. Or somewhere in between!

I think I'm saying that, yes overall I agree with the saying "seeing is believing", but at the same time I don't taking not seeing as proof of non existence. I've never seen a Polar Bear (you don't in Leeds) but I'm pretty sure they are out there."

John Levett in Leeds, UK

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

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

• A last look at Saturn for 2017 in the early evening sky
• A very impressive Jupiter/Venus conjunction on the 13th of November
• The Taurid meteor showers peaking on the 5th and 21st November and the Leonids on the 18th November
• Comet 2017 O1 ASASSN1 for binocular and telescope observers

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

• Ralph – Messier 42, the Orion Nebula in the constellation Orion
• Jen - Messier 13, The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
• Paul – NCG 404, Mirach's Ghost in the constellation Andromeda

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

In this podcast extra, we discuss the changing value of the Hubble Constant since 2000 – or put more simply, our narrowing down of how quickly the universe is expanding. This discussion takes in:

• The history of the Hubble Constant
• Edwin Hubble's dreadful scatter plot
• Further attempts to narrow down the universe's expansion rate
• Why research papers are awesome and accessible to everyone