The 365 Days of Astronomy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x867V2VyA4

Streamed live on May 13, 2016

Our apologies for the bandwidth issues on Pamela's side of the conversation.

It's hard enough finding your way around planet Earth, but what do you do when you're trying to find your way around the solar system? There are 3 dimensions! Today we talk about how spacecraft navigate from world to world.

Join +Fraser Cain and +Pamela Gay for a live episode of Astronomy Cast. We'll record our 30-minute show, and then stay tuned for them to answer questions!

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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

http://www.unawe.org/kids/unawe1609/

Today's story, though, isn't about the prominence, pretty though it may be, but the white spot, the solar flare. Flares are typically associated with active sunspot regions on our Sun, and we can assume this to be the case on other stars as well.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Rob Sparks' guest today is Dr. Joan Najita. Dr. Joan Najita studies star and planet formation at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona.

Rob Sparks is a science education specialist in the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) group at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and works on the Galileoscope project (www.galileoscope.org), providing design, dissemination and professional development. He blogs at halfastro.wordpress.com.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1P1xQXByhs

Streamed live May 6, 2016

Due to the hangout being on the Telestream Wirecast system, the audio levels (even using Levelator software to fix it) are wonky. #TrainWreck Please bear with us as we try to sort this out. Thank you.

Host: Fraser Cain (@fcain)
Special Guest: Paul Reichert

Paul is a Photo Instructor, NASA Johnson Space Center; he's also the International Space Station Mission Lead and Astronaut Technical Imaging Instructor (LM). He also is Project lead for crew imaging operations on the International Space Station and Imaging operations for the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
Guests:
Morgan Rehnberg ( MorganRehnberg.com & @MorganRehnberg )

Kimberly Cartier ( http://KimberlyCartier.org & @AstroKimCartier )

Paul M. Sutter ( http://www.pmsutter.com/ & @PaulMattSutter )

Dave Dickinson ( http://astroguyz.com/ & @Astroguyz )
Their stories this week:

- This week in Musk

- Mercury transit!

- Comet Pann-Stars

- 3 new potentially habitable worlds orbiting a red dwarf

- The second strongest shock wave found in merging galaxy clusters

- New Ultra Luminous X-ray sources

- ExoMars phase 2

- A really, really, really big radio telescope: FAST
We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Google+, Universe Today, or the Universe Today YouTube page.
You can also join in the discussion between episodes over at our Weekly Space Hangout Crew group in G+!

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Paul Hill, Ralph Wilkins and Jenifer Millard host. Damien Phillips and John Wildridge produce.

The Discussion

Revision season as Jeni finishes her masters in astrophysics and preparations for AstroCamp in the Welsh Brecon Beacons.

The News

- SpaceX make Paul look a right fool

- Stephen Hawking backs an attempt to send spaceships to Alpha Centauri

- More insight in to gravitational waves

- A new galaxy is discovered orbiting the Milky Way

- Narrowing down the whereabouts of Planet Nine

Paul's Big Hat of Woo

Delving deep into Paul’s big hat of woo this month we pull out ‘planetary alignments’ and all those crazy notions that tsunamis or weightlessness might occur if the planets are in certain alignments… or something.

Q&A

Our question this month comes from Clemens Unger in Melbourne, Australia who helpfully suggested:
If you’re looking for a topic to chat about in the show, how about the recent well publicised case of image theft in the Astro imaging community? A chap used a Damien Peach image and presented it as his own. But, as it’s a small world, Damien saw it by chance. There seems to be so much pressure on these days to show better and better images and that seems to overtake the fun of astronomy a bit for some and peer pressure is getting to some.

Awesome Astronomy: http://www.awesomeastronomy.com

Awesome Astronomy is a free monthly educational podcast to explore the frontiers of science and our evolving understanding of the universe.

Join Ralph, Paul & Jeni for informative and fun astronomy programmes dedicated to space and astronomy news and occasional podcast extras covering hot topics and special interviews in the world of science and astronomy.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1KxHgv8Oms

Published on Jan 22, 2014

In "Drawn to the Dark Side: The Enigma of Dark Matter in the Universe" Dr. Katherine Mack ( @AstroKatie & http://www.astrokatie.com/ ) gives a Google Hangout seminar on what dark matter is and how they have been able to detect it. Also gives a description of her experience working in Melbourne and her over all experience of being a Astrophysics PHD and the opportunities she has been given.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Hosted by Dr. Paul Matt Sutter.

This week I chat with Valerie Connaughton of the Universities Space Research Association about gamma ray bursts, merging black holes, and. . .catfish.

Dr. Connaughton now works as part of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) team. Her research interests include high-energy astrophysics, gamma-ray bursts, and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (atmospheric phenomena related to lightning). In addition to working on GBM, she is involved in next-generation ground-based gamma-ray instrumentation as part of the international Cerenkov Telescope Array (CTA) consortium, and she is a member of the proposed cosmic-ray experiment on the International Space Station, the Japanese-European-American JEM-EUSO team.

Special thanks to the Ohio State University for hosting this recording session.

You can find more information at realspacepodcast.com or by following me on Facebook or Twitter!

Theme song "Live Long and Podcast" by Nick Bain, Into The Machine Recordings (http://intothemachine.bandcamp.com) 2015, all rights reserved.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

- How do Star Trek's Heisenberg compensators work?

- How does Star Trek's impulse drive work?

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Avivah Yamani hosts.

What is a sunspot? Why does the Sun have this black spot on its face? When was the first time someone discovered these spots? Let's explore what is a sunspot first.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

May this year is a great year for those of us with telescopes (and still cool for those without), with a rare transit of Mercury, Mars’ opposition, and three great planets to look at for most of the night.  Add warmth to the nights and you’ve got a great month to invite your friend with a telescope over.

May 9th – Transit of Mercury – For the first time in about 10 years, Mercury will cross in front of the Sun from the Earth’s perspective. A small black dot will appear to move across the face of the Sun for about 7.5 hours, and will not happen again until November of 2019.  Here are two more in-depth sources: space.com and eclipsewise.com. 

Here are the basics for those of us in the Eastern U.S.  At about 7:12am, Mercury will begin its transit across a line that could roughly “slice off” 1/3 of the Sun, reach midpoint at about 10:58am, and reach the other side at about 2:42pm.  Times vary a little bit even within time zones, so look up time for your area.

BUT DON’T GO LOOKING AT THE SUN WITHOUT A FILTER. You’ll need a telescope with a proper solar filter, or you can use your lowest power eyepiece and project the Sun onto a piece of paper about a foot or two behind the eyepiece.  Here’s some more info: Sky & Telescope.

Mars & Saturn – Look SouthEast after 10pm and bring a sky map of Scorpius.  Mars, Saturn, and Antares will make a triangle throughout the month, with slight changes each day.  Mars will be the bright-ish reddish light above and to the right of Antares, the brightest star in Scorpius (also red). Saturn will be less bright than Mars, and to the left and above Antares.  By sunrise, they will be in the SW and close to the horizon.

Jupiter – Look South after sunset and Jupiter will be the very bright light below Leo the Lion. It will move toward the South and will be setting in the W between 2am and 3am.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!