Headline Astronomy

For the past couple of months Loch Ness Productions has been working with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific on a really cool project called Astronomy Behind the Headlines. It’s designed for folks who do informal science education — people like planetarium lecturers, scout troop leaders, amateur astronomy club speakers and anybody else who talks with the public about astronomy.  The idea behind the project is that there is always some kind of news about astronomy and people want to know more about it. So, we banded together to create podcasts that feature interviews with astronomers who are doing the science behind the headlines. I’m writing and narrating them and interviewing the scientists. Mark is doing the soundtracks and adding in his lovely space music.

The first episode is about astrobiology, and it features an interview with  my old friend Chris McKay of NASA Ames, who is one of the world’s experts on the topic. The second podcast is about things that fall from the sky (meteorites, comet dust, etc.) and we talk with Peter Jenniskens, the scientist at the SETI Institute who traveled to the Nubian desert last year to find pieces of an asteroid that fell to Earth as scientists tracked it coming in.  The scientists have great things to say. Check out these podcasts, and keep checking every month for a new one.

I’d also like to put in a good word for Astronomical Society of the Pacific — it’s a great organization that does a lot of really good work with professional and amateur astronomers as well as formal and informal science educators. I’m a member and urge you to join, too. Check out their website for more details, and by all means, have a listen to Astronomy Behind the Headlines.

and the Astronomer’s Universe

A few months ago I started creating special episodes for a segment called The Astronomer’s Universe, which is webcast on Astrocast.tv — a video cast that covers an amazing amount of info about astronomy and space science topics. This month (July), I covered star birth in a short segment titled (aptly enough) Starbirth, which you can watch below.

The process of star formation fascinates me. And, it is keeping a lot of astronomers very involved in figuring out the way the births of stars unfold. The general picture is pretty well known — that is, that a cloud of gas and dust begins to coalesce to form a star at its heart. After some time passes, a star is born, and if there’s enough material left over, planets may form.  The details of starbirth have long been hidden in the clouds of gas and dust, so when astronomers found a way to peek through the clouds (using infrared- and radio-sensitive instruments, for example), they began to see the intricate parts of the process. Now they are working to explain the process in greater detail and I think that over the next few years we’ll see a pretty complete explanation of just how it is that stars begin their lives.

That’s the story I tell (along with some nice images) over at Astrocast.tv.  And, as they say on late-nite TV, there’s more!  You can see some great segments from my producing colleagues at Astrocast.tv covering night sky gazing, the study of our own planet, and an exclusive look at the opening of Spaceport America a week or so back.  Check it all out!

Mars-style

We’ve arrived at our destination pretty much safe and sound — thanks to all of you who wrote to wish us well.  I was going through all the news that’s piled up while we were on the road, and noticed a story about “warm” weather on Mars and how some landforms show evidence of freeze-and-thaw cycles that indicate warmer weather sometime in the past. Very interesting and a great object lesson in what you can learn by studying landforms.

Driving across the landform that is the Great Plains of the United States, I couldn’t help but think about how millions of years ago the whole area was under an ocean. The landform is gentle and and rounded, with a few hills here and there. Of course, we went through some of our own “warm” weather the past few days — sweltering temps and some pretty severe storms. Those are short-term compared to the long-term existence of things like oceans in the past or the yearly freeze-thaw cycle on Mars that spurred the recent finding.  But, it’s all planetary science — and it’s all still in the landforms, if you know how and where to look!

Loveliness

I’m currently driving cross-country to a new home.  It’ s a huge move; all of our stuff is on a moving van, we have us and the cats in our cars.  The scenery this time of year is gorgeously green — at least along I-80. But, what has kept my attention both nights has been the sight of a lovely crescent Moon high in the west. One of the pleasures of skywatching is to see such sights and then let the imagination wander about how cool it is that we have another world so close that we can see its curvature without needing binoculars or a telescope. If we lived on a planet without a Moon, I often wonder how long it would have taken humans to intellectually figure out that other worlds exist, and what their characteristics are?

If you get a chance, get outside and check out the Moon the next few nights. It’s lovely!!

Northern Hemisphere Style

Well, it’s high summer here north of the equator, and for those of you without incessant rains coming down from the sky, the stars must be lookin’ pretty good right about now. I always like to go out and look for Sagittarius, which from my latitude is pretty far south and the tail just grazes the horizon. There’s a lot of stuff out that way — the center of the Milky Way lies in that direction, and so do a number of nice star clusters and some nebulae.  It’s one of my favorite places to look with binoculars.  The Milky Way also skims right over head later in the evening, and if I can find a spot in the grass without chiggers or mites or skeeters (mossies, for those of you in Australia), it’s really rewarding to lay back and just gaze at that (with or without binoculars).

I remember as a kid doing that “laying in the grass and looking up at the skies thing” and trying to count stars. An impossible task. There are a few thousand, not counting the ones you’d need magnification to see (either too dim or too far away or too crowded together in clusters and the Milky Way).  But, don’t let that stop you from trying.

Here’s a challenge for you:  get out there every night and look up.  Just do it. No excuses. Get a star chart (if you don’t have one, get one here: Skymaps. Print it out, study it. Then go out there and use it to identify a constellation or two. Maybe some bright stars.  If you’re daring, you might see if you can find some clusters. They’re out there. And if the weather is good for you (warm, dry, comfy), try it every night. Go on do it.  I dare ya.  Me?  I’ll do it, too. But first I have to find some clear skies. It’s been raining here for a week.  And, for the next seven days, I’ll be absorbed in moving to a new house. But, I’ll check in with you, to make sure you’re stargazing.  Watching the stars is free — and, as they say — in this economy — free is good.