Monthly Archives: August 2009

'Casts, 365 days of astronomy, astrocast.tv, the astronomer's universe

Outback Astronomy and New Media Astronomy

1 Comment

MWA

Dipole elements in the Murchison Wide-Field Array in Australia. Courtesy MIT Haystack Observatory and the MWA Consortium.
Dipole elements in the Murchison Wide-Field Array in Australia. Courtesy MIT Haystack Observatory and the MWA Consortium.

Some of my favorite folks in the world are working on the Murchison Wide-Field Array, a low-frequency radio astronomy project being built in the outback of Western Australia. I’ve worked on a couple of short projects for the Haystack Observatory team (in Westford, MA), and the array has been a long-term interest of mine for a while now.

So, it’s with great pleasure that I point you to today’s 365 Days of Astronomy podcast about the MWA. I wrote and narrated it and the music and soundtrack production is by Mark — including his wonderful original music.

Go check it out — we’ll still be here when you get back!

Astrocast.TV and The Astronomer’s Universe

Okay, now that you’ve listened to my golden voice talking about MWA, let me now point you over to Astrocast.tv — a project I’m proud to be working on as producer of a segment call The Astronomer’s Universe. Each month I and several other producers give you 4- to 5-minute-long in-depth looks at such topics as what professional astronomers are learning about the cosmos, what climate scientists are learning from the study of planet Earth, and what amateur stargazers can see each month in the night sky. Couple that with the latest astronomy and space news, plus a set of really nicely written blog entries by all of us involved in the project, and you’ve got 30 minutes or so of prime space media — at your fingertips!  It’s a pleasure to be working with the executive producers on this project and very exciting to watch as our viewership grows each month. So, go check it out if you haven’t already — and then go back the first of each month for a new set of space and astronomy stories.

It’s really a LOT of fun to be involved in such cool new media projects… I hope to do more of it in addition to my other projects (fulldome video shows, podcasts, and other media presentations).

meteors, Perseids

More Perseid Madness

Leave a comment

We Saw a Bunch

A second night of Perseid watching gained us a gorgeous night sky and about 40 or so Perseids in just over an hour.  There were a fair number of very bright ones streaking across the sky — including several that were distinctly greenish and at least one that was very orange-yellow. Those colors are given off as metal atoms in the meteoroid are heated to glowing and light is emitted from oxygen, magnesium, nitrogen, and sodium that get excited as the meteor is heated by its passage through our atmosphere.

You can get kind of philosophical sitting out there watching the stars waiting for a random meteoroid from the shower to flash across the sky. You can’t rush the universe — it comes to you on its own terms. The meteoroids get here when they get here. The Earth turns only so fast — and luckily, the Moon wasn’t rising until after midnight, so we had a good darkish sky to ourselves. The stars aren’t going anywhere so they’re always there to watch. And, sadly, even the clouds can’t be directed away.  About midnight they started piling in from the west and we concluded our viewing session. But, 40 Perseids in just over an hour — can’t complain about that!

Did you miss the shower?  No worries — Spaceweather.com has a gorgeous gallery of shots from lucky Perseid watchers around the world. Go check ’em out!