Category Archives: 365 days of astronomy

Has It Been Almost a Year?

Since 365 Days of Astronomy Began?

Listen and enjoy to astronomy podcasts!
Listen and enjoy to astronomy podcasts!

Hard to believe that this wonderful “podcast-a-day” about astronomy-related topics is nearly a year old. It’s been interesting to listen to so many different viewpoints on astronomy, space science, planetary science, scientists, astronomers, and so on. It’s also been fun producing 11 of the segments for the project.

The good news is that 365 Days of Astronomy will continue into 2010 and from what I hear, the year is filling up fast. I’ll be back, and I hope that a lot of other contributors will be back, too. And, of course it will be good to welcome first-timers to the group, too.

My last podcast for 2009 is “airing” today — it’s a tribute to Carl Sagan. I think that Dr. Sagan would be pleased to see so many people sharing their personal visions of the cosmos through 365 Days, just as he shared his personal voyage through the landmark series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. I also think he’d also be amazed at what the Web and Internet have become — in a good way — as places to share the latest and greatest about astronomy and space physics.

That’s the beauty of the 365 Days project — it disseminates people’s personal visions about a science that touches us all.  If you haven’t listened to 365 Days, you have a whole year of podcasts to catch up on. And, there’s another year to look forward to, so check it out!  And, if you’re so inclined, think about producing a podcast for it.  The contact information is on the main page and I know that they’d love to hear from you.

Happy listening!

Outback Astronomy and New Media Astronomy

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).