The Astronomy Show 25.04.18

The Astronomy Show 25.04.18

On today's programme I will be looking at the new list of names giving by the International Astronomical Union for features on one of the largest objects in the Kuiper Belt,Charon the largest moon of Pluto. The Pluto- Charon system was visited by the New Horizons mission in the summer of 2016 and is now on its way deeper into the Kuiper Belt to visit asteroid Mu69 on January 1st 2019.

I will be taking a look at what can be seen in the night sky over the next week including a focus on the constellation of Virgo, other regular features include the latest astronomy news including the idea that a giant impact created the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, some rare Blue Aurora have been seen , and did you know that Uranus smells like rotten eggs.

The A-Z of constellations is at the obscure Norma the Level in the southern hemisphere but to compensatefor this  the Messier Marathon has now reached M57 the Ring Nebula. The astroniomical scrapbook will be looking at highlights from history this week including the launch of the first all British satellite, Ariel 1. This plus a round up of the latest news from the astronomical societies in the north.

The Astronomy Show only on Drystone Radio 103.5 FM, every Wednesday afternoon from 3.00pm -5.00pm.  You can listen live on line at www.drystoneradio.com or hear the show later on the Drystone podcast.

The Astronomy Show 18.04.18

The Astronomy Show 18.04.18

On the Astronomy Show today I will be looking at NASA's new TESS satellite, TESS stands for
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite which has been rescheduled for launch today to look for planets around other stars and in particular at red dwarf stars, however in a paper published at the European Astronomical Society in Liverpool recently there are doubts about life surviving on such palnest due to the nature of flares seen on red dwarf stars. So is the satellite looking at the wrongs stars?

All the regular features will be on the show today including looking at what can be seen in the night sky during the next seven nights, including the first of the spring meteor showers the Lyrids, this plus  the astronomy news including another asteroid near miss and it was a whopper!! The A-Z of constellations looks at the southern sky to Musca the Fly which started life as a Bee! The Messier Marathon has now reached M56 in Lyra. The astronomical scrapbook takes a look at what happened in astronomical history this week. This plus the news from the astronomical societies of the north of England.

The Astronomy Show every Wednesday afternoon from 3.00pm - 5.00p only on Drystone Radio 103.5FM, you can hear the show live on line at www.drystoneradio.com or hear the show later on the Drystone podcast .   

The Astronomy Show 11.04.18

The Astronomy Show 11.04.18

On the Astronomy Show today I will be looking at cosmic rays, they are bad and they are getting worse, what could this mean for us today and in the future, I will try to find out what is going on.

I will be looking at the night sky this week including a closer look at  Leo, one of the most imporatnt of the spring constellations. There will of course be the regular A-Z of constellations, today we are at Monoceros the Unicorn. The Messier Marathon is at M55 in Sagittarius one of the most southerly of the messier objects.

There other regular features include  the astronomy news this week plus what happened in astronomy history this week in the past, this plus a round up of what is happening with the astroonmical sociteies in the north.

The Astronmomy Show every Wednesday afternoon from 3.00pm-5.00pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5FM, you can hear the the show live on line at www.drystoneradio.com or listen later on the Drystone podcast.

The Astronomy Show 04.04.18

The Astronomy Show 04.04.18

Apologies for my absence over the last few weeks this was due to me presenting lectures on a cruise ship in January and being very busy with my Stardome Planeatrium in schools during the rest of the winter.

On the Astronomy Show this week I will be looking at death astronomers, following the award winning short film The Silent Child about a deaf child born to a hearing family. I will be looking at the work of the deaf astronomers John Goodricke one of the Fathers of Variable Star Astronomy who lived in York and discovered the variablily of the star Delta Cepheus in 1784 and of Henrietta Leavitt who in 1912 discovered some cepheid variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud and was able to work out how far away this galaxy was, plus Annie Jump Canon who would put together the letter sequence  on the HR diagram showing the temperatures of the stars.

I will also resume with all the regular features, now in Spring I will have a review of what we can see in the night sky during  the spring months. The latest astronomy news incluing the end of the Tiangong 1 space station plus the Earth was near missed about 70,000 years ago by a dwarf star an event that would have been seen by early humans.  The astronomical scrapbook looks at events this week in history including the launch of the first weather satellite Tiros 1. The Messier Marathon continues with M54 a globular cluster in Sagiattrius plus the A-Z of constellations which is now at the impressively named Microscopium the Microscpe which sadly is a very faint group. A round up of the news from the astronomical societies in the north and if there is time I will also play a little music.

The Astronomy Show every Wednesday afternoon from 3.00pm to 5.00pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5FM, you can also listen to the live on line at www.drystoneradio.com or hear the Astrononmy Show later on the Drystone podcast.

The Astronomy Show 14.02.18

The Astronomy Show 14.02.18

It seems like a very long time since the last Astronomy Show which was back in January the absence being due to me being asked to present astronomy lectures on cruise ships, I have recently been sailing around the Caribbean and South America and this coupled with taking my Stardome Planetarium into schools means that sometimes I am not around for the Astronomy Show so apologies for that. In fact after today I will be away again until March after which things should settle down a bit.

On the programme today I will be looking at the Hypatia Stone a rock that has been found in Egypt, its a meteorite but not as we know it. At the moment the experts cannot work out where it came from. One thing is certain it was not formed on Earth.

The regular feature will be on the show today, with the lastest astronomy news, the Messier Marathon has now reached M53 in Coma Berenices and the A-Z of constellations is at the obsure southern group of Mensa the Table. The astronomical scrapbook will be looking at events that happened this week in history including when the last and next solar eclipses on Valentines Day will occur, the solar eclipse that stopped a test match in India,  and the discovery of Pluto. This plus the latest news from the astronomy societies in the north of England.

The Astronomy Show Wednesday afternoons between 3.00pm and 5.00pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5FM, online at www.drystoneradio.com or you can hear the show later on the Drystone radio podcast. 

The Astronomy Show 03.01.18

The Astronomy Show 03.01.18

Welcome to 2018 and to the first astronomy show of the new year. Today I will be trying to discover exactly what a Blue Moon is, why? because there will be a blue moon in January. There will also be not one but two super moons this month!

Our home planet is in the news today because at the moment the Earth is at its closest to the Sun for the year, yet we are in the middle of winter in Britain at the moment, I will try to explain what is going on. There will be a tour of the night sky now we are really into the winter observing season. 

The regular features include the A-Z of constellations, today looking at Lyra and the Messier marathon is now at M 52 in Cassiopeia. The astronomical scrapbook looks at what happened in history this week while there will be a quick look at  some of the astronomical and space flight highlights for 2018. This plus the round up of what is happening in the astronomical societies in the north.

The Astronomy Show only on Drystone Radio 103.5 FM every Wednesday between 3.00 pm - 5.00 pm, you can hear the programme on line at www.drystoneradio.com or you can hear the show on the drystone podcast.

The Astronomy Show 20.12.17

The Astronomy Show 20.12.17

The last astronomy show of 2017, I will be looking at what is going on with the Sun. Is it changing? Very small sunspot cycles and other effects have led astronomers to speculate the something might be going on within our local star, the Sun.

I will be looking at the night sky over the Christmas period including one of the most understudied meteor showers the Ursids which will peak on the night of December 21/22, normally only a few meteors are seen but this shower can and has produced surprisingly large numbers of meteors in the past.

The other regular features include the  Messier Marathon, today  looking at the Whirlpool Galaxy M 51. The A-Z of constellations by comparison is at the rather obscure constellation of Lynx. There will be the latest astronomy news plus the astronomical scrapbook looking at events that happened this week in astronomy including the Barwell Meteorite which landed on Christmas Eve 1965, and the famous bible reading by the crew Apollo 8 crew when they saw Earthrise from the Moon.

The Astronomy Show every Wednesday afternoon between 3.00 pm and 5 .00 pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5FM. You can hear the show on line at www.drystoneradio.com or hear the show later on the Drystone podcast.