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Welcome to another Science Explainy Bit episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast. Today we try to figure out just what an “orbit” actually is. Is it really as simple as they said in primary school? How does gravity, which normally pulls things down, work to keep the Moon in space? Download this episode now, to find the answer, and also learn a little about my upcoming appearance at ScopeX! What is an Orbit? () This turns out to be quite … Continue reading →
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Welcome to the 3rd episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast, season 2, featuring Dr Daniel Cunnama. We almost didn’t make it this week, thanks to a major technical hitch, but we worked around it and here we are. If you listened to the last episode, then you’re probably expecting this to be an interview episode, featuring Dr Rosalind Skelton of the South African Astronomical Observatory. I spoke to her in June last year and we recorded an interview specifically for … Continue reading →
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Welcome to the second episode of this second season of the Urban Astronomer Podcast! Two of Two, sounds like it should be special… and it kinda sort of is, because this week we’re presenting the first of our unique patented Science Explainy Bits! Now to be clear, it’s the name that’s new, not the science explaining, because I’ve done explainy stuff for science concepts before on this show, back in our super-extended 42 episode long first season. I got quite … Continue reading →
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This is Episode 1 of our brand new second season! This is the 43rd episode since the podcast was first launched, back in February 2017, and I’m thrilled to be back on the air with you. The New Season We’re mostly keeping things the same, but there are some important changes. From the beginning, I’ve always been pretty disorganized in how I ran the show. There was no fixed schedule or plan, so I’d release episodes as they became available. … Continue reading →
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Have you been wondering what happened to the Urban Astronomer Podcast? Do you know want to know why there haven’t been any episodes in a while? Then you’re going to want to hear this. We’re launching our second season, and we’ve decided to change how we do things here. While the basic format will still sound like the shows you’ve come to love and expect, we’re changing how we make them. Starting from the 2nd of June 2019, we’ll be … Continue reading →
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Hey everyone, welcome to the 42nd Episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast, the second episode of 2019, and the final episode of our first season! Today we listen to Robert Ormerod, speaking about his first experience photographing the Northern Lights. I should have released this episode two months ago, but after my father’s sudden death, I decided I’d rather spend the time with my mother and brothers, remembering him, mourning, and healing. There’s still a long way to go before … Continue reading →
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Welcome to the 41st episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast, and the 1st episode of 2019! We are almost done with the ScopeX lecture series, in which we play back talks recorded at ScopeX 2018. This episode we hear Angus Burns speaking about Astrophotography in the Urban Context . Next week’s episode will close off the series, with the keynote talk delivered by Robert Ormerod, talking about photographing the aurora borealis. Robert used his time at ScopeX to capture images … Continue reading →
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:59 — 38.4MB) | Embed
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Hey everybody, welcome to this December solstice edition of the Urban Astronomer Podcast starring Clem Unger and myself! It’s only a few days till Christmas, so we hope you all have a wonderful festive season and a joyful new year. It’s generally agreed that 2018 was a bit of a bust, but in just over a week we get to start over and see if we can have a better run of it this time around. In this episode: Sky … Continue reading →
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This is the 39th episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast. This episode is the fourth in the ScopeX 2018 Public Lecture series, featuring a talk by Clyde Foster, and a mission update by Clem Unger.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:37 — 48.2MB) | Embed
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Welcome to episode 38 of the Urban Astronomer Podcast. This episode features the last part of our physics feature on the lifecycle of a star from dust cloud to super nova, and the 3rd of the ScopeX 2018 public lectures. Physics Over the past few episodes we’ve been trying to understand how a random cloud of dust and gas can turn into a supernova. In this segment, we finally get to witness our supernova, but that’s just brought up more … Continue reading →
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:31 — 38.9MB) | Embed
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Welcome to Episode 37 of the Urban Astronomer podcast! This week features a public lecture by Tim Cooper, and another of Clem Unger’s space mission updates. As always, if you enjoy the show and would like to see it grow, there are a few ways that you can help. You could leave a positive review and rating on your favourite podcast service (I’m partial to Podknife but anything goes!). You could send a subscribe link to a friend. You could … Continue reading →
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Welcome to Episode 36 of the Urban Astronomer podcast, and the first in our ScopeX 2018 series. In this episode we feature the first of the public lectures I recorded at ScopeX. It is by José da Silva, and he speaks about exoplanets, and what we can tell about their weather. Links This talk on YouTube ScopeX José on FaceBook … Continue reading →
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Welcome to episode 35 of the Urban Astronomer Podcast! This week we have a full show for you, with our main feature being an interview with South African astronomer Dr Itumeleng Monageng. We also continue our series on the physics behind the evolution of a star from gas cloud to black hole. And finally, my new co-host Clem Unger brings us updates on current space missions. Itumeleng Monageng Itumeleng is a post-grad researcher working for the South African Astronomical Observatory … Continue reading →
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Welcome to this special Equinox edition of the Urban Astronomer Podcast! This episode I share the microphone with Clem Unger for the first of a quarterly series. Clem has been on the show before, and he’ll be back every equinox and every solstice. In this episode We start with a look at coming attractions in the sky over the next three months. Clem discusses the state of current asteroid missions OSIRIS-Rex and Hayabusa 2 Allen and Clem butt heads over … Continue reading →
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Welcome to the 33rd episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast. This is a special release, featuring an interview that I recorded for ScopeX, the biggest astronomy and telescope event in South Africa. Jean-Pierre Grootaerd, through SSVI (which translates in English to Stars Shine for Everyone), has donated a pair of 90mm refracting telescopes to ScopeX, for us to hand over to whoever is best able to use them to advance science education in South Africa. Since he isn’t able to come … Continue reading →
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:27 — 22.4MB) | Embed
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Hi everybody, it’s my turn to host the Carnival of Space again! Every week, a new publisher pitches the tents of the travelling Carnival of Space to host it for the week on their website. Every week the best and most interesting space science and astronomy writing fills those tents to bring you up to date on news around the Universe. If you write about space and stuff, and would like to join the carnival, why not drop us a … Continue reading →
Welcome to the 32nd episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast. This episode features an interview with Dr Nicole Gugliucci, whom long time listeners of astronomy podcasts should recognise from her work with Cosmoquest, and her many appearances on various shows in the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. This is quite a long-running interview, so we didn’t have time to include the next segment of our supernova story. We’ll pick that up next week instead, with the thrilling tale of what … Continue reading →
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:36 — 50.9MB) | Embed
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Welcome to the 31st episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast. This episode features an interview with Clem Unger, an ambassador for the OSIRIS-REx mission who lives in Australia. This is followed by the next part of our series on the evolution of stars, taking us one step closer on our journey to seeing where supernovae come from. Clem Unger A few weeks back, I spoke to Clem Unger, who lives in Australia and serves in his spare time in the … Continue reading →
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:17 — 39.6MB) | Embed
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Welcome to episode 30 of the Urban Astronomer Podcast. This week’s episode features the 2nd part of our look at how stellar evolution can lead to a supernova explosion, inspired by listener requests to present more serious science and physics explainers. Last time we looked at the formation of a stellar nursery, so today we look inside that nursery at the birth of a new star. For fans of the interviews with people who have some connection to astronomy in South … Continue reading →
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:25 — 26.0MB) | Embed
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Welcome to episode 29 of the Urban Astronomer podcast. As you know by now, we mainly feature interviews with people connected to South African astronomy. But since we had no guests lined up for this episode, we decided it was time to keep a promise we’d made a month ago to listener Andrew Botteril, from KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. Andrew is a fan of the show and had asked that we feature a little more basic science, explaining some … Continue reading →
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:23 — 13.2MB) | Embed
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