The Jodcast - Astronomy Podcast

With it being the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Earth's Moon, we dedicate most of this episode to things lunar. We mention the latest amazing images from NASA's LRO showing the Apollo landing sites from orbit, Sir Bernard Lovell describes Jodrell Bank's involvement with the space race including tracking the Soviet's Luna probes and involvement with Apollo [04:35-32:00]. As always we put your astronomical questions to Dr Tim O'Brien [32:05-42:46] and round-up the feedback we've received since the last show.

It's summer and the Jodcasters are dispersed but Jen and Dave managed to meet up in Milan's central station to record this episode. This episode features an interview we recorded with Vik Dhillon in May about high speed astronomy [10:45-38:10]. As always, Megan brings us the latest news [01:37-10:23] and Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the July night sky [25:18-38:34].

Meteorites can tell us a surprising amount about our solar system and its environment. In this episode we talk to Ernst Zinner about his studies of pre-solar grains from meteorites [00:53-26:17]. As always we put your questions to Dr Tim O'Brien [27:37-41:56] and round-up the feedback we've received since the last show. We also chat about Jodcast Live!

This episode we bring the last of the interviews that were recorded at the JENAM. We have an interview with Mike Lockwood about the variability of the Sun [10:53-38:17] and talk to Jim Hinton about high energy astronomy [44:52-51:59]. As always, Megan brings us the latest news [01:37-10:31] and Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the June night sky [52:11-69:32].

This jam-packed show comes at the end of a jam-packed week of major events in astronomy. We have more interviews recorded at JENAM including what's next for the International Year of Astronomy [02:11-10:43], future instruments at the European Southern Observatory [10:43-15:13], gamma ray bursts [15:14-24:06] and cosmic rays [24:07-35:36]. We get the low-down on ESA's Planck and Herschel spacecraft [36:02-57:32]. As always we put your questions to Dr Tim O'Brien [60:14-72:13] and round-up the feedback we've received since the last show.

It's Roy's last episode before he returns to the Netherlands and we welcome some of the new Jodcast Juniors. The Jodcast Juniors were our roving reporters at the Joint European and National Astronomy Meeting (JENAM) and they bring us a series of interviews about the latest research into pulsars, galaxies, dust, exoplanets and more. As always, Megan brings us the latest news [05:36 - 14:00] and Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the May night sky [51:47 - 01:06:04].

In this episode Roy talks to amateur astronomer Brian Woosnam about his love of astronomy and his local astronomical society [00:59-17:09]. We talk about what happened during the 100 Hours of Astronomy and give our suggestions for astronomical sights to see and things to achieve. We also put your astronomical questions to Dr Tim O'Brien [21:57-34:44] and round-up the feedback we've received since the last show.

It's Nick's last episode of the Jodcast and Dave makes a return after his Indian trip. In this episode we hear about finding planets with the upcoming LOFAR radio telescope from Dr Ian Stevens [09:55 - 21:29]. As always, Megan brings us the latest news [01:40 - 14:02] and Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the April night sky [21:43 - 37:06].

With the 100 Hours of Astronomy quickly approaching, we find out what will be happening over the course of the four days [01:08-07:06] and get details about a 24 hour observatory webcast [07:38-13:21]. We chat about the launch of NASA's Kepler spacecraft to search for Earth-like planets and ESA's GOCE probe to map the Earth's gravity field. On a recent trip to the Netherlands Roy caught up with Gijs Nelemans to find out about the future LISA spacecraft to hunt for gravitational waves [30:50-53:45]. We also put your astronomical questions to Dr Tim O'Brien [13:32-26:34] and round-up the feedback we've received since the last show.

In this episode we find out about supermassive blackholes in the early universe [15:24 - 39:40] from Professor Marco Spaans and we encourage you to hold star parties and other events during the 100 Hours of Astronomy. As always, Megan brings us the latest news [01:40 - 14:02] and Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the March night sky [39:50 - 54:23].

Nick and Stuart talk about the latest Jodcast video about Newton's Principia, Nick talks to Professor Albert Zijlstra about primitive dust [02:34-13:19], Tim was here to answer listener questions [13:49 - 23:05] and we round-up the feedback we've received since the last show.

In this episode we find out about observations of regions of massive star formation [10:15 - 20:02] from Dr Steve Longmore and we hear about a chance to vote on what you would like the Hubble Space Telescope to observe [20:33 - 22:40]. As always, Megan brings us the latest news [02:35 - 10:07] and Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the February night sky [22:52 - 37:27].

In this episode Colin Stuart visits the Herschel Museum in Bath to find out about the astronomical work of William and Caroline Herschel [01:51 - 28:57], we bring you the first Ask an Astronomer of 2009 [29:05 - 47:34] and we round-up the feedback we've received since the last show.

With it being the end of the year we round-up our favourite astronomical images of 2008 [17:16 - 25:05]. We also discuss the International Year of Astronomy and hear about a new astronomy podcast from Dr Pamela Gay (Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville) [12:11 - 16:45]. As always, Megan brings us the latest news [01:50 - 09:49] and Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the January night sky [25:11 - 37:40].

It's the last show before Christmas so the show is a little shorter than usual. First up we bring news of two special video episode that will be out in the next few days. In our interview [04:27-27:17] we talk to Philip Best about galaxies and a new low-frequency telescope named LOFAR. We also bring you some stocking filler ideas [28:27-32:37] and round-up the feedback we've received since the last show.

Oh no it didn't, but it will produce infrared surveys of galaxies. In our main interview [12:32 - 30:05] we talk to Dr Matt Jarvis (University of Hertfordshire) about the ongoing attempts to detect gravitational waves using observations of pulsars spread over the sky. As always, Megan brings us the latest news [04:32 - 12:14] and Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the December night sky [35:05 - 52:36].

We bring you breaking news of two separate discoveries of extra solar planets. In our main interview [05:14 - 21:47] we talk to Dr George Hobbs (Australia Telescope National Facility) about the ongoing attempts to detect gravitational waves using observations of pulsars spread over the sky. In Ask an Astronomer [24:03 - 37:31] Tim answers your questions.

Catherine Heymans tells us [09:19 - 25:03] about observations of dark matter in the supercluster Abell 901/902. As usual we get the latest news from Megan [00:57 - 07:43] and find out what you can see in the northern night sky from Ian [25:17 - 36:17].

We find out about the Jodrell Bank Meteor Detector from Eddie Blackhurst [02:25-11:47]. We talk to Roberta Paladini about her studies of astronomical objects - such as our own galaxy - that obscure observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation [31:37-01:01:24]. Tim answers listener questions about astronomy [11:59-29:55].

You don't see the same universe twice. This month Jim Cordes tells us [20:12 - 34:25] about the recently discovered class of pulsars which emit their pulses in a very intermittent way. Jim also tells us about future searches for transient astrophysical objects and his use of the Arecibo radio telescope. As usual we get the latest news from Megan [01:14 - 08:37] and find out what you can see in the northern night sky from Ian [38:10 - 52:55].