AWESOME ASTRONOMY

Perhaps the most frequently asked question to the show (and apologies to Terry Dunlin who asked this question about 2 years ago!) is what you need to consider when buying a telescope or what makes the right telescope for you. So, in this podcast extra, we pool our collective brainpower to bring you a 20 minute discussion of telescope types, apertures, portability and capabilities to help you get the perfect telescope for you. If you're thinking of buying your first telescope – or thinking of getting one as a gift for someone this Christmas – then this will give you all the considerations for that purchase. We recommend The Tring Astronomy Centre (www.tringastro.co.uk), but the most important thing is to buy from a dedicated astronomy retailer rather than the internet or ordinary high street stores. A dedicated astronomy retailer will be able to advise you from a position of knowledge and provide the aftercare you need.

The Discussion: In a month when the European Space Agency succeeded and failed in the first part of their Exomars saga, we go through the glory and the debris of Mars exploration, hanging out with astronauts Tim Peake and Tim Kopra, conducting exoplanet research, provide some advice about studying astrophysics and explain why the effects of dark matter aren't witnessed in our own solar system. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Exomars, round one Another look at the Viking mission data that may have discovered Martian life Hubble discovers that the universe contains 10 times more galaxies than thought A philosophical discussion about the chances of life existing elsewhere Venus was habitable when life began to flourish on Earth Elon Musk's plans for colonising the solar system The ethics of colonising other planets An update of NASA's Juno mission at Jupiter And the latest taikonauts and astronauts. The Hat of Woo: Paul's Hat of Woo is the repository for all festering and rancid conspiracy theories that have no basis in truth and yet persist in any dark and stinking corner of the internet. This month we pull one of the biggies out of the putrid hat: Evil aliens and a reptilian rival for the title of overlord. The Interview: This month we return to writer, broadcaster and researcher Dr Chris North from Cardiff University to answer a listener's question on Chris' interview in last month's episode. Dr North mentioned that we can see Gravitational Waves to discover all sorts of information from these waves, such as size, distance & velocity, which I can understand (through Amplitude and frequency and rate of change of the signal), but how is it also possible to infer things like the spin and spin rate from the wave signal? (ignoring the question of how does a black hole spin if it has mass but no matter as Dr North mentions, and how do events happen inside a black hole since as you get closer to the event horizon doesn't time appear to us to slow down to us as an outside observer?) Mark de Vrij in Poland.

What to look out, and up, for in November. Our highlights of this month's skies with the planet on offers to observers and imagers: A last chance to enjoy views of Mars for 2016 The return of the King of Planets: Jupiter A Saturn and Venus conjunction And we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – Colourful binary star Almaak in Andromeda Jeni – The magnificent constellation of Orion and the Orion Nebula Paul – NGC 404, Mirach's Ghost in Andromeda And we finish this sky guide with November's moon phases.

This podcast extra features the talk given by Nick Howes at Spring 2015's AstroCamp about life and death in space. Nick takes us on a fascinating tour of our universe and explains: Dangerous phenomena in the galaxy Martian meteorites The places in the solar system where life may exist Exploring comets The marvel of the Rosetta spacecraft How comets are discovered and named The Oort Cloud - home to a trillion comets The potential for asteroid impacts Comet Shoemaker Levy striking Jupiter How can we prevent asteroid strikes? Look for new objects in your sky images and online Why we should be concerned about Earth impactors and what we, the public, can do to mitigate this inevitable disaster scenario.

The Discussion: If you enjoy our attention to scripting, our professional quality audio and our stringent editing, then you're bang out of luck! This show comes from our AstroCamp stargazing event in Wales and we're making it up as we go along. This month we take you through the delights of dark sky stargazing among friends, Jeni becomes a paid scientist and we get the reactions of the gang as we reveal signed movie poster mock ups that we're emailing to listeners. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Gravity Spy – hunt for gravitational waves in this new citizen science project More details on NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission The first data from ESA's Gaia spacecraft wows us all The Interview: This month we welcome back writer, broadcaster and researcher Dr Chris North from Cardiff University to discuss Gravitational Waves: what this means for the future of professional astronomy and what we can expect from this new field of astronomy in the future. Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we're tackling a question about exoplanet detections with a back of the envelope calculation – and Jeni's making Ralph do the maths. It's fair to say, he's not happy about it: A big hello from your Antipodean fan from Melbourne to all Martian superior beings in the UK (or something like that)… Whilst listening to your eagerly awaited last instalment of the show I was intrigued by Jeni's (who I believe has been to Australia…) exoplanet research. I am familiar with the concept of observing transits and teasing the dip of brightness out of the data flood. So far so good. That means that we, Earth and Mars of course have to be in the same plane in order to be able to get an observable transit. Is there any data or knowledge if there is a general orientation of planetary systems in relation to us or the galactic plane? Meaning if we know that can we extrapolate somehow how many planets are really out there as we obviously can only observe a fraction of the existing systems? Bit hard to explain but with your superior minds I am sure you will get the idea… :)? Clem Unger, Melbourne, Australia.

What to look out, and up, for in October. Our highlights of this month's skies with the planet on offer to observers and imagers: Venus & Saturn in the late evening with a nice conjunction of the pair. Uranus as it reaches opposition on the 16th. Next up is the meteor showers and October brings us: The Draconids peaking on 7th October The Orionids peaking on 20th/21st October Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – Algol, the Demon Star & The Double Cluster in Perseus Paul – The Auriga open clusters: M36, M37 & M38 Jeni – and the Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia And we finish this sky guide with October's moon phases.

In this month's AstroCamp podcast extra episode: The Discussion: An introduction to star parties and enjoying practical astronomy under pristine dark skies away from the city. As the podcast crew run the AstroCamp star party, which many listeners attend, in the Brecon Beacon's international dark sky reserve twice a year, we take you through the events, tutorials and workshops we run to help you hone your stargazing skills and win astronomy prizes from the Tring Astronomy Centre. The Sky guides: In readiness for 3 nights of stargazing in the Welsh valleys, Ralph, Paul and Damien choose objects to look out for this time of year. If you're not coming to AstroCamp, these are still great night sky treats to try and locate wherever you are in the northern hemisphere. Ralph's top choices take in the Owl Cluster, The Double Cluster and the vast North America Nebula. Damien takes a look at the solar system objects available a little closer to home this month as he runs through the asteroids, dwarf planets and meteor showers on offer to AstroCampers And Paul finishes out autumnal round up with Herschel's Garnet Star, the original Cepheid Variable and the magnificent galaxy cluster Stephan's Quintet.

The Discussion: Jeni's astronomy research yields its first results in the hunt for exoplanet phase variation and we revisit our Star Wars podcast extras with a listener's book review. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: An 'Earthlike planet detected by ESO around our nearest stellar neighbour The upcoming launch of OSIRIS Rex to sample an asteroid That bump in the data at CERN turns out to be a false hope That alien megastructure story just won't foxtrot oscar The Cassini spacecraft spots methane filled canyons on Saturn's moon Titan A meteorite lands in Yorkshire garden. Real or fake? Woobusters: Continuing our quest to debunk the myths and conspiracy theories that persist in every dark corner of the news and the internet. This month's topic, picked at random from Paul's festering Hat of Woo: Area 51 – the remote and secret installation in the Nevada desert where sanity gets dissected and reason is left to die. Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we get a question that probes certainty in science and how high certainty discoveries can still turn out to be wrong: Why when the Bicep two team found the evidence for primordial gravitational waves did they claim it was a five sigma result, and later wasn't it shown the result was not accurate? I thought a five sigma had a 1 in 350million chance of being wrong! There has to be something I don't understand about the sigma scale or the Bicep results? Rodney Cuthbertson.

What to look out, and up, for in September. Our highlights of this month's skies with the planet on offer to observers and imagers: Mercury & Venus in the late evening or early morning Mars & Saturn – with a nice conjunction with the Moon and star Antares Neptune & Uranus on offer in Aquarius & Pisces The largest asteroid, Vesta, will be passing through the constellation Gemini into Cancer this month and asteroid 2 Pallas can still be found in the constellation Equuelus. Next up is the meteor showers and, following the magnificent Persieds last month, September has: The Alpha Aurigids peaking on 1st September The Epsilon Persieds peaking on 9th September Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – The Owl Custer in Cassiopeia Paul – globular cluster, Messier 2 in Aquarius Jeni – The Andromeda Galaxy in the constellation Andromeda And we finish this sky guide with September's moon phases. Happy hunting and clear skies!

This podcast extra is our full length interview with Dr Helen Sharman, Britain's First astronaut and the first woman to visit the Russian Mir Space Station in 1991. In this interview we discuss: Tim Peake Access to space during a time of no UK funding The skills needed to be an astronaut Training for spaceflight at Star City in Russia The collapse of the Soviet Union just before launch Speaking with Mikhail Gorbachev from the Mir Space Station Comparing Mir to a camping trip! Acclimatising to spaceflight in the Soyuz capsule Science conducted by Helen on Mir The UK's reticence to fund human spaceflight NASA's plans for missions beyond Low Earth Orbit Post-Brexit uncertainty over science and collaboration Promoting space

The Discussion: We're cheering Jeni's graduation with a first class masters in astrophysics and looking at the PhD options she has as she chases the dream of becoming Dr Millard! Paul & Ralph make preparations for September's dark sky AstroCamp stargazing event and educate Jeni on computers from the 80s. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: A new dwarf planet is discovered in our solar system The doomed Hitachi spacecraft reveals streams of intergalactic plasma A new moon around Earth discovered Detective work reveals what caused the moon's Imbrium Basin Tatooine gets outshone by a planet with three stars The first observation of a snowline in a forming solar system Woobusters: Continuing our quest to debunk the myths and conspiracy theories that persist in every dark corner of the news and the internet. This month's topic, picked at random from Paul's festering Hat of Woo: Chemtrails – those quite normal jet exhaust trails that some people think are spraying mind control agents The Interview: For the interview this month we visit Dr Helen Sharman from Imperial College London, who because Britain's first astronaut in 1991: Tim Peake's slight embarrassment at often being called Britain's 1st astronaut An unconventional route to space Training to be an astronaut at Russia's Star City The Mir space station compared to the International Space Station Excitement for the future of human spaceflight Uncertainty over space and science funding in the Brexit era. The full interview with Helen will be available as a podcast extra later in the month Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we get a question that follows the theme of our introduction and looks directly at the point Helen Sharman raised in this month's interview: What does Brexit mean for the UKs involvement in things like ESA and ESO? Andrew Burns, United Kingdom

What to look out, and up, for in August. Our highlights of this month's skies with the planet on offer to observers and imagers: Jupiter takes a bow as it departs until December Mars & Saturn – with a long conjunction at the end of August Mercury & Venus make their way out of the glare of the Sun Neptune & Uranus on offer in Aquarius & Pisces Next up is the meteor showers and, due to the long daylight hours and dearth of cometary debris in this part of Earth's orbit this time of year, we only have one shower of note in August: The magnificent Perseids peaking on 11th/12th August The 2nd asteroid to be discovered in the asteroid belt, 2 Pallas, reaches opposition on 22nd August reaching magnitude 8.7 and can be found in the constellation Equuelus. Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Jeni – The Milky Way: Naked eye enjoyment of our home galaxy Paul – The Cygnus Loop/The Veil Nebulae Ralph – Albireo – the most colourful binary star in the sky And we finish this sky guide with August's moon phases.

This podcast extra is our full length interview with the 4th man to walk on the moon aboard the Apollo 12 mission in 1969. In this interview we discuss: journeying to the moon on a Saturn V rocket getting your rocket struck by lightening the mission's colourful commander (Pete Conrad) what the moon looked and felt like underfoot the science conducted on the surface of the moon the future of human spaceflight The Martian Olympics!

The Discussion: Earthling slave John got married! The new fashion of requesting telescopes at weddings, a good time of year for solar astronomy, the scores are in for the results of Jeni's master's degree, Jeni gets a sciencey summer job and we make a joking (but no less genuine) appeal for astronomy equipment to review in future shows. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: NASA inflate Bigelow Aerospace's inflatable habitat on the ISS Progress on NASA's attempts to send humans beyond low Earth orbit Analysis of ALMA data hints at planetary formation beginning earlier than thought An update on the origins of the elusive Planet 9 The Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft gets ready to orbit the gas giant Arizona astronomers find 65 young galaxies – the oldest galaxy cluster yet discovered Woobusters: Continuing our quest to debunk the myths and conspiracy theories that persist in every dark corner of the news and the internet. This month's topic, picked at random from Paul's Big Hat of Woo, is moon landing hoaxers – the mother of all space-related conspiracy theories! Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we get a question about our own observing and imaging of the skies: How do you think the name of Planet 9 will be chosen if it's eventually discovered – is it too late to start a campaign for Planet McPlanetface? Gavin Mills from Canberra, Australia

What to look out, and up, for in July. Our highlights of this month's skies with the planet on offer to observers and imagers: Mars Saturn A Venus conjunction And a few tips on how to take images of the solar system's largest bodies with a webcam, planetary imaging camera or DSLR. Next up is the meteor showers and, due to the long daylight hours and dearth of cometary debris in this part of Earth's orbit this time of year, we only have one shower of note in July: Delta Aquariids peaking 28th/29th July Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Jeni – NGC6826: The Blinking Star Nebula Ralph – Epsilon Lyrae: The Double Double Paul – M22, a globular Cluster in Sagittarius. And we finish this sky guide with July's moon phases and planetary conjunctions.

In this Awesome Astronomy podcast extra episode we bring you the key speakers from this spring's AstroCamp in the Brecon Beacon dark sky reserve. As the transit of Mercury was the main feature of this spring's camp, we were delighted to welcome (and now to share with you) speakers with detailed knowledge of planetary transits: Dr Rebekah Higgitt lectures history at the University of Kent and former curator at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Rebekah tells us about the science goals of observing transits, foreign wars, treacherous seas and national rivalries that conspired to prevent observations and the successes and mishaps that befell many astronomers keen to use this method to measure the size of the solar system. London astronomer and professional gemmologist, Eric Emms, hosts many public solar and lunar observing events (the next of which will be in London's Regent's Park on June 23rd) and steers Central London's Astronomical Society as a committee member of the Baker Street Irregular astronomers. Eric takes us on a voyage to Mercury to show us why this is far from the dull dry world that many may think.

The Discussion: Exam season is well underway for Jeni, Paul & Ralph ran the AstroCamp dark sky star party in Wales and the jet stream causes frustration for sky watchers in the UK. But the big event last month was the transit of the planet Mercury with a full day of observing this phenomenon for many parts of the world. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: A possible new particle that threatens the foundation of physics discovered at CERN Is the life-hunting Exomars 2 ever going to get off the ground? 1,284 exoplanets discovered: 550 are rocky, 100 are earth sized, with 9 in their habitable zones The May 2016 transit of Mercury and witnessing the black drop effect DIY carbon nanotubes among 56 patents released by NASA and space elevators SpaceX make Paul look silly (again) Woobusters: Continuing our quest to debunk the myths and conspiracy theories that persist in every dark corner of the news and the internet. This month's topic, picked at random from Paul's Big Hat of Woo, is Flat Earth (heaven help us!) The Interview: For the interview this month we welcome the University of Oxford's Professor Daniela Bortoletto who helped build the Large Hadron Collider and researches the findings of the world's largest atom smasher. We take the opportunity to discuss: What is the Higgs boson and why it's so important Why was the Higgs so hard to discover Daniela's construction of LHC sensors & detectors The possible detection of a new particle that breaks the Standard Model Is the Standard Model broke or is this new particle a false discovery How much certainty is needed for a new discovery at CERN Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we get a question about our own observing and imaging of the skies: Loved the astrophotography verses visual conversation. Maybe you could talk about what astronomy set up you use and what you prefer, ie telescope type? @CosmicBeach from Norwich, United Kingdom

What to look out, and up, for in June. Our tour of the highlights of this month's skies begins with the planets on offer to observers and imagers: Jupiter Mars Saturn Next up is the meteor showers and we have quite a few daytime showers that can be spotted in the pre-dawn sky as well as some more usual showers in June: Arietids Zeta Perseids June Lyrids June Bootids Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph - M13 The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules Paul - M8 The Lagoon Nebula Jeni - M57 The Ring Nebula And we finish this sky guide with June's moon phases and planetary conjunctions.

Welcome to this AstroCamp podcast extra episode to tell you what you can expect from the weekend's festivities and listen to on the way to Cwmdu: The Discussion: An introduction to star parties and enjoying practical astronomy under pristine dark skies away from the city. As the podcast crew run the AstroCamp star party, which many listeners attend, in the Brecon Beacon's international dark sky reserve twice a year, we take you through the events, tutorials and workshops we run to help you hone your stargazing skills and win astronomy prizes from the Tring Astronomy Centre. As the focus of this AstroCamp is the Transit of Mercury, we will also have two talks on the celestial event, from the University of Kent's Dr Rebekah Higgitt and solar astronomer Eric Emms. The Sky guides: In readiness for 3 nights of stargazing in the Welsh valleys, Ralph, Paul and John choose objects to look out for this time of year. If you're not coming to AstroCamp, these are still great night sky treats to try and locate wherever you are in the northern hemisphere. Ralph's top choices are for beginner astrophotographers, armed only with a DSLR camera and a telescope, and focuses on the Leo Triplet Paul takes five deep sky galaxy treats for visual astronomers in May and throughout spring. The prime pick is a tricky tricky double galaxy to test your skills and help develop your averted vision. John takes a look at the solar system objects available a little closer to home this month as he runs through the best of the planetary offerings and whets our appetites for the coming transit of Mercury on 9th May. So welcome to AstroCamp and we'll see you very soon!

In this month's show: The Discussion Revision season as Jeni finishes her masters in astrophysics and preparations for AstroCamp in the Welsh Brecon Beacons. The News SpaceX make Paul look a right fool Stephen Hawking backs an attempt to send spaceships to Alpha Centauri More insight in to gravitational waves A new galaxy is discovered orbiting the Milky Way Narrowing down the whereabouts of Planet Nine Paul's Big Hat of Woo This month we look at planetary alignments and all those crazy notions that tsunamis or weightlessness might occur if the planets are in certain alignments, or something. Q&A Our question this month comes from Clemens Unger in Melbourne, Australia who helpfully suggested: If you're looking for a topic to chat about in the show, how about the recent well publicised case of image theft in the Astro imaging community? A chap used a Damien Peach image and presented it as his own. But, as it's a small world, Damien saw it by chance. There seems to be so much pressure on these days to show better and better images and that seems to overtake the fun of astronomy a bit for some and peer pressure is getting to some.

What to look out, and up, for in March. We start a new look (listen?) sky guide this month. We begin the show with a discussion around the highlights to observe this May: The Transit of Mercury on 9th May International Astronomy Day on 14th May Mars at opposition on 22nd May Three meteor shower peaks, Eta Aquariids (6th), Eta Lyrids (8th) & Camelopardalids (24th) Next we each suggest and help you find a deep sky favourite to observe in May: Ralph – M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy Paul – M3 Globular cluster in Canes Venatici Jeni – M27 The Dumbbell Nebula Finally we round up the moon phases and a couple of nice planetary and lunar conjunctions.

During a visit to Geneva in September 2016, the Awesome Astronomy team stopped looking out into the universe for a while to delve into the impossibly tiny world of subatomic particles and fundamental forces that fuels the heartbeat of the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Dr Steven Goldfarb, an experimental particle physicist from the University of Michigan, led a tour of the ATLAS Control Room, a few metres above the largest and most advanced engineering experiment the world has ever seen – the Large Hadron Collider. Then we sat down to enjoy a light lunch and discuss the ground-breaking work, detections and knowledge building that only CERN can accomplish. Naturally, we also delve into the big issues in astronomy today – such as dark matter, the matter/antimatter imbalance and extra dimensions, all of which are being explored by CERN. So, for anyone who's excited by the frontiers of physics or puzzled by what CERN is or does, we've recorded a special podcast extra to shed some light on the impossibly complex and tantalisingly exciting world of particle physics, right on the very cutting edge. This podcast extra should explain in simple terms: What are the Large Hadron Collider and CERN The International collaboration required The significance of the Higgs Boson Why gravity causes us so many problems The frontiers of our understanding of the universe The search for unified fundamental forces, extra dimensions and exotic new matter With special thanks to CERN and Dr Steve Goldfarb

Download Episode! The Discussion: This month Jeni has a PhD offer that's getting us all excited, Paul's been clocking up the miles to teach science and astronomy to schools and Ralph's just excited because he's got a new telescope. Mat & Phil from Project Helium Tears join us again on the day they launched their 2nd Star Wars themed balloon to the edge of space. The News: We start the news with last month's total solar eclipse seen from parts of Asia before explaining the research that suggests an ancient cataclysm caused Mars crust & mantle to shift. Then we discuss the launch of ESA's Exomars part 1. And we finish with a round-up of the news from NASA's Insight mission, the 1st analysis of the atmosphere of a super earth exoplanet atmosphere and the latest SpaceX attempt to bring down the cost of commercial spaceflight. The Interview: For the interview this month we welcome Apollo 12 lunar module pilot and Skylab 2 commander Alan Bean. We discuss: 44 years of humans staying in Low Earth Orbit Nearly missing out on walking on the moon due to lightning Saving the Apollo 12 mission The colourful crew of Apollo 12 Finding organic matter in lunar orbit Competing with smarter astronauts – and not being Clint Eastwood! A moonwalker's impressions of the moon The feeling of the moon's surface underfoot And the full hour long interview with Alan Bean will be released in May 2016. Woobusters: Continuing our quest to debunk the myths and conspiracy theories that persist in every dark corner of the news and the internet. This month's topic, picked at random from the Big Hat of Woo, is The Dead Cosmonauts conspiracy. Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we tackle: When will the Theory of General Relativity become Law? Brad Bell from Texas, United States

What to look out, and up, for in April 2016! For the beginners this month Ralph takes a look at the Leo Lion who leaps across the sky all April. Leo hosts some nice colour contrasting binary stars (one with a gas giant planet of its own) and some galaxies to hunt down. Next Jeni rounds up the planets that are visible in December: Jupiter Mars and Mercury at one of its most favourable viewing opportunities. The moon makes a not-to-be-missed passage through the Hyades Cluster on 10th April. And we round off with the Lyrid meteor shower and a last gasp chance of comet Catalina. As spring is galaxy season, for the deep sky challenge Paul slews a scope through Virgo in a hunt for entire galaxies that can be seen with amateur telescopes. While the constellation of Virgo is quite indistinct it harbours a wealth of elliptical and spiral galaxies, culminating with the unique treat, Markarian's Chain.

The Discussion: We bid a sad farewell to Apollo pioneer Edgar Mitchell who spent 33 hours on the lunar surface in 1971 on the Apollo 14 mission, celebrate the detection of gravitational waves and Paul regales us with his tales of clear skies for some long awaited eyepiece time. The News: This month the news is dominated by the death of Apollo 14's Edgar Mitchell. We bring you the highs of collecting moon rocks and the lows of a retirement spent promoting pseudoscience. We follow this up with more information on the detection by LIGO of the last confirmed prediction of Einstein's General Relativity, gravitational waves, and what this means for the future of astronomy. And we finish off with the observation by the European Southern Observatory of a flying saucer shaped forming planetary system. Woobusters: This month we don the tin foil hat of woo to debunk the Nibiru conspiracy theory. The planet predicted to crash into Earth and destroy all life without a shred of evidence to its name! The Interview: We welcome Canadian Soyuz, Shuttle and Space Station astronaut Chris Hadfield into the chair this month to discuss: The best and worst things about being in space The most difficult thing to adjust to in space What is it about test pilots that lends itself to becoming an astronaut What was the best aircraft to fly Is the space station a distraction from deep space missions What's the next space destination after the Space Station What will Chris Hadfield do in retirement Do you wish you'd been a musician As a positive person, how do you face the bad things in life Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. If nothing can escape from a black hole, not even light, why in the news today is there talk of 'jets' of energy being released by one? And, if nothing can travel faster than light, how can the universe be expanding in excess of this speed and still be accelerating? Jason Paul Smith via Facebook

What to look out, and up, for in March. For the beginners this month we take a look at perhaps the most recognisable constellation of them all: Ursa Major, the Great Bear. In the Great Bear we go hunting for the easiest binary star in the sky and a host of big bright galaxies. Next Jeni rounds up the planets that are visible in December: Mars, Jupiter & ever more brief views of Saturn, before taking a look at this month's moon phases – with a few conjunctions with Mars Saturn & bright star Antares. Finally we take the ultimate tour of easy and more difficult galaxies as we explore the rich bounty of the constellation Leo the Lion.

For anyone who's still a little fuzzy or confused by the enormity of the recent detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO facility, we've recorded a special podcast extra to shed some light on the impossibly complex world of General Relativity, interferometry detectors and gravitational waves themselves. This podcast extra should explain in simple terms: What gravitational waves are Why they're so important How they were detected What this means for the future of physics & astronomy With special thanks to LIGO, the National Science Foundation and Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy.

The Discussion: As we lament the passing of some great people we remember how lucky we are to live in an age of great discovery. We discuss British astronaut Tim Peake's spacewalk with American Tim Kopra outside the International Space Station and take a look back at the annual festival of TV astronomy StargazingLIVE. The News: There's a packed news section in this month's show as we discuss: Have astronomers discovered another planet in our solar system? LIGO's possible detection of gravitational waves Does an irregular star host evidence for alien life? A possible explanation for the 'Wow signal' The most powerful supernova ever detected Poor Philae gives up the ghost Attempting to photograph a black hole The Interview: This month Jen bags herself an astronaut. While celebrating the launch of Tim Peake, Jen grabs an interview with Spanish/ESA astronaut Pedro Duque: a veteran of two space missions having flown the Shuttle, Soyuz and the International Space Station. WooBusters: With a long back catalogue to call upon to understand objects and concepts in astronomy, Paul calls it a day on his 5 Minute Concept. In its place comes WooBusters! Send in your suggestions for conspiracy theories, bonkers ideas and general pseudoscientific nonsense and we'll add them to Paul's Big Hat of Woo. This month we kick off WooBusters with a debunking of alien abductions. Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. If Mars' gravity is too weak to hold onto its atmosphere, how did it ever get one? Andrew Osbourne from the UK via email

What to look out, and up, for in February. For the beginners this month we take a look at the constellation of Auriga the Charioteer with a trio of open clusters from the Messier catalogue and finishing off with the Flaming Star that originated in Orion's Belt. Next Jeni rounds up the planets that are visible in December: Jupiter, Mars & Saturn, before taking a look at this month's moon phases – with a couple of conjunctions with Venus & Mercury and the occultation of star Xi 1 Ceti. Finally we go deep into the universe with an open cluster, a beautiful multiple star system and the vast Rosette Nebula in the constellation Monoceros the Unicorn.

The Discussion: In our first invasion of 2016 we discuss Paul's work promoting British astronaut Tim Peake's stay on the International Space Station and his visit to Parliament; Jen's ongoing work in General Relativity and black holes; and John tells us about his trip to visit the Sutherland Astronomical Society in Perth, Australia. The News: This month we return to NASA's Dawn spacecraft at Ceres where we might just have the answer to those intriguing white spots on the dwarf planet. Then we discuss the findings that put to bed the puzzle about why gas giant exoplanets don't seem to have the right amount of water in their atmospheres. And we finish January's news with a wandering Kuiper Belt object snapped by NASA's New Horizon's spacecraft. The 5 Minute Concept: We conclude our series of back to basics 5 Minute Concepts with a look at the last essential items in the amateur astronomers toolkit – eyepieces. Whay are they, whey do we need them, how to get the most from them and how to get the balance between cheap stock eyepieces and expensive behemoths. The Interview: This month we continue to honour 100 years of Einstein's theory of General Relativity as Jen talks to Professor Mark Hannam, Dr Patrick Sutton and Dr Stephen Fairhurst from Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy. Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity: How will the decision in Hawaii to stop the construction of the Thirty Metre Telescope affect progress in commissioning bigger & bigger Earth-based scopes? Eric Emms from London, England via Twitter

What to look out, and up, for in January. For the beginners and young astronomers this month we take a look at the magnificent winter constellation of Orion with the belt and sword bordered by four magnificent stars. We take a look at a (cosmologically) near term supernova hopeful, a five star multiple star system, and the finest nebula of them all in small telescopes or binoculars. Next we round up the planets that are visible in January: Jupiter rising early to show us some lovely transits of its moons, with Mars Saturn and Venus providing breathtaking views for the night owls. Saturn and Venus give us a rare close conjunction too in January. Next we take a look at the phases of the moon this month and prepare for a conjunction with gas giant planet Jupiter and an occultation with bright star Aldebaran in Taurus. The Quadrantids provide us with a nice meteor shower early in January which can often give us more meteors per hour than any other meteor shower. Comet C2013 US10 Catalina continues to reveal itself to northern hemisphere observers and passes some deep sky objects to add to the excitement. Finally, we end on our deep sky challenge in the constellation of Gemini with a planetary nebula and open clusters to tease out – including the topical Jedi Knight cluster.

This pantomime episode contains some mild bad language and puerile humour Join us for our yearly round up of our favourite stories & events from 2015 and discuss the most exciting space missions and astronomy events coming up in 2016. This festive season we welcome you back to our secretive Cydonia bunker - the scene of each Earth invasion attempt - as we share a brandy on the moon and give you a glimpse of the lives of our Earthling slaves at Yuletide. As tradition now dictates, we round off the show with the best gaffes and outtakes from 2015. So, happy holiday season, thank you for downloading as listening to us in 2015 and we look forward to spending 2016 with you too. Ralph. Paul, Jen, John & Damien

The Discussion: In this Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy contrived episode we look back over the movie The Martian, meeting Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, we gloss over the Bayesian statistics in Jen's data analysis work and hear about a mathematics-based nightmare that's been keeping Jen awake but should have mathematicians rolling in the aisles! The News: This month we revisit that alien megastructure around a distant star with an unusual light curve and reveal what alien signatures SETI have discovered. We take a look at the possible future of cheap access to space as British Aerospace buy a stake in the SABRE engine designed to power spaceplanes of the future, and we finish off with the truly incredible measurements of Mars atmosphere conducted by NASA's MAVEN spacecraft to reveal how much atmosphere Mars is losing on an annual basis. The Interview: This month we wrap the whole show around our interview with Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden recorded at this year's Cosmiccon. We discuss: Anecdotes from test pilot school in England Tales of the Harrier and Concorde test pilots Practical jokes Riding a Saturn V rocket Finding organic matter in lunar orbit Views from 1.5 miles above the mountains of the moon The history of the moon and the Apollo 15 landing site, Hadley Rille The bliss of being alone in lunar orbit The views of space from the far and dark portions behind the moon The vastness of the universe Al Worden's view on UFOs, ancient aliens, numerology and the bible How to explore further out in space The stupidity of the design of NASA's next generation spacecraft The 5 Minute Concept: We continue our series of back to basics 5 Minute Concepts as Paul takes a look at perhaps the most important piece of hardware in amateur astronomy – no, not the telescope itself, but the mount. As we ask AZ or EQ? Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month Jen honours the 100th anniversary of Einstein's General Relativity with a beginner's crash course, a bit of mythbusting and answers: What's inside a black hole? John Barrie from Swansea, Wales via email

For the beginners this month we take a look at the constellation of Gemini with bright star Castor providing a nice easy double star to split with a telescope. We move over to the feet of the Gemini twins to scan for some nice open clusters, including Messier 35, before hunting down the beautiful Eskimo planetary nebula. Finally, we go looking for a star known to have a planet of its own. Next we round up the planets that are visible in December: Jupiter, Venus & Mars are still around for observers after midnight and we have the possibility of a naked eye visible comet in the early hours of the morning in early December as C2013 US10 Catalina raises northern hemisphere hopes. We have the Geminid meteor shower peaking on the night of the 12/14th December – which always puts on a great show and then we take you on a tour of the often overlooked deep sky objects in our winter skies around the constellations of Orion, Lepus and Eridanus.

During this spring's AstroCamp event, hosted by the Awesome Astronomy podcast team, our new presenter, Jeni Millard, gave another of her inspiring talks. We were treated to a history of the much neglected Aboriginal dark sky folklore as we got tour of some of the most interesting objects in the southern hemisphere's sky. Then we head off into the world of professional astronomy at the Australian Astronomical Observatory as we find out how Jen helped with the science that will enable the Huntsman Eye to investigate faint structures of galaxies using arrays of off-the-shelf Canon camera lenses and sensors.

The Discussion: We welcome astrophysicist Jeni Millard from Cardiff University onto the show as our new co-presenter! We discuss the astronomy lessons, tuition and events we've been involved with over the past month and name drop about an Apollo moonwalker we might have interviewed… The News: This month we take a look at NASA's completed image collection of the Pluto system from the New Horizons spacecraft; 'Water on Mars' get the very first Awesome Astronomy award for Needing Another Sensational Announcement (the acronym is entirely coincidental); we take a look at Brian May's handling of the estate of dearly cherished Patrick Moore; we despair at the media's handling of 'that' news story about an alien megastucture that isn't around a star with an unusual light curve; and finish up with the European and Russian coalition to explore habitability on the moon for human colonization. The 5 Minute Concept: We continue our back-to-basics 5 Minute Concepts season with a discussion prompted by many listener questions about the value and use of filters for astronomical observation. The Interview: This month we bring you our interview with Dr Kathy Thornton, recorded at Cosmiccon. Kathy is a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions and earns our eternal gratitude for fixing the Hubble Space Telescope after launch and giving it back its sight. Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month Ralph & Paul answer: One thing you might want to look at is the increasing number of remotely accessible telescopes for the "ordinary" amateur. Not sure if I get the same satisfaction from a remote image compared to spending some nights in my dome and freezing my ears off to get a good image. Would like to get your take on this… Clem Unger from Mornington Australia, via email

What to look out, and up, for in November. This month we tour a few simple objects that you can show to a child and spark their interest in the night skies. In our beginners' guide, Ursa Major shows us now to find true north and points out a few galaxies to observe in a small telescope. Then we take a look at the moon, showing us some lovely phases in the middle of the month and finish with two dates on which the moon will help you find the outer most planets, Uranus & Neptune. Next we round up all the planets visible in October, with a stunning conjunction of Venus, Mars & Jupiter in the early hours. The Northern Taurids and the Leonids provide us with two meteor showers in November while we hold our breath for a naked-eye visible comet at month's end. We round off the show with our deep sky challenge and encourage you to take a look at the clusters in the constellation of Auriga.

Matt Kingsnorth from the Project Helium Tears debriefs us on his balloon launch to the edge of space, capturing images of the Earth, taking Awesome Astronomy listeners' names onboard and filming a Star Wars X-Wing fighter against the black of space in May 2015. Quite by surprise, the onboard cameras even managed to capture images of the moon and a meteor streaking through the atmosphere below! The video (which you can see at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ub0mFVDV0) went viral with more than 400,000 views. Please help Project Helium Tears achieve Objective 3 by tweeting: #HeyJJ Can @MattKingsnorth & @TurboBungle come to the Force Awakens VIP Première @Bad_Robot? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ub0mFVDV0

The Discussion: Coming live from The AstroCamp in the Brecon Beacons international dark sky reserve, we talk about the benefits of getting out to truly dark skies and observing with people who have a range of astronomy skills. The News: We welcome astrophysicist Jeni Millard to discuss this month's astronomy news. And after rebuking NASA last month for the paucity of New Horizons data releases, we're more content this month and bring you the latest from the Pluto flyby. We take a look at the European Space Agency's latest video from Philae as it descended to the surface of comet Churyumov Gerasimenko. And we bring you more news about the increasingly habitable conditions on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The Interview: This month we wrap the whole show around our interview with Skylab 3 and STS-3 astronaut, Jack Lousma. Jack tells us about taking that ominous call during Apollo 13 'Houston, we've had a problem'; how they solved each life-threatening issue in sequence to get the astronauts back alive; missing out on flying Apollo 20 to the moon; and taking one of the first space shuttles out for a test drive. Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month Ralph & Paul take a walk around AstroCamp to let listeners give their top tips for taking their first steps in practical amateur astronomy.

What to look out, and up, for in October. This month we take a look at the constellation of Perseus the Hero for the beginners guide – we begin with the Alpha Persei Cluster around bright star Mirfak, swing by Algol, the Demon Star, and finish up with the Double Cluster – arguably the finest cluster (or clusters) in the Northern Hemisphere. Next we round up the planets that are visible in October: Uranus & Neptune are still hanging on while Mars, Jupiter and Venus combine to make some stunning planetary conjunctions most of the month. We bring you the month's moon phases and two meteor showers – the Draconids and the Orionids. Then, for our deep sky challenge, we take a look at one of the finest globular clusters in the northern hemisphere, a galaxy that's thought to be a mirror image of our own Milky Way, a grouping of five galaxies and the brightest galaxy of them all, Andromeda, as we tour the adjacent constellations of Andromeda & Pegasus.

Download Episode! The Discussion: An introduction to star parties and enjoying practical astronomy under pristine dark skies away from the city. As the podcast crew run the AstroCamp star party, which many listeners attend, in the Brecon Beacon's international dark sky reserve twice a year, we take you through the events, tutorials and workshops we run to help you hone your stargazing skills and win astronomy prizes from the Tring Astronomy Centre. The Sky guides: In readiness for 3 nights of stargazing in the Welsh valleys, Ralph, Paul and John list five objects to look out for this time of year. If you're not coming to AstroCamp, these are still great night sky treats to try and locate wherever you are in the northern hemisphere. Ralph lists his three top choices for beginner astrophotographers, armed only with a DSLR camera and a telescope, and two night sky photographic opportunities for those with just a DSLR. Paul runs through five deep sky treats for visual astronomers in September and throughout autumn. There's also a couple of tricky ones to test your skills and help develop your averted vision. John runs through the night sky objects available a little closer to home this month as he runs through the best of the solar system objects – planets, comets and safe solar observing.

The Discussion: A dismissal of paranoid woo-pedalling, following what seems be an upsurge in space-based pseudoscience this month, and we introduce you to the first in our series of astronaut interviews recorded at Cosmiccon. The News: This month we get a little disappointed at the lack of news from the New Horizons team after the initial press releases of NASA's Pluto flyby. We take a look at the nearest confirmed rocky exoplanet to Earth, at 21 light years away, and ask 'could we send a probe there within the span of a human lifetime?' New evidence from many of the world's most productive telescopes that shows the steady heat death of the universe. And a happy story to end on as NASA are offering the public the opportunity to send their names to Mars encoded on a microchip on the Insight Mars Lander next year. The 5 Minute Concept: We follow up on last month's first back-to-basics 5 Minute Concepts with an introduction to what you can expect to realistically achieve with amateur telescopes – and Paul gives you his own 'patent pending' formula to help you decide if you're likely to resolve that faint fuzzy. The Interview: This month we wrap the whole show around our interview with 4 time Shuttle astronaut, Dr Don Thomas. Veteran of 4 Space Shuttle missions (STS-65, STS-70, STS-83, STS-94), Don tells us about how he never gave up in his pursuit to become an astronaut, the incredible views from space (including Mount Everest, meteors and Comet Hale Bopp!), what's in the Lake Eerie water that Ohio produces to many astronauts, flying through the Challenger & Columbia disasters, the future direction of NASA to the moon, asteroids and Mars and hanging out with Neil Armstrong in the run up to a launch. Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month Ralph & Paul answer: · This blew my mind! With a small telescope you can track some binary stars orbiting each other over the years. If I was going to watch a double star year to year looking for movement, what would be my best bet?Andrew Burns, from Reading, England & Randy Anokye from Kumasi, Ghana via the Facebook Group

This month we take a look at the constellation of Queen Cassiopeia for the beginners guide. We have: The beautiful Owl Cluster; NGC 7788 or Caroline's Rose, discovered by Caroline Herschel. NGC 185, a dwarf elliptical galaxy discovered by Caroline's brother, William Herschel. Next we round up the planets, solar system events and deep sky treats that are visible in August: Uranus, Neptune, Saturn & Mercury. We look at the month's two lunar treats: a series of conjunctions between the moon and bright star Aldebaran. A perfect lunar eclipse for many listeners on the 28th September. Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko will be visible this month near the Beehive Cluster in Cancer (sadly we won't see ESA's Rosetta spacecraft orbiting it!) Our deep sky challenge delves into the constellatinos of Sagitta the Arrow and Vulpecula the Fox for a tour of clusters and a planetary nebula.

A longer episode this month as we have so much to discuss and cram into the show! The Discussion: Upcoming full-length interviews with 4-time Shuttle astronauts Kathy Thornton & Don Thomas, Skylab 3 & STS-3 astronaut Jack Lousma and Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden. Dragging Sokol spacesuits around the UK for educational endeavours, promoting astronomy with the UK Space Agency at the Harwell campus and enjoying Nelly Ben Hayoun's asteroid movie, Disaster Playground, at the British Film Institute. The News: This month we take a look at NASA's historic close up of the outer most classical planet as the New Horizon's spacecraft flies by the Pluto system. CERN's discovery of a new particle using the Large Hadron Collider – the Pentaquark. The possibility that those mysterious white spots on dwarf planet Ceres are creating a localised atmosphere. A Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting so close to its parent star that its atmosphere is being blown away like a comet's tail and Europe's Rosetta spacecraft continues to attempt re-contact with the functioning Philae comet lander. The 5 Minute Concept: We kick off a series of back-to-basics 5 Minute Concepts for practical astronomers with a look at what those numbers on your telescope mean. This is a tour of aperture, focal length and focal ratio. The Interview: This month we welcome back Dr Joe Liske for the final time to tell us about the future of the European Southern Observatory and their exoplanet hunting, dark energy characterising European Extremely Large Telescope. Q&A: Listeners' questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month Ralph & Paul answer: · What's excited you more: Rosetta or New Horizons? For me, the latter.Eric Emms, London UK, via Twitter Sci-fi Wars: Matt Kingsnorth & Phil St Pier join us again to go through the listeners' results in our Sci-Fi Wars series. You voted for your Top Ten Sci-fi TV Series, books and movies. We present the results!

What to look out, and up, for in August. This month we take a look at the constellation of Cepheus the King for the beginners guide – we have the first galactic tape measure: the original Cepheid Variable, a red supergiant star: Hershel's Garnet Star and the Elephant's Trunk Nebula. Next we round up the planets that are visible in August: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune. We look at the month's moon phases and enjoy a supermoon (or perigee-syzergy) on the 29th. August treats us to the best meteor shower of the year – the Perseids – falling on the 12th August with no moon to dampen the show. We also look forward to rare comet conjunction occurs in August with Rosetta's Comet 67/P and comet 141/P sharing the same field of view in telescopes. For our deep sky challenge we look at the constellation of Aquarius for a tour of globular clusters and planetary nebulae.

The Discussion: This month's Awesome Astronomy comes from the magnificent Cosmic Con event at the Manchester Airport Hilton. While looking forward to speaking with the stars of Meteorite Men and four astronauts, Paul recalls a fun June letting the public try on a genuine Russian Sokol suit at a multitude of astronomy outreach events, while Ralph's been experimenting with ways to take deep sky images in heavily light polluted skies. The Walkaround: No news, 5 minute concept or Q&A this month but you won't be disappointed as we tour Cosmic Con. The plethora of fascinating meteorites brought by Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold from the Meteorite Men and space rocks from the British and Irish Meteorite Society gives Paul an opportunity to explain what a treasure trove of science and history meteorites are. Ralph's in seventh heaven perusing The Space Collective's NASA memorabilia – a signed Buzz Aldrin action man anyone? The Interviews: A whole host of interviews this month as we talk to astronauts, space agency workers, meteorite enthusiasts & organisations hoping to save humanity from extinction. Jane MacArthur – STEM ambassador and PhD student of Martian meteorites and comet samples, explaining the variety of space rocks and what they can tell us about the early solar system. Martin Goff – member of the British and Irish Meteorite Society, talking about incidents of impacts from Chelyabinsk to the unfortunate Cow Killer meteorite Andrea Boyd - European Space Agency's Astronaut Centre, exploring ESA's new astronaut intake, British astronaut Tim Peake, life on orbit and an offer to try the joy that is Italian designed space food! Cristina Stanilescu – Project presenter for the Emergency Asteroid Defence Project, telling us about ways to prevent city obliterating asteroids from hitting Earth before they get here. Don Thomas – Space Shuttle veteran of STS-65, STS-70, STS-83 & STS-94 revealing his experiences of riding rockets and the woodpecker that delayed a launch! Kathryn Thornton – Space Shuttle veteran of STS-33, STS 49, STS-61 & STS-73, telling us about fixing the Hubble Space Telescope and the possible rosy future for Hubble. Jack Lousma – Veteran of Skylab 3 & STS-3, reliving tales of America's first space station and test flying the space shuttle. Al Worden – Veteran of Apollo 15, one of only 24 people to orbit the moon, tells us about how to get to the moon & back and flying in perpetual freefall. So, a huge thanks to Richard and Yolande, the organisers of Cosmic Con for inviting us to record from their wonderful astronomy-laden event. We hope you enjoyed the atmosphere even if you couldn't make it this year. And we hope to see you there next year.

Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears return to the bunker for this final episode in the Sci-fi Wars series to appeal for your votes for the best movie. We've let catured Earthling slave Damien out of the dungeon to add his favourite too. This is the last in a four part podcast extra series to discover the best sci-fi TV series, book and film over the next three days. Your votes count at www.awesomeastronomy.com/scifiwars

Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears & captured Earthling slave Damien join us in the bunker in this 3rd episode in the Sci-fi Wars series to appeal for your votes for the best book. This is the third in a four part podcast extra series to discover the best sci-fi TV series, book and film over the next three days. Your votes count at www.awesomeastronomy.com/scifiwars

Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears join us in the bunker in this 2nd episode in the Sci-fi Wars series to appeal for your votes for the best TV series. We've let catured Earthling slave Damien out of the dungeon too to add his favourite too. This is the second in a four part podcast extra series to discover the best sci-fi TV series, book and film over the next three days. Your votes count at www.awesomeastronomy.com/scifiwars

Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears join us in the bunker to kick off this Sci-fi Wars series by discussing what makes a sci-fi. We've let catured Earthling slave Damien out of the dungeon too to add more perspective. This is the first in a four part podcast extra series to discover the best sci-fi TV series, book and film over the next four days. Your votes count at www.awesomeastronomy.com!