About
A weekly about 30 minute audio podcast by and primarily for amateur astronomers in the UK.
The host
Gurbir Singh is neither a professional scientist nor a trained broadcaster but an enthusiastic amateur with a deep desire to understand. Former chairman of Salford Astronomical Society, he has been involved in amateur Astronomy for over 30 years. He is based in Rochdale, just outside Manchester and works as an IT security specialists for a large IT company.
Recordings
Most of the recordings for AstrotalkUK are done live face to face. When that is not possible or convenient then options such as telephone, Skype and even email of mp3 files are used. The equipment and software I use includes:
Microphone
H2 Zoom Handy Recorder
Software
Audacity : Free audio recorder and editor
dbpoweramp :Audio optimiser
Pamela for Skype : Skype call recorder
Wordpress : AstrotalkUK is hosted on Wordpress 2.51
Levelator : Automatic audio leveller
Encoding
Each episode is typically about 30 minutes mp3 file and has the following attributes:
Constant bit rate, Stereo, Sample rate=44.1Khz, Sample size=16bit, Bit Rate =64Kbs
Music
Concerto for violin and Oboe by Johann Sebastian Bach. Royalty free 30 second loop from http://www.musicloops.com/
Acknowledgement
Picture of Saturn in AstroalkUK logo: Courtesy of Tony O’Sullivan. More of his pictures here.
Technical advisor Mike Oates of Audio Recording Live
