About

An occasional astronomy audio podcast by and primarily for amateur astronomers in the UK.

The host
Gurbir Singh is an amateur astronomer and author, well  just about, one book (Yuri Gagarin in London and Manchester). He has been involved in amateur Astronomy for over 30 years. Based just outside Manchester, he works in the IT industry.

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 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
Levelator : Automatic audio leveller

Encoding
Each episode is typically about 30 minutes mp3 file and usually has the following attributes:
Constant bit rate, Stereo, Sample rate=44.1Khz, Sample size=16bit, Bit Rate =64Kbs

Music (episodes 1-24)
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

Header image  a composite from several images using the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft taken over nearly three hours on September 15th 2006.

Technical advisor Mike Oates of Audio Recording Live