AstrotalkUK

Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing

Once in a blue moon

By Leave a Comment

Here’s something that only happens once in a blue moon. A blue moon! Well its not actually going to turn blue. It will be the same familiar colour as the full moon on 2nd of December and it will be  the same again tomorrow. Two full moons in the same month.

The lunar month (29.5 days) is fixed and a calendar month (28,29,30 or 31 days) is not. Once about every three years the difference catches up and offer the unusual prospect of two full moons in the same calendar month.

This is of no astronomical significance but its a great way to end a decade. If you have clear skies tomorrow why not put on a few layers go out  and have a look, take a picture or even go for a blue moon walk.

All the best for 2010.

Episode 30: December 27th 2009 Prof. Barrie Jones

By Leave a Comment

Forty years ago a revolutionary higher education institution for adults was established in the UK. Students enrolled in the Open University two years later in 1971. This model of higher education has now spread across the globe.

Today, the Open University plays a strong and active role in the exploration of space in collaboration with ESA and NASA. The first bit of human technology to touch the surface of  Titan was an instrument made by a team at the OU under Professor  John Zarnecki. The unsuccessful Beagle 2 mission to Mars was headed by OU Professor Colin Pillinger.  Currently, it is working on  projects including Darwin, Stardust, Rosette and Genesis.

Today’s episode is a special recording with Professor Barrie Jones of the Open University. Special because during the Eighties, I studied several of the courses which he helped to develop and presented on the the late night OU TV programs.

Professor Jones joined the Open University in 1972 and since 2006 is the emeritus professor of astronomy.  He recalls people he worked with at Cornell including Tom Gold, Frank Drake, Carl Sagan and the early days of Gamma Ray astronomy from balloons.

His distinguished career has spanned several decades, arguably the most scientifically productive decades in the history of astronomy, over that time, his research has spanned the electromagnetic spectrum. Although retired, he continues to write, research and lecture mainly in Astrobiology.

Initially he started working on Gamma Rays at Bristol University and then Infra Red astronomy during his time at Cornell. I asked if he had been involved with radio and optical astronomy too?

====================================

As the UK government recently announced further cuts in the higher education budget, today’s quote is from Derek Bok .

If you think education is expensive – try ignorance.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS | More

Episode 29: Venus

By Leave a Comment

In size, mass and orbit Venus is the nearest Earth has to a twin in the Solar System. It is the brightest object in the sky after the sun and moon, hottest planet in the solar system, has a day longer than its year, is named after the Roman goddess of love and yet it has a deadly atmosphere and its the one planet that gets closer to the Earth than any other.

In this episode, recorded in late 2008, Professor Fred Taylor, Jesus College Oxford, talks about the Venus Express mission.

====================================

This week’s quote is my rather obtuse reference to the runaway greenhouse effect on the planet Venus. Its from Will Rogers and its what he says to his niece on  seeing Venus de Milo in the Louvre in Paris.

“See what will happen if you don’t stop biting your fingernails?”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS | More

Episode 28: Apollo 13

By Leave a Comment

On this day 40 years ago the crew of Apollo 11 fulfilled one of mankind’s longest held dreams and walked on the surface of the Moon. One of them Buzz Aldrin in episode 12 of ATUK, recalled a little of that experience.

Today’s episode is a short recording with Fred Haise when he visited Pontefract as arranged by Ken Willoughby. Incidentally, Jim Lovell is also visiting Pontefract in Yorkshire on October the 2nd 2009. If you are close to northern England on that date consider stopping by. Of the twelve men who walked on the Moon only nine remain.

Apollo 13 astronauts Fred Haise along with Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert were arguably the subject of the 20th century’s most dramatic events and the subject of the film Apollo 13.

Fred Haise never made it to the surface of the Moon.

He served on the back-up crew for the Apollo 8, Apollo 11, Apollo 16 moon missions and was also scheduled as commander for the cancelled Apollo 19 mission. As a backup he could have been on the first mission to the moon (Apollo 8), first moon landing (Apollo 11) and of course commanded his own mission on Apollo 19 but the Apollo program was cancelled after Apollo 17.

Remember the first Shuttle – Enterprise, on the back of a modified 747? Between February and October of 1977 it flew 16 times to perform the approach and landing test of what would become the Shuttle Transport System which is due to conclude next year 2010. Fred Haise was involved in 5 of those. Three of which involved the Enterprise in free flight.

When I spoke to Fred during the dinner on the day before this recording, he came across as an ordinary guy who did not consider himself to be “special” but just around in the right place at the right time. During the course of the evening he spoke to many who were present but most of the evening had gone by and I had not had a chance to say hello. Then suddenly he approached from a corner of the room and said “Hello, I’m Fred Haise, I don’t think we’ve met”. In the short conversation that followed he indicated that fishing was his primary hobby and although his trip aboard Apollo 13 was dramatic he had an eventful life before and after it too.

Sure, it is impossible to have a deep insight from a couple of short meetings. Perhaps, it was the ease with which he used my first name (which some people find heavy going) and conversed as if I had always known him. There was something special about the ordinary way he conducted himself. He had accepted the extreme high and low experiences in his life as nothing more than an occupational hazard. Apollo 13 as the only space flight he ever made.

====================================

This week’s quote is from Carl Sagan

There are many worlds we have never seen before. Only one generation in the history of the human species is privileged to live during the time those great discoveries are first made; that generation is ours.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS | More