Astrophiz122: Chayan Chatterjee - Gravitational Wave AI Detective

Continuing our Gravitational Wave series, we have a great interview with OzGrav researcher and PhD candidate Chayan Chatterjee, who develops Machine Learning algorithms to analyse gravitational wave data to locate the origins of the ‘Chirps’ that signal cataclysmic events that warp the very fabric of Space-Time. Chayan is based at the University of Western Australia. 
You will love the clarity of Chayan’s depiction of Gravitational Wave astronomy, AI and Machine Learning.

Astrophiz

Astrophiz122-Chayan Chatterjee-AI Detective-Gravitational Waves

Astrophiz 142 - Krystal De Napoli ~ Star Formation & Indigenous Astronomy

Krystal is a fabulous indigenous astronomer who is carving out a brilliant career for herself while she improves the educational prospects for indigenous Australians. She is currently based in Melbourne but grew up in the closest town to me here in North-East Victoria. After being awarded her first science degree, she is extending her B.Sc with Astrophysics Honours Research at Monash University.

She was recently awarded the Out for Australia ‘Young Professional of the Year’ prize for her outstanding outreach and contributions to indigenous communities

In this episode we hear about Krystal’s early struggles and how she now works on a regular radio show as she continues her Honours studies, and we get to put our science hats firmly on to hear how Krystal does research into star formation itself and how star formation rates can vary in different galaxies.

You will not hear a better description of what it is like to help passengers to observe auroras on an Antarctic bound 747, which Krystal has done, as well as how various indigenous storylines across Australia interpret auroras depending on their Latitude.

Krystal and Karlie Noon (see Ep 99) have written a book called ‘Sky Country’ which is part of the First Knowledges series published by Thames & Hudson and which will be out soon in April.

Enjoy this extended interview into a brilliant career in the making.

Astrophiz142-KrystalDeNapoli-Indigenous Astronomy

Astrophiz 152 Dr Sofia Gallego ~ The Cosmic Web.

Dr Sofia Gallego paints the clearest picture of the Cosmic Web you will ever hear.

Originally from La Serena in Chile, growing up near some of the world’s most awesome telescopes, Sofia is now a postdoc researcher at Caltech in Pasadena and has her PhD in Astrophysics. She has a strong interest in cosmology and extragalactic astronomy from both the theoretical and observational perspectives. 
Sofia has also studied musical theory, violin, singing, and acting, but today’s focus is on the detection, extent and nature of the Cosmic Web and she also introduces us to the wonders of UV Astronomy and we are thrilled to have her on the show.

You will love to listen in as Sofia takes us on this astronomical journey of discovery as we reiterate that it is curious and creative people with inquisitive and determined minds that make such powerful telescopes and their attendant instruments sing so loudly and clearly.
Enjoy!

Astrophiz152 The Cosmic Web Dr Sofia Gallego

[ Full transcript at Astrophiz.com ] 
In this fabulous episode of Astrophiz, Greg Sleap, the Software and Systems Team Leader at CIRA, the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy, a node of ICRAR (The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research) discusses the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and its role in capturing radio data from the cosmos. 
The MWA is a low-frequency radio telescope array located in remote Western Australia. It is used for various scientific studies, including the search for the signals of the Epoch of Reionization, detecting black hole radio jets, studying supernova remnants, and monitoring space junk. 
The MWA has been successful in producing over 300 journal papers and is preparing for future developments, including the use of all 256 tiles and collaboration with the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope.

Astrophiz 175-AstroDataWizardry

Highlights:
Blue Moon
Opposition Of Saturn
We lose Venus from Evening skies
Mercury is at its best this month

Moon Phases

August 2nd Perigee Full Moon
August 8th Last Quarter Moon (ideal for observing galaxies and globular clusters in the early evening)
August 16th New Moon is ideal for stargazing anytime
August 24th First Quarter Moon
August 31st Perigee Full (Blue) Moon ie the 2nd Full Moon for the month and the best perigee full moon of the year.

Mercury is best seen at the start of the month rising higher and higher in the evening sky and passing above the sinking Venus, which will reappear in the east in the morning twilight at the end of the month as the ‘Morning Star’.

Mars is getting further away from us and dimming

Saturn is at its closest to earth (in opposition) on 27 August and will be excellent viewing in the northern/north east evening skies all of August and well into next month. Saturn is close to the moon on the 3rd and the 30th.

Sagittarius and the centre of our Milky Way galaxy (look for the upside down Teapot) are directly overhead and M22 is a brilliant globular cluster galaxy of millions of stars often seen as a faint cotton ball in binocs and smaller telescopes. Also nearby are the lovely Triffid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula.

Highly recommended:
Get out your telescope
See when you local astronomical society or club is having an ‘open day’ or public viewing night, because seeing Saturn through a telescope is truly amazing!

Morning Skies.

Jupiter (and its moons) is easily seen in the north as the brightest object in morning skies and looks great even in binoculars. 

Ian’s Tangent

Ian tells a tale about Solar System objects with tails, how they are formed and how they can be detected.

Well comets of course … but that’s not all!

Mercury has a sodium tail.
The moon also has a very faint tail which has been detected.  
The asteroid Phaethon has a sodium tail, raising all sorts of questions for further research.

Thanks Ian …. that’s a great tale!

Astrophiz 176: August SkyGuide

Today we are speaking with Dr Daniel Palumbo,  from the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Daniel is an astrophysicist and data scientist with the Event Horizon Telescope who worked on those amazing black hole images using data from the planet-sized telescope, the EHT, the Event Horizon Telescope.  
He is involved in ongoing work on the Next Generation EHT  consortium

In this episode he shares his science journey, how the EHT works and how he worked with the imaging teams to produce those two historic and stunning black hole images from our Milky Way Galactic Center, Sagittarius A* and the more distant supermassive black hole in Messier 87*

Brilliant science beautifully explained.
Thanks Daniel.

Astrophiz 179: Dr Daniel Palumbo - The Event Horizon Telescope

Astrophiz 184: Hyerin Cho

Meet Hyerin Cho, an inspiring young astrophysicist from Korea who is doing her PhD at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hyerin uses her formidable computational skills to simulate still-mysterious black holes using supercomputers, as well as revealing the mysteries and enigmatic fast radio bursts AKA FRBs.

For her main research, she produces simulations of plasma accreting onto black holes and is on an already successful quest to discover what really makes these wonderful phenomena tick and how galaxies and their central black holes interact with each other, regardless of their relative size.

An amazing researcher making supermassive discoveries!

A184- Hyerin Cho - Black Holes

Professor Orsola De Marco is a Professor at Macquarie University and Deputy-Director of the  Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre at Macquarie University in Sydney. She obtained her PhD at University College London as a Perren Scholar, after which she was a Swiss National Science Foundation research fellow at ETH Zurich, a FUSE Fellow at University College London and Asimov Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She was an ARC Future Fellow. Her research focusses on stellar interactions and how they alter the structure and evolution of stars in multiple systems.

Prof Orsola De Marco - Dancing with the Stars

Enjoy this great interview with Professor  Katie Auchettl, who is the Associate Professor of Astrophysics and Physics at Melbourne University. 

Katie is an observational astrophysicist whose research focuses on the extreme death of stars.

Katie has worked with a team of young astronomers on a sensational book for aspiring astrophysicists that’s just been freely published on the Archive (ArXiv) Server.

The book is called:
“Astronomy as a Field: A Guide for Aspiring Astrophysicists” 

… and it is sensational …. and I can't recommend it highly enough for any student … any person …. who has an interest in astronomy …. It’s a springboard to the stars and sure to be ground zero to many brilliant careers for aspiring astrophysicists …          
Get your free pdf copy at tinyurl-DOT-com/aspiringastro

Katie is also currently the PI of a large Australian Research Council grant project looking at  Tidal Disruption Events …  known affectionately as TDEs, where stars get ripped apart by supermassive black holes.
We even get to hear what spaghettification is.

Enjoy Katie’s fabulous stories!

Prof Katie Auchettl - The Extreme Death of Stars

Today we're speaking with Dr. Marcus Lower, who is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Australia's National Science Agency, the CSIRO. His research primarily focuses on pulsars … rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation from their magnetic poles. He's the principal investigator of a Pulsar Timing Project, which uses the CSIRO, Parkes Murriyang radio telescope to understand the long-term behaviour of neutron stars and how they can be used to study the interstellar medium.
Marcus is the lead author in a just-published Nature Astronomy paper using the  64-meter Parkes-Murriyang dish and also the monster 76-meter Lovell Telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Manchester to reveal really mystifying behaviours of Pulsar XTE J1810-197, which we have never seen anything remotely like this before.

Astrophiz192 - Pulsars Stripped Bare

Astrophiz 193: Dr Ian Musgrave’s June SkyGuide
Dr Ian Musgrave brings us his June SkyGuide …  telling us when, where and what to look for in the evening and morning skies this month.

And June is also a wonderful month for celestial observers, especially the early risers amongst us :)

As usual Ian gives us his ‘Tangent’ … and this month it’s all about how animals respond to celestial appearances and then he gives us his ‘Astrophotography Challenge’ where he presents us with an achievable and challenging task to undertake with our cameras.

This month our challenge is to capture Saturn as it is occulted by the moon.

Astrophiz193: June SkyGuide and Astrophotography Challenge

Today we have a brilliant show for you as we speak with  Associate Professor Duncan Galloway from Monash University in Australia. 
His research involves the rarest, most powerful and cataclysmic events that occur in our universe ... Neutron stars colliding!

Astrophiz194-Explosive Neutron Stars

Today we have a brilliant interview for you as we speak with a fabulous Early Career Researcher, Dr Lauren Rhodes from the University of Oxford.

Lauren has just published a paper on the BOAT … the Brightest Object of All Time …  a “Once in 10,000 year event” 
The blast, called GRB 221009A, was over 100 billion times brighter than the sun.

Lauren works in powerful collaborations which use a variety of radio interferometers, such as MeerKAT and e-MERLIN to study the radio emissions from explosive celestial events including jets from X-ray binaries and gamma ray bursts.
She is using multi wavelength observations of these sources to understand each event's jet physics and its surrounding environment. 

This stunning episode is available free from Audible Podcasts, Soundcloud, Apple podcasts and Youtube

MP3 links and a full transcript for those who may prefer to read our interview, is published on Astrophiz.com

Astrophiz Podcasts

Astrophiz196: Explosive Transients - Dr Lauren Rhodes

Astrophiz 197: Dt Ian Musgrave’s August SkyGuide

Moon Phases for August

New Moon - 4 August - best for seeing the faint fuzzies and clusters

Apogee Moon furthest from Earth - 9 August

1st Quarter Moon - 13 August

Full Moon - 20 August

Perigee Moon closest to Earth - 21 August

Last Quarter Moon - 26 August

Evening Sky

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan is binocular-visible in Leo.
Mercury is a fine sighting early in the evenings in August near the Western horizon.
Mercury, Regulus and Venus are visible till an hour after sunset 
On the 6th, Mercury, Regulus and Venus form a triangle with the thin crescent moon.
Venus is climbing higher and becoming more prominent as the ‘Evening Star'
Saturn is rising about 8:30 in the evening and is best telescopically a few hours later when it is higher.
Saturns Rings are almost edge on at the moment.

Morning Sky

Mars has been heading towards Jupiter and the horizon, and in the first week of August lands in the constellation Taurus, forming a second red ‘eye’ with Aldabaran in the bull's head.
Between the 12th and 17th Mars and Jupiter are less than a finger width apart, and on the 15th, less than half a finger width apart.
Looking East and North East in the morning, the Pliades Cluster, Hyades Cluster, Mars, Jupiter and Aldabaran are making interesting patters throughout the month.

Capturing a recurrent Nova Explosion

About an hour and a half after sunset when the sky is completely dark, you look North and a little bit West, you’ll spot the bright star Arcturus, then if you look down and a little to the right, you’ll see a circle of stars called Corona Borealis.

The Astrophotography Challenge

Take a photo of Corona Borealis every clear night during August-September to capture the pre-Nova view and then continue till after TCR-B has gone Nova.

Ian’s Tangent : How do we define a planet?

We have a definition of a solar system planet:
Forms a sphere under its own gravity.
It must orbit our sun.
It must have cleared its own orbit

Now because we cannot yet determine if an exoplanet is a sphere, we now have a proposed definition of an exoplanet,

It must orbit a sun, or suns.
Its mass must be smaller than can have fusion occurring 
Its mass must be enough to clear its orbit. 

Yesterday the ESA released an image of a ‘Cold Jupiter’ named Epsilon Indi Ab.

The planet is several times the mass of Jupiter and orbits the K-type star Epsilon Indi A (Eps Ind A), which is around the age of our Sun, but slightly cooler. The team observed Epsilon Indi Ab using the coronagraph on Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). Of the 5000+ exoplanets known to date, only a few tens of exoplanets have been directly imaged previously by space- and ground-based observatories.

"This discovery is exciting because the planet is quite similar to Jupiter — it is a little warmer and is more massive, but is more similar to Jupiter than any other planet that has been imaged so far,” quoted lead author Elisabeth Matthews of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany.

August SkyGuide

Meet the amazing astronomer Dr Tessa Vernstrom!
Tessa is the Project Scientist for the Evolutionary Map of the Universe aka EMU survey using the ASKAP telescope.

Astronomy Astrophiz198: Dr Tessa Vernstrom - The Evolutionary Map of the Universe

Astronomy SkyGuide September: Dr Ian Musgrave tells us when, where and what to look for in the evening and morning skies this month.

As usual Ian also gives us his ‘Tangent’ and his ‘Astrophotography Challenge’

Astronomy SkyGuide September - Dr Ian Musgrave

Today, to celebrate our 200th episode, we're bringing you a sensational interview with Larissa Palethorpe, a young PhD from Edinburgh University who has discovered the most Earth-like planet yet.

You'll love Larissa and her Earth-shattering research.

Astronomy Astrophiz

Astronomy Astrophiz200 Larissa Palethorpe ~ Discovering Planet B

Astrophiz 201: Dr Ian Musgrave’s October SkyGuide

Highlights:
Comet C/2023 A3 has been observed and photographed embedded in the eastern morning twilight over the past week, but is now (1 October) below the horizon and skimming behind the sun. 

The Comet emerges and becomes visible in the western evening twilight around 11 October, so we can look forward to catching it, and it could be quite bright before rapidly fading, but no one really knows how it will emerge after it’s closest approach to the sun. Could be spectacular or a fizzer …
 
So Ian’s best advice is to go out just after sunset after 11 October and check out your western horizon.
Watch this space!

Planetary Action:
Mainly moving to the evening skies.

Mercury is returning and will be quite high in the sky later in the month.
Saturn is easy to observe now in the mid-evening sky.
Jupiter can be seen in evening skies by mid month, but still best and prominent in morning skies.
Mars is getting brighter
The Orionids meteor shower will be significantly affected by the moon :(

Moon Phases:
October 3 is the New Moon … Great for stargazing under dark skies.
October 11 is 1st Quarter moon 
October 17 is the Full moon
October 24 is the Last Quarter moon

Corona Borealis is setting, no bang yet :/

Ians Tangent:

All about Earth’s temporary 2nd Moon - 2024 PT5
… and Quasi-Moons.

Astrophiz Podcast

Astronomy Astrophiz201: October SkyGuide

Astronomy ~ Astrophiz 202: Dr Genevieve Schroeder ~ Radio Eyes on Gamma-ray Burst Skies

Meet Dr Genevieve Schroeder a fabulous astrophysicist who does exciting research into GRBs …  Gamma Ray Bursts.

A Gamma Ray Burst is the undisputed brightest-ever radiation coming from the most extreme  events in the universe … Specifically, Genevieve hunts down and understands how Gamma-ray Bursts are generated by the most cataclysmic events in our universe

Dr Genevieve Schroeder - Radio Eyes on Gamma-ray Burst Skies

Astronomy- The Astrophiz podcast with Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave

Moon Phases for November:
1 November - New Moon - ideal for stargazing
9 November - 1st Quarter Moon
14 November - Moon at perigee (closest)
16 November - Full Moon
23 November - Last Quarter Moon, also ideal for stargazing   
26 November - Moon at apogee (furthest)
Most of the planetary action is in the evening skies and late evening skies.
 
Evening Skies:
Venus is very high in early evening skies in the west 
Mercury is at its best in the evening twilight this month, near thin crescent moon on 3 November.
Saturn is still quite good in the west this month. 
Jupiter is visible rising in the east in the late evening skies
Mars enters evening skies later in the month, but still at its best in the mornings.
In mid-month, Mercury, Venus and Saturn will be seen close to each other an hour after sunset.
Uranus is in opposition at Mag5.7 so is actually an unaided eye object under dark sky conditions. Easy to find about 2 degrees above the Pleiades

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is climbing higher and fading, but for the start of the month is still a nice binocular object in evening western skies before fading from most binoculars.
The Leonid meteor shower is a waste of time this year due to a blazing moon.

Morning Skies
Mars is higher in the twilight in the East
Jupiter is best in the mornings right now, as it slowly moves back to Aldabaran.

Astrophotography

Venus is in the heart of the galaxy, but you’ll need dark skies to have the  long exposures needed to bring out the Milky Way’s heart.

Comet C/2024 S1 is a possible (but not probable) ‘Lovejoy-type object’ to keep an eye out for.

NovemberSkyGuide2024

In this our two hundred and fourth episode of Astrophiz, we’re going to listen in to another fabulous Astro podcast that you should subscribe to.

Regular listeners will remember back to Episode 57 in 2018 where we interviewed a wonderful data scientist and astrophysicist, Dr Elaina Hyde. 

Elaina speaks four languages,  has four undergraduate degrees in astronomy, physics, optical engineering and planetary sciences; two masters degrees in engineering and astronomy and astrophysics; and a Ph.D. in astronomy and physics.

Now back then, Doctor Hyde was an post-doc research fellow at Western Sydney University and data science consultant …. and right now she is at York University in Toronto Canada where she is the director pf the Allan I Carswell Observatory and is an associate professor who has also developed wonderful outreach programs 

One aspect of Elaina’s outreach repertoire is where Doc Hyde and her York University colleagues regularly produce a fabulous podcast! 

In this episode we are re-broadcasting today  they take us on a deep dive into science and science fiction with space launches from the past. We travel through the 70s (and a bit of the 50s) with space launches from Mariner, Voyager, Pioneer, to mention a few ….
 
Join Elaina and her co-hosts, as well as Professor Mary-Helen Armour for this literal blast into space!
Here we go !!

Astrophiz204: Dr Elaina Hyde- The York Universe Podcast

Dr Ian Musgrave gives us his fabulous Holiday SkyGuide where he tell us all the fabulous sights that are in store for us over December and January.
Most of the planetary action is at family-friendly times in the evening skies.
We have Venus Jupiter and Saturn all at their best these holidays, a meteor shower still worth a look despite the full moon mid-December, an occultation of Saturn by the moon, and a re-appearance of the 'Lunar X' phenomenon.
In Ian's Tangent he reveals the latest advances in the science of tracing the origins of meteors. It's beautiful Science!
For those celebrating festive occasions with friends and family in December and January, have a happy and safe festive season.

Astrophiz205~Holiday SkyGuide

Today we’re zooming over 16 time zones from rural Australia to Toronto Canada where we are a guest on The York Universe Podcast with Dr Elaina Hyde and Julie Tomé where we are talking about What’s Up in the Skies Down Under.

YorkUniverseInterview

Meet Dr Alex Cameron from Oxford University who is making fantastic discoveries about the earliest and most distant galaxies in our universe using the James Webb Space Telescope …

Astrophiz 208-Unusual galaxies in the Early Universe

Dr Ian Musgrave brings us his February SkyGuide … telling us when, where and what to look for in the evening and morning skies this month, with some great astrophotography tips. 
Listen: 

Summary:  February is again a wonderful month for celestial observers with a great lineup of planets in your evening skies/

February Moon Phases: 

Feb 2 		Moon at perigee
Feb 5 		First quarter moon. 
Feb 13 	Full Moon 
Feb 18 	Moon at apogee 
Feb 21 	Last quarter moon
Feb 28 	New moon 

February’s Observing Highlights:

All the action in Morning Skies has now moved to the Evening Skies where we have a fabulous line-up of planetary action all month.
Saturn, Venus, Jupiter and Mars are putting on a marvellous visual display for us and blue Uranus is also relatively easy to find.

Venus, even though it is in crescent phase, is at its brightest this month,

As usual Ian gives us ‘Ian’s Tangent’ … and this month it’s all about present and future ‘Planet Parades’

and in two weeks we're zooming over to Oxford University to speak with Dr Alex Cameron, an amazing astrophysicist who has used the JWST to discover a new and most unusual class of galaxies in the very early universe, just after the big bang

Keep looking Up!

Astrophiz207 - February SkyGuide

March Moon Phases:

Moon at Perigee March 2 
First Quarter: March 7 
Full Moon: March 14
Moon at Apogee March18
<<Earth at Equinox March 20>> 
Last Quarter March 22 
New Moon: March 29 
Moon at Perigee again on March 30


Evening Skies: 

Mercury is very low in the evening twilight in the West. (binocs recommended but only after sunset) and Mercury will return to morning skies in April and will be quite nice then.
Venus in the early evening twilight is very low in the West (and as a fine crescent in telescopes) … and will disappear from us by the end of the first week of March, and then will re-appear in the East as the ‘Morning Star’ in April.
Jupiter is in the north west all night and best viewed around midnight. 
Nice new storms can be picked out in telescopes in the equatorial belt.
Mars can still be seen in the West
Uranus at mag 5.8 is still visible
Saturn returns to evening skies in late March

Highlights:

1 March: Saturn and Mercury near to thin crescent Moon (2° apart for Mercury) very low in evening twilight, will require binoculars.
2 March: Crescent Moon near crescent Venus very low in evening twilight (5°)
6 March: Waxing Moon near Jupiter in evening twilight (6°) 
9 March: Waxing Moon near Mars in evening sky (5°), Moon close to Pollux
14 March: Occultation of bright star Beta Virginis around midnight
20 March: Earth at Equinox
21 March: Occultation of bright star Antares just after midnight behind moon


Astrophotography Challenge: 
The T Coronae Borealis Nova.
The challenge is to capture a Nova before and after it blows!
This Nova is ‘overdue’ so all eyes are on it!

Ian’s Tip: use 1sec stacks

T Coronae Borealis last brightened in 1946, and astronomers initially predicted it would brighten again by September 2024.
It's a variable star in Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, a backward-C-shaped constellation east of Boötes.

T Coronae Borealis, dubbed the “Blaze Star” and known to astronomers simply as “T CrB,” is a binary system nestled in the Northern Crown constellation some 3,000 light-years from Earth. The system is comprised of a dense white dwarf – an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star with a mass comparable to that of our Sun – and an ancient red giant slowly being stripped of hydrogen by the relentless gravitational pull of its hungry neighbour.


Ian’s Tangent: Sky literacy, or lack thereof, as exemplified by ‘drone sightings’ in the US and amplified by the Governor of Maryland.
We also discuss easy pathways to develop better sky literacy.

Astrophiz209~MarchSkyGuide

You'll be astounded when you listen to A/Prof Elizabeth Tasker as she takes us on an astonishingly brilliant 600million kilometre rollercoaster ride on the JAXA Hayabusa missions to collect the very first Asteroid samples and bring them back to earth for analysis, to reveal the primordial origins of our solar system.
Elizabeth also gives us an update on JAXA's 2026 Mars Moons mission ~ MMX
You'll marvel at this triumph of ingeniously designed and executed science and engineering!
Great science stories of discovery are essentially ... great human stories.

Astronomy Astrophiz 210: ProfElizabethTasker

Dr Ian Musgrave’s April SkyGuide

April Summary

Jupiter & Mars are dominating the NW skies
Venus, Saturn & Mercury dominate the morning skies.
TCr Borealis is ‘lurking’ … ready to go Nova
The ‘Lunar X’ is coming up

April Moon Phases:

First Quarter: April 5 
Lunar X is visible on the 5th
Daylight saving ends on Sunday 6 April
Moon at Apogee April 13
Full Moon: April 13
Last Quarter April 21 
Moon at Perigee April 28
New Moon: April 28 

Evening Skies:

Jupiter is high in the north-western evening sky when the sky is fully dark. Jupiter forms a line with the stars Aldebaran and Elnath. The Moon joins the line-up Jupiter on the 3rd, and on the 8th, Jupiter is 8 degrees from the crescent moon.
Mars is high in the evening sky, setting just after midnight. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, earlier in the year on January the 16th. 
Mercury is lost in the evening twilight, but is moving to morning skies.
… AND HAVE A HUNT FOR VESTA!

Morning Skies:

Saturn returns to the morning twilight. It is near the crescent Moon on the 28th
Mercury is pretty easy
Venus - Easiest
Vesta is difficult, but getting easier as the month progresses

Highlights:
3 April  	Crescent Moon near Jupiter in Evening twilight.
5 April  	"Lunar X" visible 
5-6 April 	Mars around 5° from waxing Moon
13 April 	Apogee Full Moon
16-25 April 	The Lyrid meteor shower will be visible 
25 April 	Saturn and Venus close in the morning twilight forming a triangle with the thin crescent Moon
26 April 	Crescent Moon close to Mercury in the morning twilight


Astrophotography Challenges: 
1.	CHASING the ‘Terminator’ on the Moon. Hint: 1/250 sec at ISO 400 every 30 minutes, and making a simple animation.

2.	CATCHING The T Coronae Borealis Nova.
The challenge is still … to capture a Nova before and after it blows!
This Nova is ‘overdue’ so all eyes are on it!
Ian’s Tip: use 1sec stacks
T Coronae Borealis last brightened in 1946, and astronomers initially predicted it would brighten again by September 2024.
It’s a variable star in Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, a backward-C-shaped constellation east of Boötes. 
T Coronae Borealis, dubbed the “Blaze Star” and known to astronomers simply as “T CrB,” is a binary system nestled in the Northern Crown constellation some 3,000 light-years from Earth. The system is comprised of a dense white dwarf – an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star with a mass comparable to that of our Sun – and an ancient red giant slowly being stripped of hydrogen by the relentless gravitational pull of its hungry neighbour.

Ian’s Tangent: 




Astrophiz211-AprilSkyGuide

In Astrophiz 212, 'Space Governance’ we are speaking with Space Lawyer, Ciara Guy, who has worked in the Justice system and Magistrates Courts. 

After completing her first law degree, she is now an assistant astronomer at Battlesteads Observatory and is majoring in Space Law for her Master's Law degree at Northumbria University. 

Her specialties are Dark Skies and Mega-constellations of proliferating low earth-orbit satellites.

Astronomy Astrophiz 212-CiaraGuy-Space Governance

May Moon Phases:

May 4 ~1st Quarter
May 11 ~ Moon at Apogee
May 13 ~ Full Moon 
May 20 ~ Last Quarter Great for star gazing
May 26 ~ Moon at Perigee
May 27 ~ New Moon Great for star gazing

What’s Up in May?

Planets:
Evening Skies
Jupiter is difficult to see this month
Mars is visible, and nice to see just an hour after sunset
Uranus will return in a couple of months

Most of the planetary action is in the morning sky, Mercury Saturn and Venus are the standouts, but Mercury is lost in the twilight by mid month, returning to evening skies in June.

May 2  ~ Asteroid Vesta (almost a dwarf planet) is at opposition (closest to earth) May 8 ~ Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower should be pretty good this year (debris from Halley’s Comet) Great meteor spotting tips in the audio

Will TCrB go Nova this month? Keep watching

Ian recommends VESTA watching with naked eye under dark skies, in Binocs & ’scopes in the ‘Burbs. See his Astroblog, the Astrophiz FB page or Southern Skywatch for photos and easy finder charts

Ian’s Tangent: The Clouds of Mars.
Ian tells us how earth's clouds were named, and about the clouds on other planets

Websites to visit:
* https://cloudatlas.wmo-DOT-int/en/home.html
* https://europlanet-society-DOT-org/cloud-atlas-of-mars-showcases-array-of-atmospheric-phenomena/

( * copy & paste, then replace the DOT with an actual dot)

Ian’s Astrophotography Challenge: Capture asteroid VESTA on your phone or camera. Great tips in the audio
_______________________________

Next Up on Astrophiz:

In two weeks were zooming over 14 timezones to speak with Dr Anya Nugent who is an enthusiastically awesome astrophysicist who does exciting research into some of the most powerful phenomena in our universe.  You’ll love her stories about how she uses some of the world's most powerful optical and near-infrared observatories to hunt down the host galaxies of supernovae, kilonovae, and gamma-ray bursts to understand their unique origins … see you in two weeks

Astrophiz 213: Dr Ian Musgrave's MaySkyGuide

Please meet Dr Anya Nugent … she is amazing … and she has some beautiful stories for us … let’s hear all about unbelievably powerful Gamma Ray bursts and their host galaxies from an amazing Harvard and Smithsonian astrophysicist who uses incredible observatories like CHANDRA, XMM-Newton, ALMA, CHIME, MEERKAT, the VLA and even our old friend Hubble … to reveal new understandings of how our universe works.

Astrophiz214-DrAnyaNugent

Astrophiz 95: Steve Olney: From Ham Radio to Radio Astronomy - "The 2019 Vela Glitch"
Feature Interview: This amazing interview features Steve Olney who has established the Hawkesbury Radio Astronomy Observatory in his backyard.  Steve has constructed a Yagi antenna array, coupled it with a receiver and observed a pulsar 900 LY away and generated data that has enabled him to be the only person on the planet to observe Vela’s 2019 glitch in radio waves as it happened.

In the sky for observers and astrophotographers:

Our regular feature ‘What’s Up Doc’ is with Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave. He previews the excellent planet viewing opportunities over the next two weeks, and Venus and Jupiter have close encounters with the moon. Ian gives tips on observing the little known Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower which has a predicted rate of 400 per hour this year on Thursday night, November 21-22, from a radiant near the star Procyon. It peaks around 04:50 UT (around 3 pm in Australia) and while this is during daylight hours for us, it is possible the peak may arrive early or late so observations on the morning of the 21st and 22nd from around 1 am are encouraged. Observations in the Northern hemisphere are favoured with a higher radiant. In the UK the peak is a 4:50am before dawn, and on East coast USA at 11:50pm and on the West coast at 8:50pm

In the News:

On Nov. 11, SpaceX launched 60 more  "Starlink" satellitesand  has just asked the International Telecommunication Union to arrange spectrum for 30,000 additional Starlink satellites.
***Our Next Episodes:***

Our very next and final 2019 episode is our ‘Are We Alone’ feature episode with Professor Geraint Lewis, and then we take a well-earned summer holiday break over the festive season. 

In the New Year, we will talk with Dr Belinda Nicholson over in the UK, Wael Farah on his use of AI to capture FRB signals from MOST in real time, and we have lined up alien communication specialist researcher Daniel Oberhaus, who is the author of his new book ‘Extraterrestrial Languages’. We’re also hoping to have Clint Jeffrey on the show to talk about ‘First Light’ for the Astronomical Society of Victoria’s new 8m Radio Telescope up in a quiet zone in central Victoria.

And then in March 2020 we will have our milestone 100th episode and we are thrilled to confirm Dr Vanessa Moss will be our guest for this special episode.

Astrophiz 95 - Steve Olney - From Ham radio to Radio Astronomy

Astrophiz 115: Rami Mandow ~ Planet X

Our featured guest for November is the fabulous Rami Mandow, the founder of SpaceAustralia.com, the creator of an amazing Citizen Science project that has teams from all over the world constructing amateur radio telescopes and Rami is doing his Masters in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Swinburne University. 

In this episode we are treated to all his innovative work and his research into the existence (or not) of Planet X and we hear hints about the release of his Parkes Pulsar timing research with prominent astrophysicists from Swinburne.

Rami also gives us the inside story on 'science and social media' and his special mate Max.

Astrophiz115: Rami Mandow-PlanetX

For this Episode we are featuring the life and remarkable achievements of Dr Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who lived for 80 years from the start of the 20th century, and gave the world a legacy of astronomical breakthroughs that forever changed the way that we understand stars and what they are made of.
We remember her as producing "the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in Astronomy and the most eminent woman astronomer of all time.” During a time when science was largely a men’s club, she had figured out the chemical makeup of the stars, and her work is also credited with paving the way for us to develop our understanding of stellar evolution.

Vale Dr Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin 1900-1979

Astrophiz 120 - Dr Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Astrophiz "Exceptional Interviews with exceptional scientists."
Brendan sometimes even gets how and why science works, and each month he conducts in-depth interviews with leading astro and space researchers. In each episode we feature Astrophysicists, Space Scientists, Particle Physicists, Data scientists, Antenna engineers, Instrument scientists, optical & radio astronomers, Satcomm engineers, project leaders and aurora hunters. For Astrophotographers, also each month we also hear from Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave who tells us when, where and what to look for in the sky over the coming weeks and explains astronomical phenomena in ‘Ian’s Tangent’.
This ongoing series has taken us through the history, theory and practice of radio astronomy from Faraday to Gravitational waves. Each episode includes the latest news roundup in this golden age of astrophysics. Enjoy! (& donate if you wish to help keep this podcast ad-free)

Astrophiz "Interviews with exceptional scientists"

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