Astrophiz Podcasts

Astrophiz 153: Dr Ian Musgrave’s August SkyGuide. Enjoy your regular monthly treat of viewing tips for all naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers from Dr @IanfMusgrave, amateur astronomer, molecular pharmacologist and toxicologist. In Ian’s Tangent, we are given solid tips on how we can observe orbital motion in Alpha Centauri with quite modest equipment, and Ian references comparisons with the apparent motions of Barnard’s star and 61 Cygni. Enjoy!

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!

Astrophiz 151: Dr Ian Musgrave’s July SkyGuide. Enjoy your regular monthly treat for all naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers from Dr @IanfMusgrave, amateur astronomer, molecular pharmacologist and toxicologist. Listen: Ian gives us the dates of the moon phases and the best times to observe planets, clusters and deep sky objects along with the exact time to view the fully illuminated full moon. Morning skies continue to be a treat worth getting up early for, and Saturn begins is now visible in evening skies. Reddish Mars is easily viewed as it is brightening as it approaches opposition later in the year and Mars and Uranus have a close encounter at the end of the month and will be very close together on the 1st of August. In the evening skies, Scorpius is a highlight, looking magnificent with Antares as its red centrepiece, and below the Scorpion’s sting, you can identify the centre of the galaxy via the ’Teapot of Sagittarius’. Ian also talks you through the opportunity to vi

Astrophiz 150: Floor Broekgaarden~Gravitational Waves Floor is an amazing astrophysicist doing her PhD at Harvard in Massachusetts in Gravitational Wave research. She is a prolific and effective ambassador for early career astronomers. Floor is a well-established mentor and supervisor for astrophysics students and has been published in highly respected journals. You will hear about her most recent papers where she investigates the first two black hole–neutron star mergers detected in gravitational waves as well as her paper on binary black hole mergers. Floor does beautiful GW research and powerful outreach and has done a wonderful interview here for your enjoyment.

Astrophiz 149: Dr Ian Musgrave’s June SkyGuide. Enjoy your regular monthly treat for all naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers from Dr @IanfMusgrave, amateur astronomer, molecular pharmacologist and toxicologist. Ian gives us the dates of the moon phases and the best times to observe planets, clusters and deep sky objects. Morning skies continue to be a treat worth getting up early for, and Saturn begins to be visible low in the East in evening skies by mid-June, but is still best for telescopic viewing high in the morning skies for a while In Ian’s Tangent, he continues his theme to discuss the diverse naming of celestial objects, in this case the way we may be over-hyping and creating misleading expectations in new sky observers with the over-use of terms like ‘Supermoons’. A great and thoughtful listen for June. Thanks Ian

Astrophiz 148 - Massive Stars - Dr Poojan Agrawal Dr Poojan Agrawal is a Postdoc Research Associate at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh USA. The focus of her research is on the lives of massive stars and their role in determining the evolution of stellar systems/stellar populations and star clusters, and given the rarity and short lives of massive stars, she obviously like a challenge! In her PhD thesis, “Massive stars and gravitational waves: Bridging the gap with a new method for rapid stellar evolution” she has identified some serious limitations in current modelling systems and has developed a new modelling system that allows fellow researchers to easily use different sets of stellar evolution tracks, computed with different input parameters. You will love this episode and Dr Poojan’s work!

Astrophiz 147: Dr Ian Musgrave’s May SkyGuide. Enjoy your regular monthly treat for all naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers from @IanfMusgrave, amateur astronomer, molecular pharmacologist and toxicologist. Ian gives us the dates of the moon phases and the best times to observe planets, clusters and deep sky objects. A special treat that is worth getting up early for is the Venus-Jupiter conjunction on May 1st, and hear about further opportunities during May to observe planetary lineups in the morning skies as well as seeing a meteor shower provide by debris from Halley’s Comet. In Ian’s Tangent, he continues his theme to discuss the diverse naming of celestial objects, in this case the way the different cultures from both hemispheres have contributed to the naming and re-naming of stars and constellations. In doing so, we give a special shoutout to Krystal DeNapoli and Karlie Noon who have just released their book on Indigenous Astronomy ‘Sky Country’. Highly recommended.

You’ll love this wonderful interview with Accelerator Physicist Dr Suzie Sheehy, who is doing groundbreaking work with particle accelerators to develop compact instruments that are changing the way nuclear medicine is used in clinical treatments worldwide. Dr Suzie divides her time between her research groups at the University of Oxford where she is Visiting Lecturer, and the University of Melbourne where she is a Senior Lecturer and Baker/ANSTO Fellow in Medical Accelerator Physics. For Science lovers, get her new book; it’s a ‘must have’ for every library. “The Matter of Everything ~ Twelve Experiments that changed our world” Out online or in your fav bookstore.

Astrophiz 145: Dr Ian Musgrave’s April SkyGuide Enjoy your regular monthly treat for all naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers from Dr @IanfMusgrave, amateur astronomer, molecular pharmacologist and toxicologist. Ian gives us the dates of the moon phases and the best times to observe planets, clusters and deep sky objects In Ian’s Tangent, he continues his theme to discuss the problems with our descriptions of celestial objects, in this case the way the size of these objects are compared with the size of familiar animals. eg recently an asteroid’s size was expressed as ‘the size of a giraffe’. Not helpful, but Ian suggests an alternative.

Duane is based in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne and is part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3D. This episode covers Duane’s entry into science and culture then his journey as a graduate from the University of Missouri-Columbia who ventured down to Sydney Australia to do his Masters Degree by Research followed by his Doctorate in Cultural Astronomy at Macquarie University, and without too many spoilers on his magnificent book, we cover his epic adventure into Indigenous Astronomy which represents 14 years of research and 4 years of writing for Duane and the co-authors he worked with. With Allen & Unwin, this amazing newly-released book is called ‘The First Astronomers ~ How Indigenous Elders read the Stars’ which he co-authored with 6 First Nations Elders and Knowledge Holders, including Yuwaalaraay Senior Law Man Ghillar Michael Anderson, who is the only surviving member and one of the founders of the original Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside Parliament in Ca

Enjoy your regular monthly treat for all naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers from Dr Ian Musgrave, amateur astronomer, molecular pharmacologist and toxicologist. Ian gives us the dates of the moon phases and the best times to observe clusters and deep sky objects and tips and times around the coming equinox to observe the Zodiacal Light. We also get a great challenge for those who have infrared filters on their telescopes. See if you can emulate the Parker Solar Probe and pick out some surface features on the dark side of Venus while it is in its crescent phase. In Ian’s Tangent, he continues his theme to discuss the problems with our naming of celestial objects, in this case the naming of different sized exoplanets. And there are some peculiarities in the size groupings of exoplanets discovered so far. Currently with exoplanets we have named Super Earths, Super Jupiters, Hot Jupiters, Hot Super Mars, Super Earths, Mini Neptunes, Hot Mini Earths, and then Ian introduces us

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 o

Astrophiz 141: February SkyGuide ~ Dr Ian Musgrave Here is our regular monthly treat for all naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers from Dr Ian Musgrave, avid amateur astronomer, molecular pharmacologist and toxicologist. First up, Ian takes us through the dates of the moon phases for the month, noting the best times for observations of constellations and clusters without the glare of the moon. We can also look forward to some very nice views of the crescent moon ‘dancing’ past planets and viewing some very nice bright planets line up in the mornings before dawn. In Ian’s Tangent, he explains various ‘star naming’ scams and the ridiculous practice of purchasing exoplanet NFTs and the harms that NFT server farms do to our planet

Meet Dr Natalie Hinkel, who is a Planetary Astrophysicist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Natalie studies the elements in stars and how the stars’ element compositions impact the interior structure and mineralogy of their orbiting exoplanets. She has created an amazing catalog of stellar element abundances, the Hypatia Catalog, a easily searchable database which explores chemical and physical stellar data as well as the likely planetary properties of their exoplanets. You can see it at hypatiacatalogDOTcom The Hypatia Catalog has evolved into an amazing research bonanza for exoplanet, geology, and exobiology researchers now, and for decades to come.

Astrophiz139: Holiday SkyGuide Here is our regular monthly treat for all naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers from Dr Ian Musgrave, amateur astronomer, molecular pharmacologist and toxicologist. We can look forward to some views of the crescent moon ‘dancing’ past planets and viewing some very nice bright planets over the December and January holiday period. In western evening skies, magnificent Venus, Saturn, Jupiter are resplendent, and Ian gives us tips on spotting Mercury. He also expertly guides us to observations of a ‘Xmas Comet’ and an occultation of Mars. In Ian’s Tangent, he continues his theme to discuss the problems with our definitions of celestial objects and the challenge of whether an object in our skies could be a planet, moon, sun, comet, asteroid or minor planet. Our current definitions may be selling us short.

Dr Jill Tarter is Emeritus Chair for SETI Research at the SETI Institute. Jill has served as Project Scientist for NASA’s SETI program and has since spent 35 years at the SETI Institute, a non-profit organization she helped launch in 1984. She and the SETI team are scanning space for signals that could reveal intelligent alien life. She recently stepped down as the Director of Center for SETI Research after 28 years and is one of the most lauded and accomplished SETI researchers on our planet. She has been named as one of the Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and the inspiration for the character of Ellie Arroway in Carl Sagan’s Contact, a role played by Jodie Foster in the film.

A monthly treat for naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers. Three nice bright planets again this month. Once again in evening skies, magnificent Venus, Saturn and Jupiter Over in the West, Venus is spectacular. For Norther hemisphere observers, the Andromeda galaxy is looking magnificent under dark skies, while in the Southern Hemisphere the Magellanic Clouds are simply beautiful. In Ian’s Tangent, he continues his comet theme to tell us about spectacular comets and in particular the size of comets and how some comets with a small nucleus can still be magnificent in our skies, depending on their proximity to the sun, how often the comet visits the inner solar system and its proximity to the earth’s orbit. Ian goes on to discuss various definitions and the challenge of whether an object in our skies could be a comet, asteroid or minor planet

Today we bring you the promised Part Two of our interview with Amazing Fullbright Scholar and accomplished exoplanet hunter Jake Clark. Since Jake.s August interview, he has moved to Cthe US to continue his PhD research with Dr Natalie Hinkel of Hypatia Catalogue fame. Here in Part 2 of Jake’s Interview, we hear how he looked at 47,000 stars from the GALAH, TESS and Gaia data releases and found that over a third of those stars could host rocky earth-like planets and how Jake has helped discover 12 new exoplanets. We hear how the spectral signatures of stars can give us a variety of different chemical abundance ratios and thus give us an idea of what sort of rocky worlds we can expect to find orbiting those stars.

Your monthly treat for naked-eye celestial observers, telescopers, and astrophotographers. Four nice bright planets again this month. Once again in Eastern evening skies, magnificent Saturn and Jupitergrace our skies Over in the West, Venus is spectacular and Mercury is sinking into the twilight For early risers, Saturn and Jupiter are still looking fine over in the West. In Ian’s Tangent, Ian continues on his theme with comets and asteroids, and how explosive collisions between celestial visitors to our solar system have been observed, mis-observed and documented throughout history.

You’ll love this interview with Dr Cherry Ng, who is an amazing researcher at the Dunlap Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto in Canada. For her PhD Cherry discovered an amazing 60 pulsars using the Parkes Dish in Australia, she allocates time on the Murchison Widefield Array, does fabulous outreach work and is now discovering FRBs with the CHIME radio telescope in British Columbia. Dr Ng is also the Project Scientist for the SETI Breakthrough Listen on the MeerKAT Telescope in South Africa, as well as for upcoming systems on the Very Large Array. In this interview we hear the inside story of Cherry’s science journey, the amazing capabilities of the CHIME instrument and how Cherry uses CHIME for FRB hunting, including the strategies and techniques used to exploit information that is streaming in from CHIME at 13 terabits per second