This is a SloohRadio Podcast of Bob Berman’s “Strange Universe” recorded on December 8th, 2008. In this episode, Bob discusses upcoming astronomical events including:
- December 12th 2008 when the moon will be at its closest to Earth since 1993
- Upcoming conjunctions
- The truth about the “leap second”
- Fuzzy and sharp shadows
As he usually does, Bob interacts with the Slooh chatroom and answers their astronomy and science questions.
Remember, in addition to using the controls below, you can subscribe to SloohRadio audio podcasts by:
- Using ITunes: Go to the ITunes Store (Slooh podcasts are free!) and search for “Slooh.” Follow the on-screen instructions to subscribe.
- Using other “podcatching” software, point it to: http://www.slooh.com/blog/?feed=podcast
12/8/2008 SloohRadio: Bob Berman's Strange Universe [63:24m]:
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In this broadcast of Bob Berman’s Strange Universe, recorded on November 24th, 2008, Bob discusses:
- The pinwheel galaxy and our local group
- M81 in Ursa Major
- The facts and mysterious dark history of M43, the Pleiades
- Why you pass M43 driving on the road every day
- Using paper and pen to:
- understand the scale of low-earth-orbit
- perceive the relative size of Betelgeuse
- calculate the Titius-Bode Law - amazing but silly
- solve the Lorenz Transformation: understanding Einstein’s Special Thanksgiving Theory of Relativity
- 360 degrees - the story behind it’s usage
- Systems of measurement
As always, Bob interacts with the chat room and comments on the Slooh missions, when the observatory is open.
Keep Looking Up!
Slooh Radio Bob Berman's Strange Universe 11/24/2008 [70:04m]:
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The holiday season is upon us again! In this SloohRadio Podcast of Phil Harrington’s “Star Watch,” Phil explains what to look for in a new telescope by considering the budget, recipient’s age, experience with astronomy, and of course, the size of their car! In addition to some specific manufacturers’ recommendations, Phil also explains what to avoid when buying a ’scope and gives sound fundamentals to the selection process.
While this is well-timed for the holidays, Phil’s advice is valuable for any occasion where you want to purchase a new telescope (including one for you!) He also talks about the joy we all share when we have both our own equipment and the unique experience of Slooh.
This podcast is available for download below, and is also published on ITunes and all major podcast listings. Remember you can subscribe to our podcast feed from ITunes for automatic delivery of all SloohRadio Podcasts.
Keep Looking Up!
Phil Harrington's Star Watch 11/9/2008 - Slooh Radio [62:22m]:
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To inaugurate the publishing of selected SloohRadio episodes here on the Slooh Skylog, we picked a great recent episode of Bob Berman’s Monday night SloohRadio classic, “Bob Berman’s Strange Universe.” Those of you who’ve been around awhile know that Bob’s show has been a regular feature here on Slooh (with a few interruptions!) since almost the beginning.
In this episode, Bob interacts with the Slooh Chat Room to explore a wide range of topics including:
- The nature of space. What we think is empty…isn’t!
- Commentary on Slooh Missions as they happen (audio only, but video in the future!)
- The causality of certain Earth phenomena and the possible role of the Moon.
- The official Bob Berman pronunciation guide for the 20 brightest stars.
- “Stump the Chat Room” where Bob challenges the Slooh members to identify sometimes-obscure astronomy and physics terms.
As always, Bob employs his frenzy of factual connections and insights to show us that the Universe is a graceful place after all.
You can link directly to the podcast using the links at the end of this article. Even better, you can subscribe to this and future podcasts using a number of techniques:
- If you use ITunes, simply search for “Slooh” in the Podcast section of the ITunes Store or click here (don’t worry, Slooh podcasts are free!). Once you find the entry, click on the subscribe button. Anytime we publish a new podcast, ITunes will automatically download it and, if so equipped, sync it to your IPhone or IPod.
- For other “Podcatching” software, simply point it to: http://www.slooh.com/blog/?feed=podcast
For now we will be publishing podcasts here on the blog. Eventually, we’ll move them to an archive page for future posterity.
Watch for more podcasts, and even video podcasts, in the near future; and of course, Keep Looking Up!
Slooh Radio Bob Berman's Strange Universe 11/03/2008 [66:12m]:
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Tomorrow evening, September 25th, Slooh SkyGuide Marleen Bryan will treat us to another Guided Missions Webcast, featuring live missions through the Slooh telescopes. The show will begin at 8:00 pm EDT / 00:00 UTC and will focus on a nice variety of celestial targets, including a planet, an asteroid, two different types of nebulae, and a famous open star cluster. You’ll be able to observe these targets live through the Mission Interface as you watch and hear Marleen tell you more about them through the webcast.
For those of you who missed Tuesday’s webcast, these programs are accessed here on the Slooh SkyLog. They cannot be heard through the Mission Interface Radio. To watch a Slooh Webcast and Live Missions simultaneously, simply open this page in a new browser window, minimize it to show only the webcast window, and then place it beside your Mission Interface window. You can see an example of resized windows by clicking here. You can also visit the Slooh chatroom for assistance.
NOTE: Because missions are offline to poor observing conditions, tonight’s show will be presented as a virtual tour.
AFTERSHOW NOTE: If you missed tonight’s live webcast, you can watch the recorded version, below. The presentation’s virtual missions, for your Slooh images reference, included NGC 1501 Camel’s Eye, Vesta 4, Neptune, NGC 1579 Northern Trifid, IC 1805 Heart Nebula, Mel 25 Hyades, and NGC 1232 Blue Spiral.
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On Saturday, September 20th, 2008 Slooh Radio featured a live webcast from our Mt. Teide Observatory on Tenerife in the Canary Islands
As many readers know, Slooh Telescope Maestro Paul Cox has been on location in the Canary Islands installing our new domes and replacing one of the existing telescopes with a half-meter instrument. Paul has been documenting the project on the Slooh Forum as well as his own blog. In this webcast Paul discusses the status of the projects, life on Mt. Tiede, and his collection of astronomical bruises.
Due to some technical issues, the first 7 minutes of the archive were not recorded. Also, the audio of the questions are low, but Paul’s responses are self-explanatory. Valuable lessons from our first webcast!
The archive of this event is now available as a flash-based web page.
For those of you that wanted to see the video teaser we created there is a link here. The plan is to have the audio available as a podcast withing the next few days. However, I wanted to make the raw video and audio available for you now!
Paul, Tavi and I are already planning our next webcast as Paul makes progress on the projects. We hope to have some better video next time and get additional exclusive insights from Paul.
Thanks to Paul Cox for making this a very interesting program.
Rob Keown
Keep Looking Up!
