loader from loading.io

Last Minute Astronomer - December 2023

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Release Date: 12/02/2023

Astronomy Cast  Ep. 773: What Would You Do With $1 Billion For Astronomy? show art Astronomy Cast Ep. 773: What Would You Do With $1 Billion For Astronomy?

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. Streamed live on Nov 9, 2025. We are powerless fans of space exploration. But what if some fool gave us the authority and funding to make our space dreams a reality? Someone asked us what we’d do with a billion dollars. What missions? Which telescopes? But what if we had more? 100 Billion! A trillion! All the monies! You keep asking, and this week we answer you! Come hear what Fraser and Pamela would do if they were given complete control over $1billion that had to be used for astronomy.    This show is supported through people like...

info_outline
Travelers in the Night Eps. 353E & 354E: Peaceful Star & Martian Debris show art Travelers in the Night Eps. 353E & 354E: Peaceful Star & Martian Debris

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. From September 2025. Today's 2 topics: - The Sun is our very own well behaved star. It rises and sets in our sky every day and powers and makes possible all life forms on planet Earth. A new appreciation for our Sun is growing as we learn more about other suns and their families of planets. The Trappist-1 system of 7 planets orbits a dim M type red dwarf star about 40 light years away in the constellation of Aquarius....

info_outline
Folklore - Tokuzou's Star: When the Northern Star Moved show art Folklore - Tokuzou's Star: When the Northern Star Moved

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Hosted by our Director, Avivah Yamani. In Japanese folklore Tokuzou was a great mariner from Osaka who relied on Polaris (as we europeans call it), the North Star for navigation at sea. Then one night his wife saw that it had shifted out of place and she was afraid that her husband wouldn’t be able to find his way back home!   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank...

info_outline
EVSN - Another Potential Dark Matter Particle Isn’t Found show art EVSN - Another Potential Dark Matter Particle Isn’t Found

The 365 Days of Astronomy

From April 21, 2021. Researchers looked for a slowdown in black hole rotational speeds due to the collection of ultralight bosons, but they found nothing, eliminating the hypothetical particle from the list of possible dark matter particles. Plus, neutrino hunting, neutron stars, and a space hurricane.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you!...

info_outline
H’ad Astra Historia - The 2026 Doggett Prize, Part 1 show art H’ad Astra Historia - The 2026 Doggett Prize, Part 1

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Episode 207. Today’s guest: Professor Thomas Hockey, with the University of Northern Iowa, is the recipient of HAD’s 2026 LeRoy E. Doggett Prize, which is awarded biennially to an individual who has significantly influenced the field of the history of astronomy by a career-long effort. In our interview, we’ll hear about his background and explore some of his many achievements. This is the first of multiple episodes presenting our interview with him.   H’ad astra historia is the official podcast for the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society. We’re...

info_outline
Cheap Astronomy - Implausible Engineering: Building A Telescope Big Enough To See Aliens show art Cheap Astronomy - Implausible Engineering: Building A Telescope Big Enough To See Aliens

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Hosted by Steve Nerlich. From October 14, 2024. Episode 5 — Too much is never enough. Cheap Astronomy's vision for space exploration: build whopping-big telescopes and send the robots.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! This...

info_outline
Deep Astronomy - The Amazing Orion Nebula As Seen By Hubble & Spitzer Space Telescope show art Deep Astronomy - The Amazing Orion Nebula As Seen By Hubble & Spitzer Space Telescope

The 365 Days of Astronomy

From Jan 12, 2018. Hosted by Tony Darnell. Like this content? Please consider becoming a patron:  On January 11, 2017 the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescope missions released an amazing flythrough of the Orion Nebula, or M42.  Never before have we had such a detailed look at this naked eye object in two wavelengths.   Using actual scientific imagery and other data, combined with Hollywood techniques, a team at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and the Caltech/Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) in Pasadena, California, has created the best and most...

info_outline
Astronomy Cast Ep. 772: 2025 Gift Guide show art Astronomy Cast Ep. 772: 2025 Gift Guide

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. Streamed live on Nov 9, 2025. It’s time once again for our annual gift giving guide. We’ve got recommendations for books, movies, TV shows, games and of course astronomy gear to satisfy the space nerds in your family. The Christmas season is almost upon us, and with it comes excuses to inject science into the lives of those you love... or ask for them to give you that book, lens, or art print you already know you'll love. In this episode, Fraser and Pamela share the things they think would make good gifts for nerds like us.    This...

info_outline
Travelers in the Night Eps. 351E & 352E: Active Asteroid & Flying Mud Balls show art Travelers in the Night Eps. 351E & 352E: Active Asteroid & Flying Mud Balls

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. From August & September 2025. Today's 2 topics: - When it was first spotted by astronomers at Space Watch on Kitt Peak, 2008 GO98 appeared to be one of many outer main belt asteroids moving through the night sky. 9 years later when my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard observed it with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon it had a coma and a tail like a comet. Active asteroids like 2008 GO98 have asteroid orbits...

info_outline
The Cosmic Savannah Ep. 76: First Ever Live Show Debut at Astronomy Olympics show art The Cosmic Savannah Ep. 76: First Ever Live Show Debut at Astronomy Olympics

The 365 Days of Astronomy

Hosted by Dr. Jacinta Delhaize, Dr. Tshiamiso Makwela & Dr. Daniel Cunnama. Watch the whole show on YouTube! [Editor’s note: Start at 20:28 where the audio starts with some rocking marimba action! The last 5 minutes here are more tunes from the marimba band.] This week, join us for a special live episode from the 2024 IAU General Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, featuring black hole simulations expert Dr. Nicole Thomas and winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics Prof. Brian Schmidt.   Cape Town born Dr. Nicole Thomas returns to The Cosmic Savannah four years after previously...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

Some slight changes to Saturn and Jupiter in the sky, the start of a big change for Venus, and even more rocks fall from the sky this December here on the Last Minute Astronomer, bringing astronomy to normies and nerds, with little time to spare.  Let’s start by talking about the naked eye planets visible this month, the lunar phases, and then the meteor shower and other events, so you can plan ahead better than me. 

 

13th/14th – Geminid Meteor Shower – A VERY good year for this shower, as there is only a thin crescent Moon which sets early.  So get out there and take advantage of the possible 100 meteors per hour!  

When? Really, any time of the night is good, though the closer you are to dawn on the 14th, the better.

Where do I look? The whole sky, but note Gemini is where the radiant is - where the meteors will appear to be coming from. Gemini will be in the East after sunset, South after midnight, West in the morning.

But be well prepared…

  • Commit yourself to staying out at least 20 minutes.
  • Find a dark location and lie down in a reclining chair or hammock
  • Check the weather to see if the skies will be clear 
  • Adapt your eyes to the dark by staying away from light sources or using a red light if you need to look at a star chart or not trip over something.  
  • You never know when a nice meteor will burn up, so take a nice look at the sky in general, noting that the meteors will appear to go from the radiant and outward.
  • Dress warmly! Layers!

 

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can!

Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! 

Every bit helps! Thank you!

------------------------------------

Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. 

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

------------------------------------

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.