The Moon Is A Trip

Fun with the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal… (link, YouTube, Discuss)

Thanks to Lunarover for bringing it to our attention in the Apollo entry for Slackerpedia Galactica.

Hot Astronomers [OF]

In search of hot astronomers at the AAS meeting…(direct link or via YouTube)

Hosts: Michael and Tanya
Camera and editing: Travis

Special shout out to special correspondent Tanya for helping us with this serious and important mission.

This was recorded at the 209th meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, WA. Michael, Tanya and Travis wandered the main poster hall looking for hot astronomers asking the question of the day: do looks hurt or hinder a career in a geek field?

Meanwhile, Aaron and Doug were stuck wondering: how did we miss out on this sweet gig?!?

Discuss in the forums here.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

As posted over on our AAS blog, we did a quick interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson at the meeting (click here). He is a very smart and very funny guy and he was very kind to give us a few minutes of his time. I wouldn’t say he was mobbed at the meeting, per se, but I didn’t see him alone the whole time.

Neil deGrasse Tyson interview (MP4, 25.3M, 4:18)

YouTube version. 

Optical SETI @ Oak Ridge Observatory

We have a brief tour of the Optical SETI telescope at Oak Ridge Observatory. Get it on the feed or via this YouTube link.

Discuss via this thread in the forums. 

3 Questions. Question 2: Are there extra-terrestrials?

Here is the 2nd part of a 3-part series where we ask people questions. The first question was: should Pluto be a planet? This question is: are there extra-terrestrials? The answer seems to be an overwhelming “yes”.

Watch it now! (6meg MP4 video file)

Most of the people interviewed were attending a meeting of the AAVSO.

Next episode: Nature or nurture?

The Story of V838 Mon

In this video, Rebekah and Travis tell the story of one of the strangest and newest stars in the sky: V838 Mon. Download the video via the podcast feed or view it view the Show Notes.
Thanks to Stuart Lowe at the Astronomy Blog for the V838 Mon animation.

Show notes and more on this episode are available here.

Discuss in our forums here.

3 Questions. Question 1: Should Pluto be a planet?

Here is the 1st part of a 3-part series where we ask people questions. The first question is: should Pluto be a planet? The answer, according to these 11 people, is yes. 6 out of 11 said yes (with one abstention). It shows how contentious
this issue is.

Watch it now! (17meg MP4 video file)

Most of the people on this were attending a meeting of the AAVSO.

Next episode: Are there extraterrestrials?