What's Up in the Sky?

Learn to identify the brightest stars, planets, and constellations overhead each month, as Chabot College Astronomy Professor Scott Hildreth gives you a personal tour of the sky on your iPod or favorite MP3 player.

Each short episode will highlight a few bright objects you can see, without a telescope, around 9 PM at night early in the month, accompanied by some wonderful background music.

While written for observers in the San Francisco Bay Area, and especially for astronomy students at Chabot College in Hayward, California, the podcast will be useful for anyone located anywhere in the world around 40 degrees North Latitude. 

As long as you can find a location outside free from really bright street and city lights, you can enjoy the stars.

Past Episodes

 

• March 2009 MP3  (written transcript)
   

• April 2009 MP3 (written transcript)
   

• May 20009 MP3 (written transcript)
   

• June 2009 MP3 (written transcript)
   

• July 2009 MP3 (written transcript)

Music Featured

March: "Robb" from Reklein and "Distant Memories" from Digital Grey Orchestra & Crystal Audio.

April:  Saul Stokes "Gliders" and "Lighthaus" from Vast; theme from Reklein.

May: Saul Stokes "Gliders" from Vast; "Embedded in Amber" from Villa Galaxia; theme from Reklein.

June: Saul Stokes "Bursts and Blooms" and "Spy Cinema" from Vast; theme from Reklein.

July: Saul Stokes "Bursts and Blooms" and "Spy Cinema" from Vast; theme from Reklein.

Sky Maps to Match the Podcast

April 2009

May 2009

June 2009

July 2009

Learn More about the Stars

A great free monthly star locator, The Evening Sky Map, is available from http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html .

Star name and data information is taken from numerous sources, but one of my favorite is from University of Illinois Professor Emeritus Jim Kaler, available at http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~jkaler/sow/sowlist.html .

Measuring star angles on the sky with your hands is done in many websites.  One I like is available at http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/gem-projects/hm/0203-1-20-follow/wayfinding/findinglatitude.html from the National University of Singapore, created by Less Shugang, Navin Ishwar Dadlani, Victor Tham Changrui, and Ng Chongming.