Share the Night Sky - Broadcast on KPOO

During the recent Bay Area Science Festival, I had the privilege of sharing the night sky with DJ Marilynn and the listeners of KPOO during a special broadcast on Thursday evening October 22nd. Our hour-long broadcast features many different topics: 

• How to find a good spot for stargazing in the city, and how to prepare for looking at the night sky. 
• How to find planets such as Jupiter, Saturn and Mars this fall and winter, along with the constellation Sagittarius. 
• How to find the Summer Triangle and connect it to the Milky Way. 
• How the view of the sky changes when viewing from different places around the world. 
• How to understand the motion of the constellations in the northern sky, featuring Cassiopeia and the North Star. 
• How to enjoy a view of Orion the Hunter later in the evening. 
• How to further your experience with the night sky. 

Click here to listen to the broadcast. 

Image courtesy of KPOO-FM.

"Journey to the Stars" at the California Academy of Sciences

The latest show at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS), "Journey to the Stars," premiers on September 26th. The CAS, in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York, created an excellent visual and scientific experience for all ages, yielding an impressive work that both teaches and amazes with its sharp, detailed images of the life cycle of stars.

The Morrison Planetarium at the CAS is an all-digital theater with a 75 foot dome that transforms itself into the night sky and transports the audience to the far reaches of the galaxy. I continue to marvel at the way in which new technology and research are being combined by the AMNH and CAS to bring the latest astronomical and cosmological discoveries to mainstream audiences in a way that makes the science interesting and vivid. For example, during "Journey to the Stars" I was very impressed with close-up visits to the Orion Nebula and Helix Nebula in which the audience gets a close-up view of the depth and breadth of these star-forming regions of space. Classroom learning about star formation is one thing; seeing the amazing photographs such as the Pillars of Creation from the Hubble Space Telescope is another; but the interactive view of these places with the advanced digital imaging that you see in "Journey to the Stars" is, in my view, extraordinary.

The show runs many times daily and I strongly urge anyone with an interest in science and astronomy to head out to Golden Gate Park to take in this riveting show.