The Jodcast

At the start of the month ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft plunged into the Moon. We caught up with one of the mission scientists to find out just what the SMART-1 mission's aims were and why it crashed. We also find out about the beginnings of the Universe and how the NASA spacecraft WMAP has helped shed some light on the first 300,000 years. The latest astronomy news includes the naming of 2003UB313, the launch of Solar-B (Hinode) to study the Sun and the latest news from the Mars Rovers and Mars Express. We also find out what you can see in the night sky and Nick gets Tim O'Brien to answer questions about coordinates and viewing the sky.

This month, after all the excitement of the IAU General Assembly planet definition, we stay a bit closer to home and have a tour of the Jodrell Bank Control Room. We find out about the Lovell Telescope winning the BBC unsung landmarks vote and plans for our new Visitor Centre. We get the latest astronomy news which includes geysers on Mars, the impact of ESA's SMART-1 on the Moon and the outcome of the IAU's planet definition. As always we find out what we can see in the night sky this month and Nick and Tim discuss the Moon receding from the Earth and they work out how many stars are larger and smaller than the Sun.

This month's show is all about stars. We talk to Dr Tim O'Brien about a recurrent nova in the constellation of Ophiuchus and Johanna Ashwell - an amateur astronomer and PhD student - tells us about a star that has too much lithium. As ever we get the latest round-up of the news and find out what we can see in the night sky this month. There is news of a star party being held at Jodrell Bank on 12th August from 9pm until midnight and we also mention our exciting plans to podcast from the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly this month.

We get our very own Ian Morison to tell us about the history of SETI and how it will develop in the future plus we talk to the Chairman of Macclesfield Astronomical Society about his interest in astronomy. Tim and Ian answer questions that you've sent in and Ian tells us what we can see in the night sky during July.

In this month's show we talk to Brother Guy Consolmagno (the Vatican Astronomer) and we find out about searches for planets around other stars using telescopes built with parts from eBay. We also try to get answers to questions you've sent in, find out what you can see in the night sky during June and get a round-up of all the latest news.

In this month's show we talk to Ralph Spencer and Matt Strong about eVLBI, find out about the Southern Skywatch website and get a review of a Celestron NexStar 130SLT telescope (sub GBP300/$550) by Ian Morison. We try to get answers to questions you've sent in, find out what you can see in the night sky during May* and get a round-up of all the latest news.

In this month's show we find out about gamma ray bursts with Paul O'Brien, take a tour of the Mt. John Observatory in New Zealand, catch up on NASA's Stardust mission and discover what goes on at the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE). We pose all your difficult questions to Tim O'Brien and find out what you can see in the night sky during April. As a special treat we also get Ian and Tim's commentary from the 29th March total solar eclipse.

In this month's show we have three interviews where we talk to Helen Mason about the SOHO spacecraft, Nick Rattenbury about a newly discovered exoplanet and Mario di Maggio about the Thinktank planetarium. We pose all your difficult questions to Tim O'Brien and find out what you can see in the night sky during March*. We also get a round up of all the latest news in the Universe!

In this month's show we talk to Gerry Gilmore about the Gaia spacecraft and find out why he says the solar system will be oscillating like a jelly. We find out about the recently launched New Horizons mission to Pluto, pose all your difficult questions to Tim O'Brien and find out what you can see in the night sky during February*. We also get a round up of all the latest news from the planets to the closing of the London planetarium.

In this month's show we go on a sound seeing tour of the Lovell Telescope during the winter solstice. On the way we discover why two pulsars orbiting each other is a good thing and what we can see in the night sky this month. Also the latest news on the Stardust mission.