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May 2007

May 2007 is when everything changes. Well, not quite everything. The Jodcast may have gone twice-monthly, but we remain in roughly the same cheesy format as before. This month we've gone international with Nick joining us from New Zealand and Tim from Chile. In our main interview, Nick chats with Carole Mundell about the Liverpool Telescope and how it is being used to observe hugely energetic gamma-ray bursts. Later we find out what Tim is doing with the New Technologies Telescope at La Silla in Chile. As usual we get the latest astronomy news from Megan and Ian tells us what we can see in the northern skies during May. Now, we must go and sort out our containment fields as they seem to be on the blink. It's probably something to do with phase variances in the deflector grid.

Panoramic view of La Silla Observatory (Credit: Tim O'Brien)
Panoramic view of La Silla Observatory (Credit: Tim O'Brien)

The long (and not winding) road from La Serena to La Silla (Credit: Tim O'Brien)
The long (and not winding) road from La Serena to La Silla (Credit: Tim O'Brien)

La Silla telescopes as the Sun begins to set (Credit: Tim O'Brien)
La Silla telescopes as the Sun begins to set (Credit: Tim O'Brien)

The Moon and the 1.52-m Spectrographic telescope with sunset colours (Credit: Tim O'Brien)
The Moon and the 1.52-m Spectrographic telescope with sunset colours (Credit: Tim O'Brien)

The mountains to the northeast of La Silla (Credit: Tim O'Brien)
The mountains to the northeast of La Silla (Credit: Tim O'Brien)

Tim tops up his tan from the VDU called BOB (Broker for Observation Blocks) in the telescope control room (Credit: Tim O'Brien)
Tim tops up his tan from the VDU called BOB (Broker for Observation Blocks) in the telescope control room (Credit: Tim O'Brien)

Tim and Neil discuss the finer points of MyCn18 (Credit: Tim O'Brien)
Tim and Neil discuss the finer points of MyCn18 (Credit: Tim O'Brien)

Discover your inner geek and check out the seeing conditions and met data from our first night of observations (Credit: Tim O'Brien)
Discover your inner geek and check out the seeing conditions and met data from our first night of observations (Credit: Tim O'Brien)

The NTT and Venus looking rather like a 21st century Mayan pyramid (Credit: Tim O'Brien)
The NTT and Venus looking rather like a 21st century Mayan pyramid (Credit: Tim O'Brien)

The news - May 2007

In the news this month: Hubble celebrates its 17th birthday with the release of an image of star formation in the Carina nebula, a planet is found in the habitable zone of a nearby star and AIM hopes to shed light on noctilucent clouds.

The News in Chinese - May 2007

Notícias em Português - Maio 2007

Hubble celebra 17 anos. Planeta encontrado há volta de uma estrela. Nuvens polares vão ser estudadas. Nova fonte de raios cósmicos discoberto. Associacão Internacional para Céu Escuro anuncia primeiro parque

اخبار به فارسى

Interview with Dr Carole Mundell (Liverpool John Moores University)

Nick Rattenbury talked to Carole Mundell about gamma ray bursts. We find out what the current ideas are about the causes of these hugely bright objects. Carole describes the international effort, with a huge array of automatic and robotic telescopes, to observe them as quickly as possible once they happen; even if that means being sent text messages and emails in the middle of the night!

The night sky for May 2007

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the night sky from northern latitudes during May 2007. From around the middle of May, in northern England, it doesn't get truely dark for about six weeks. As the Sun sets, in the south west we see the constellation of Gemini and high in the south is Leo. Between them is the constellation Cancer and with binoculars you may see a very nice star cluster called the Beehive Cluster. On the boundary between Leo and Cancer is Saturn. Between the bright star Spica - in the constellation Virgo - and the tail of Leo, is the Realm of the Galaxies. These galaxies form part of the Virgo Cluster, part of the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies but sadly you'll need a telescope to see them. Overhead is Ursa Major containing the asterism called the Plough (Big Dipper). If you look at the central star of the tail of the bear, you'll see it has a companion. These stars - Mizar and Alcor - make the Horse and Rider. Mizar is itself a double star and these can be seen with a telescope. Saturn is about 11 degrees to the right of the brightest star of Leo; Regulus. In a small telescope you will easily see Saturn's largest Moon Titan. Around the last week of the month it will be possible to see Mercury around 30 minutes after sunset between where the Sun has set and the planet Venus. Mars is barely visible, just before dawn, close to the south-eastern horizon. The disc is just 5 arcseconds across so there are no details to be seen. Venus is currently dominating the western sky after sunset. On the 19th May, a thin crescent Moon is just three degrees from the planet Venus and will make a very nice pairing with your eyes or a pair of binoculars.

Show Credits

News:Megan Argo
News in Chinese:Dandan Xu
Notícias em Português - Maio 2007:Valerio Ribeiro
اخبار به فارسى:Mohammad Ebadinejad
Interview:Nick Rattenbury talked to Dr Carole Mundell
Night sky this month:Ian Morison
Presenters:David Ault, Stuart Lowe, Nick Rattenbury and Tim O'Brien
Editors:Stuart Lowe, David Ault and Megan Argo
Cover Art:Polarisation image of a gamma-ray burst taken just 203 seconds after the start of the explosion using RINGO on the Liverpool Telescope. CREDIT: Liverpool Telescope/Liverpool John Moores University
Website:Stuart Lowe
Respectable Jodrell Bank Researcher:Dr Anita Richards
Survey Winner:John Cave (Merseyside, UK)
Intro/Outro script:Steve Anderson, David Ault and Stuart Lowe
Special Guest Voice:John Barrowman from the BBC's Torchwood
Intro voice:Steve Anderson
Outro voices:Ian Manfield, Eric Wilcock, Tom Muxlow, Megan Argo and David Ault