Astrophiz 94: Amanda Wherrett - ANU Siding Spring Observatory

Astrophiz 94: Amanda Wherrett: ANU Siding Spring Observatory This wonderful episode features Amanda Wherrett from the Australian National University and who conducts wonderful tours of the Siding Spring Observatory in remote New South Wales in Australia. Amanda shares with us the absolute best observing tip you will hear in your whole life, and she tells us all about this stunning mountain and it’s remarkable array of observatories, research telescopes and instruments and the astronomers who work there. Listen: https://soundcloud.com/astrophiz/astrophiz-94-amanda-wherrett-anu-siding-spring-observatory In the sky for observers and astrophotographers: Our regular feature ‘What’s Up Doc’ is with Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave. He previews the excellent planet viewing opportunities over the next two weeks, and in ‘Ian’s Tangent’ he tells us about Asteroid Hygiea, the 4th largest body and possibly soon to be promoted to ‘dwarf planet’ in the asteroid belt. Ian explains our classification criteria for dwarf planets and upcoming viewing opportunities for Hygiea and Vesta. In the News: .1. Dr AG Suvorov, University of Tubingen in Germany in ArXiv gives more hints about the mechanism for repeating FRBs. No definitive answers yet, but definitely edging closer. Watch this space. .2. “Nasa's Voyager 2 sends back its first message from interstellar space” .3. A final word: If anyone has an answer to the current debate about the Hubble Constant, please let me know. Next Episodes: Our very next episode is a fabulous interview with Steve Olney, the amateur radio astronomer who captured the 2019 Vela Glitch in radio frequencies as it happened, and who we talked about in Episode 93 with Dr Jim Palfreyman. This is Citizen Science writ large and another great episode to look forward to. Following Steve, you can look forward to our first ‘Are We Alone’ feature episode with Professor Geraint Lewis, and then we take a well-earned summer holiday break over the festive season. In the New Year, we will talk with Dr Belinda Nicholson over in the UK, Wael Farah on his use of AI to capture FRB signals from MOST in real time, and we have lined up alien communication specialist researcher Daniel Oberhaus, who is the author of his new book ‘Extraterrestrial Languages’. And then we have our milestone 100th episode and we are thrilled to confirm Dr Vanessa Moss will be our guest for this special episode.