Space Junk

Tripods, fork arms, equatorial, polar aligning... what does all this mean and what do you need to know when buying a telescope?  Telescope mounts are a critical component and Dustin and Tony de-mystify all of this for you. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

Radian Telescopes is releasing a new APO refractor designed for imaging that will change the way astrophotography is done.  Small, lightweight and with high quality optics, the Radian Raptor 61 is poised to make a real difference in your wide field imaging. In this episode, Dustin and Trevor go through the design concepts and testing to make this telescope easy to use and enable you to get good results on your first night out astro imaging. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

Observing the Sun through proper solar filters has never been better - or cheaper.  Amateurs have within their grasp solar filters and telescopes that allow us to see detail and activity on the Sun previously available only to professionals.  In this episode, Dustin and Tony discuss getting into solar observations and imaging with Fay Roman, Ben Lombard and Brian Stephens - the team at Lunt Solar Systems that bring high quality solar gear to you. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

David Rowe's optical designs are in some of the best telescopes available to amateur astronomers today.  He designed the Corrected Dall-Kirkham (CDK), a telescope that allows unprecedented wide-field images; he is also the 'R' in the RASA telesccope from Celestron.  Listen to Dave's story in today's episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

In this episode, Dustin and Tony continue their discussion of astro-imaging cameras, specifically, which ones are best for different types of imaging.  Whether you want to take wide-field space scapes, high magnification planetary images, or deep sky objects, we'll cover all of that and more. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

Today's astronomy camera selection is amazing, comprehensive and overwhelming!  The imaging capabilities manufacturers make available at amateurs has never been more sophisticated. Nowadays, you can do virtually any night sky imaging you can imagine with off-the-shelf equipment.  This selection is a double-edged sword though, because while you can do anything and everything these days, knowing where to start can be challenging - and expensive. This mini-series of episodes features all you'll ever need to know about about cameras used for imaging the night sky.  Dustin and Tony will dive deep, using their extensive knowledge base gathered from years of experience to help you get your bearings in this bewildering topic.  Please reach out and let us know what you think! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

Thanks to advances in sensors, software and the implementation of the smartphone, amateur astronomy as a hobby is under going a renaissance.  Complete beginners can now enter the hobby and capture amazing views of the night sky faster and share them with the world easier.  This new class of telescopes also helps the visual observer overcome the inexorable loss of our dark skies due to light pollution.  In this episode, Dustin and Tony discuss their experiences using both telescopes and Dustin also provides some background on the Celestron Starsense accessory for the NexStar line of telescopes. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

We are lucky enough to live in a time when amateur astronomers using off-the-shelf equipment can make meaningful contributions to professional astronomy.  Advances in equipment, detectors and software allow anyone with the interest, to track asteroids, comets and even measure exoplanet light curves.  In this episode, we talk with this new breed of amateur who, from his garage observatory, is helping NASA track asteroids. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

How old were you when you first got interested in space and astronomy?  What did you do to pursue that interest?  In this episode we meet Abigail Bollenbach, a young student just starting out in our hobby who has jumped in with both feet.  When she's not giving presentations at her local astronomy club in Oklahoma or creating planetarium shows, she can be found creating astronomy videos with Astronomy Magazine. In this episode, she tells Tony and Dustin her story of adventure in exploring space and the universe. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

Radian Telescopes is a new company founded by OPT that strives to solve problems of amateur astronomy.  Driven to identifying needs and meeting them with high-quality hardware, Radian is a company all amateur astronomers need to know about.  In this episode, Dustin tells the story of how the company started, its values and what's coming in the future. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

Does Mars have the most overpriced real estate ever?  While going to Mars would be great from a scientific standpoint, would you really want to live there?  Should we go to Mars?  Fraser Cain joins us for the third in a series of episodes discussing life in the universe. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

What is life?  Where should we look for it outside of Earth?  Is life common or rare?  These questions and many more are the daily job of Graham Lau, an astrobiologist who has joined us for this episode of Space Junk! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

This week Dustin and Tony go deep and talk about the nature of reality, what knowledge is and how we can colonize the stars.   --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

Skye Schwartz has a remarkable story to tell, one filled with obstacles overcome and dreams coming into focus.  Skye shares these stories with Tony and Dustin in this episode and we hope you'll find her as amazing as we did. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support

Our guest in this episode works for Planewave Instruments and travels the globe instaling the meter-class telescopes they produce in some of the most amazing locales.  Learn all about his experiences and we take some of your questions from our first-ever live stream of the podcast recording. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spacejunk/support