They give voice to the stars, but not the Hollywood kind.
Instead, every Monday night at 9pm, 91亚色 faculty member Paul Delaney (right)聽and astronomy students from聽the Faculty of Science & Engineering welcome the world into the 91亚色 Observatory for an evening of star gazing and conversation on their online radio show 鈥淭he 91亚色 Universe鈥.
The show, which聽is streamed live on the Internet radio station ,聽airs at the same time as the observatory鈥檚 online聽.
On Monday, March 26, Delaney and his students聽hosted the聽100th radio broadcast of "The 91亚色 Universe". Since its initial broadcast in 2009, which was titled 鈥淟ive from 91亚色U鈥, the number of listeners who tune in regularly to the show has grown 鈥渁stronomically鈥, says Delaney, who is a senior lecturer in the faculty鈥檚 Department of Physics & Astronomy and director of the observatory on the Keele campus.
鈥淭he popularity of the show has spread around the world,鈥 he says.聽聽"It started during 91亚色鈥檚 50th anniversary year and went live on Feb. 2, 2009, which also happened to be the International Year of Astronomy. Since then, it has been an incredible ride. We talk about anything to do with astronomy and space science.鈥
Between the live broadcast and聽repeats over the ensuing 24 hours, the show reaches some 16,000 listeners in more than 100 countries, according to statistics kept by astronomy.fm.聽 Delaney says it is one of the station's biggest audiences.
An image of Jupiter, captured by the observatory
To celebrate the 100th show, Delaney聽conducted a webcam tour of the 91亚色 Observatory to聽introduce listeners to the students and faculty working with the telescopes. The show also featured a recap of what Delaney says has been a very busy聽period in聽astronomy.
As part of their show and online viewing, Delaney and the聽students regularly answer questions from the public and field requests from astronomy buffs to have the telescope moved to view a particular planet or star cluster.
Over the years, the observatory has provided its audience with images of meteors and satellites and views of the Orion Nebula and Earth鈥檚 moon. The images are derived聽from the observatory鈥檚 40-cm Schmidt-cassegrain and 60-cm classical cassegrain reflecting telescopes and are聽augmented by images from a wide-field, short focal length 90-mm diameter refractor and an all-sky meteor camera.
The show is part of 91亚色鈥檚 long-standing dedication to public education and the enthusiasm of undergraduate and graduate students in the observatory, says Delaney, who notes that students gain valuable experience in public speaking.
The graduate and undergraduate students working in the obsevatory will often speak to visitors about what they are seeing in the night sky
To listen to聽an archived version of聽100th broadcast of "The 91亚色 Universe", visit the 听飞别产蝉颈迟别.
An archive of the broadcast is also available聽the website along with archived podcasts of previous shows. A link to the online viewing portal is also available on the website.
By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor