In this episode:
- An exploration of dark matter stars: What are they, and how could they hypothetically shine without fusion?
- Understanding dormant comets: What defines them, and how can we identify these ancient celestial bodies?
- The mechanics behind gravitational slingshots: How do spacecraft gain speed from planetary gravity, and what role does the planet's rotation play?
- The rise of smart telescopes: Are these automated devices a boon for budding astronomers, or do they undermine traditional astrophotography?
- Personal experiences with smart telescopes and their impact on learning and engagement in astronomy.
Resources & Links:
- [Dark Matter and Dark Energy Overview](NASA) - Insights into these elusive components of the universe.
- [NASA's Comet Research](NASA Comet Missions) - Discoveries and ongoing studies of comets in our solar system.
- [Gravitational Slingshots Explained](NASA's Gravitational Assist) - How spacecraft use gravity to navigate the solar system efficiently.
Join Andrew and Fred Watson as they unravel the complexities of space science, encouraging listeners to explore the universe and engage with the wonders of astronomy. Don't forget to submit your questions for future episodes!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support.
(00:00) This is Space Nuts and we've got questions from our audience
(01:57) Frederick: Greens Goddess started following me some time ago
(02:47) Casey from Colorado says dark matter stars could be incredibly bright
(09:13) Our next question comes from Michael about dark matter
(10:27) What's a dormant comet and how do you detect them
(16:28) Just wondering if you could explain the orbital mechanics behind Slingshots
(22:32) Smart telescopes allow beginners to dive straight into astrophotography
(28:56) Jason: Is there a privacy infringement there? Maybe, yeah
(30:03) Astronomer Fred Watson answers your Space Nuts questions
(32:16) Space Nick Nuts podcast available at Apple Podcasts and Spotify
00:00:00 --> 00:00:01 Professor Fred Watson: Hi there.
00:00:01 --> 00:00:03 Andrew Dunkley: Thank you for joining us. This is Space Nuts
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 and it's a Q and A edition. My name is Andrew
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 Dunkley. What's Q and A stand for? I don't
00:00:09 --> 00:00:11 know, but we've got questions, uh, from our
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 audience, which we will answer.
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 Qa. Oh, there it is.
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 Um, Casey wants to know about dark matter
00:00:18 --> 00:00:20 stars even though they don't exist. And we
00:00:20 --> 00:00:21 can't answer the question.
00:00:21 --> 00:00:22 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, Michael.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 Andrew Dunkley: Um, he's sent one in about dormant
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 comets, uh, which, uh, I found most
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 intriguing. So it'd be interesting to
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 discover what that's about. Uh, Derek is
00:00:33 --> 00:00:35 asking about gravitational slingshots,
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 and Jason is asking what
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 Fred Watson thinks of the new wave of
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 smart telescopes. Ooh.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 Uh, we'll talk about all of that on this
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48 episode of space nuts.
00:00:48 --> 00:00:51 Andrew Dunkley: 15 seconds. Guidance is internal.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:52 10, 9.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 Professor Fred Watson: Ignition sequence start. Space nuts.
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 Andrew Dunkley: 5, 4, 3, 2. 1, 2, 3, 4,
00:00:58 --> 00:01:00 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 Andrew Dunkley: Space nuts. Astronauts report at mill.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:04 Andrew Dunkley: Good.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:07 Andrew Dunkley: And he's, uh, back again to try and sort all
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09 that out. It's Professor Fred Watson Watson,
00:01:09 --> 00:01:11 astronomer at large. Hello, Fred Watson.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 Professor Fred Watson: Hello, Andrew. Very good to see you again.
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 Andrew Dunkley: And you too. It's been minutes.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 Professor Fred Watson: It has. Um, uh, I might add a postscript
00:01:19 --> 00:01:22 to, um, when we recorded the last session.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 Yeah, I just, uh, got back from the annual
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 science meeting of the Astronomical Society
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 of Australia. And I meant to mention that,
00:01:30 --> 00:01:33 um, an old friend of Space Nuts was
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 there and I had dinner with him, um,
00:01:36 --> 00:01:37 on the first night. And that is Peter
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 Verwein, who is our contact in
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 the world of mond. Uh, modified Newtonian
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 dynamics. Yeah. So, uh,
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 terrific. Nice to do. He's still
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 monding, although, um, I think
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 he's had some hurdles to overcome. So
00:01:53 --> 00:01:56 we might have to do an update on that down
00:01:56 --> 00:01:57 the track.
00:01:57 --> 00:01:59 Andrew Dunkley: Well, while we're sending shout outs, I'll
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 send a shout out to an Instagram, um,
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 presence person named the Greens
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 Goddess, Uh, a female golfer who,
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 uh, started following me, I don't know, some
00:02:11 --> 00:02:12 time ago. And I thought, I'll do the honour
00:02:12 --> 00:02:15 of following her back. And, uh, she posted a
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 video of her swing the other day and I noted
00:02:17 --> 00:02:20 a couple of issues with it. So
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 I sent her a note and said, look, you got a
00:02:23 --> 00:02:24 bit of a reverse pivot going there.
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 Try this drill to sort it out.
00:02:29 --> 00:02:30 Anyway, she sent a note back and said, oh,
00:02:30 --> 00:02:33 that's very helpful. By the way, big fan of
00:02:33 --> 00:02:34 Space Nuts.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 Professor Fred Watson: Okay, that's nice.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 Andrew Dunkley: Might have been why she followed me in the
00:02:38 --> 00:02:38 first place.
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 Professor Fred Watson: But anyway, good on the Green Goddess.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:43 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, good for her. All right,
00:02:43 --> 00:02:45 um, shall we answer Some questions,
00:02:45 --> 00:02:45 Fred Watson.
00:02:46 --> 00:02:47 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, we might as well might.
00:02:47 --> 00:02:48 We know we're here.
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 Andrew Dunkley: Let's get into our first one. And it comes
00:02:50 --> 00:02:53 from one of our regular contributors. This is
00:02:53 --> 00:02:53 Casey.
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56 Andrew Dunkley: Hello, Fred Watson, Andrew and Huw. This is
00:02:56 --> 00:02:59 Casey from Colorado. I know
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 that dark matter stars are completely
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 hypothetical at this point. I've read
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 before that they would be some of the
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 brightest objects in the sky. If they do
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 exist though, I was wondering if you could
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 please explain why that is and also how they
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 can get so hot without any fusion.
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 Hope you're both well and thanks for the
00:03:18 --> 00:03:19 podcast.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:21 Andrew Dunkley: Thank you, Casey. I just knocked everything
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 over on my desk, but, um, it'll wash out,
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 um, dark matter stars.
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30 I think somebody's brought these up once
00:03:30 --> 00:03:33 before, if I'm correct in my thinking.
00:03:33 --> 00:03:36 But, um, maybe we should start by
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 trying to explain what they're supposed to
00:03:38 --> 00:03:38 be.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, well, that's right. Uh, um,
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 uh, first of all, Dark matter
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 is still hypothesised, really,
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 notwithstanding, uh, what we're just saying
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 about, um, Peter Verweil. And that is an
00:03:52 --> 00:03:55 alternative theory to try and account for
00:03:55 --> 00:03:58 the, uh, low, um,
00:03:58 --> 00:04:01 the way, uh, the galaxies tell
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 us that there is something there that we
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 can't see. Uh, um, his
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 uh, version of that is something called
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 modified Newtonian dynamics that suggests
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 that accelerations, uh, do not follow the
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 normal Newtonian rules at very low levels.
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 I think that's going into doubt though now.
00:04:19 --> 00:04:22 So I think, I suspect that dark matter
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 is, um, basically
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 consolidating, uh, its position as the
00:04:29 --> 00:04:31 number, um, one theory for why galaxies don't
00:04:31 --> 00:04:33 just fly apart because they've got all this
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 stuff in them that we called out matter. So I
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 think it's true to say, um, that
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 despite a few people looking in other
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43 directions, most of the scientific community
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 believes that we are in a universe
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 whose matter content is dominated by
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 something that we see sort of outweighs
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 normal matter by five to one. Yeah, uh, and
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 it's probably some sort of subatomic particle
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 that we just have not, uh, come to grips with
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 yet. Now, once you accept
00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 the idea of new
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 species of subatomic particles that only
00:05:07 --> 00:05:10 interact with, uh,
00:05:10 --> 00:05:12 everything else through gravity, they don't
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 interact through electromagnetic radiation or
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 any other kind of, uh, particle physics.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:20 It's only gravity that lets us know that
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 these things, uh, these dark matter
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 particles are there, hypothesised still, but
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 likely to be there. Uh, and it's their own
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 gravitational attraction that stops galaxies
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 falling apart or flying apart because they're
00:05:32 --> 00:05:35 rotating too quickly. So that's what dark
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 matter is now, um,
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 on that bare
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 framework or foundation. Scientists have
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 built up some models of what dark matter
00:05:46 --> 00:05:48 particles might be. And
00:05:49 --> 00:05:52 um, in particular there is an
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 idea that if dark matter
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 particles come together, then
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 a bit like matter and antimatter,
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 they would annihilate and
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 basically produce radiation.
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 And that's the idea of a dark matter star
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 that you've got a, uh, hypothetical object,
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 um, bigger than your average solar system.
00:06:15 --> 00:06:16 So they're very large.
00:06:17 --> 00:06:17 Andrew Dunkley: Wow.
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, made of dark matter. Uh, but
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 what makes them shine is the dark matter
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 particles self annihilating.
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 Uh, and there are some
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 pundits who believe
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 that the very first stars that
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 formed when the universe was in its infancy
00:06:38 --> 00:06:41 were actually dark matter stars. Uh,
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 were these ones that are super
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 bright in the sense that they emit a
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 large amount of radiation, but not,
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 not super bright in a way that you
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 might imagine. And that's because they are so
00:06:55 --> 00:06:57 big. Um, they are
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 basically puffed up by the
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03 energy coming from this radiation. Uh,
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06 but because they're so big, their surfaces,
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 uh, are relatively cool. And so
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 what you see is an object in the infrared.
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 Uh, if you're looking out for a dark matter
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 star or what you would see
00:07:20 --> 00:07:21 if they existed.
00:07:21 --> 00:07:22 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, I get it.
00:07:23 --> 00:07:26 Professor Fred Watson: Um, so that's why that's basically where the
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 energy comes from, the annihilation of dark
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 matter particles. Self annihilation.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 Um, but yet
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 they're bright, um, because of
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 basically the amount of radiation
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 that they generate with these, uh, uh,
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 annihilation that makes them bright and they
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 get uh, to something like 10
00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 billion times more
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 energetic than the sun in terms of the
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 energy that they release. Uh, but as I said,
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 it's infrared radiation. So they're really
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 releasing it, um, in the form of
00:08:01 --> 00:08:01 heat.
00:08:01 --> 00:08:04 Andrew Dunkley: So in terms of naked eye observation, you
00:08:04 --> 00:08:04 can't see a thing.
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 Professor Fred Watson: I think that's right, yes. I mean there would
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 also be. If we're seeing them in the early
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 universe, these things will be very highly
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 redshifted. That means their light will not
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 only be infrared, but it'll be even redder
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 than red infrared, uh, because of the
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 expansion of the universe stretching out the
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 light waves. Um, so, uh, they
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 might be quite difficult, might be quite
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 difficult to detect. However, uh, it's
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 basically, uh, one of the things that the
00:08:32 --> 00:08:35 James Webb telescope is looking for. It's
00:08:35 --> 00:08:37 looking for any evidence of dark matter
00:08:37 --> 00:08:37 stars.
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 Andrew Dunkley: So where a normal star like ours, um,
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 depletes its fuel and then turns into a
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 red giant and then collapses into a white
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 dwarf, a dark matter star
00:08:48 --> 00:08:49 annihilates itself.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:51 Professor Fred Watson: I think that would be right. I think it would
00:08:51 --> 00:08:53 just basically fizzle out
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 Evaporate and fizzle out. Yeah.
00:08:56 --> 00:08:57 Andrew Dunkley: Okay.
00:08:57 --> 00:08:57 Andrew Dunkley: Wow.
00:08:57 --> 00:08:58 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 Andrew Dunkley: Thank you, Casey. Um, haven't found one yet,
00:09:01 --> 00:09:04 but if you do stumble across one, let us
00:09:04 --> 00:09:04 know.
00:09:05 --> 00:09:06 Professor Fred Watson: Just hand it in, please.
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 Andrew Dunkley: Yes, yes. Just don't forget to put it in a
00:09:08 --> 00:09:09 lead box.
00:09:10 --> 00:09:10 Professor Fred Watson: That's right.
00:09:12 --> 00:09:13 Andrew Dunkley: Thanks for the, the question.
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 Our next question, Fred Watson, comes from
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 Michael. Uh, he said, I understand that. Oh,
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 uh, he says, andrew, I apologise. I still not
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 do not have questions, uh, about dark matter.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 It's all right, person before you did it. Uh,
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 as I have a firm understanding of how coffee
00:09:28 --> 00:09:31 and Coca Cola power my day, uh, I understand
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 that dormant comments have been suggested
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 with a few even confirmed inside the snow
00:09:36 --> 00:09:39 line, I'm wondering how many might exist.
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42 Seven. There's seven. I have
00:09:42 --> 00:09:45 no idea. Uh, and how, uh, a, uh, best
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 guess might be made to arrive at that number.
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 It was my best guess. I'm going. Well here.
00:09:51 --> 00:09:52 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, you are, you're guessing.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 Andrew Dunkley: Well, other than infrared telescopes and
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57 cameras looking for low temperature dark
00:09:57 --> 00:10:00 objects, what instruments on a smaller
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 satellite might be best for searching for
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 either or both of the Earth Sun Trojan
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 Lagrange points? Uh, that comes from Michael.
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 Now I'm assuming Michael's in Alberta because
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 I'm going off his email address and it had
00:10:13 --> 00:10:16 the abbreviation AB And I looked that up and
00:10:16 --> 00:10:19 that's the abbreviation for the Province of
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 Alberta, Canada. But I might be wrong and I'm
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 sorry if I'm way off the map,
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 Michael, but thanks, uh, for the question.
00:10:27 --> 00:10:30 Okay, um, are there,
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 are there, um, yes.
00:10:33 --> 00:10:33 Comets?
00:10:33 --> 00:10:36 Professor Fred Watson: Thought to be. So, um, what's a dormant
00:10:36 --> 00:10:39 comet? Uh, well, it is,
00:10:39 --> 00:10:41 it would be a comet that has,
00:10:42 --> 00:10:45 uh, gone past the sun several
00:10:45 --> 00:10:47 times in its lifetime. I think that's
00:10:47 --> 00:10:50 probably the bottom line. Uh,
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 it's an old comet
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56 and uh, because
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 every time a comet gets near the sun,
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 it's basically radiates its uh,
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 gas and dust into space. Uh, the gas
00:11:05 --> 00:11:07 turns into a kind of plasma. It's excited by
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10 the sun's radiation. Uh, and
00:11:10 --> 00:11:12 so you get what we call a gas tail for a
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 comet. And um, you can also get a dust tail
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 because comets are dusty objects with this
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 sort of frozen gas around them. The
00:11:21 --> 00:11:23 dust leaks out when the gas blows away.
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 And so you get uh, comets that have two
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 tails. So um,
00:11:29 --> 00:11:32 imagine, uh, one of these things that's
00:11:32 --> 00:11:35 gone, ah, round the sun several
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 times. And basically
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 it would have a kind of crusty
00:11:44 --> 00:11:45 layer to it, an outer layer,
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 uh, which is the dust sort of
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 coagulating on the surface. So the
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 gases has been blowing dust off.
00:11:54 --> 00:11:57 But there's still a residual dust layer
00:11:57 --> 00:12:00 that might give you this crust
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 around the edge of it. That means that even
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 though it goes near the sun, the sun doesn't
00:12:06 --> 00:12:09 penetrate, uh, the sun's radiation and heat
00:12:09 --> 00:12:11 don't penetrate the dust. And so it doesn't
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 actually, uh, stir into action. It doesn't
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 start behaving like a comet which is to
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 release its gas and dust.
00:12:17 --> 00:12:18 Andrew Dunkley: Okay.
00:12:18 --> 00:12:20 Professor Fred Watson: Um, and so, uh, that,
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 uh, you know, that would, that would be a
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 dormant comet once one that's gone to sleep.
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 Um, what might stir it back into
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 action is if you
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 had a dormant comet colliding
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 with something else. Uh, hopefully not the
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 Earth. Uh, but you know, maybe another,
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 another, um, an asteroid or
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 something like that, uh, that might
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 disturb that, that
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 dusty crust on the outside or crusty
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 dust, uh, the sort of crust of the. Over the.
00:12:55 --> 00:12:58 I. If you could expose
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 the icy surface to the sun's radiation, then
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 it would basically start giving you what, ah,
00:13:05 --> 00:13:07 we would call an active comet as well. Um, I
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09 mean the way they are. And this is really the
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 nub of the question, I guess, how do you
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 detect them? Because the problem is,
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 um, if you've got a comet, even though it's
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 made mostly of ice, uh,
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 uh, if it's got this, um, dark
00:13:22 --> 00:13:25 crust on the outside of it, there's very
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 little to distinguish that from an asteroid.
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 Um, and so how do you know whether this
00:13:31 --> 00:13:33 is a dormant comet or an asteroid?
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 And it's really quite hard to do. Um,
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 there's not that much to choose between them.
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 You will be looking at a kind of thermal
00:13:42 --> 00:13:44 signature because, um, asteroids are cold
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 rock. Uh, dormant comets
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 are cold ice with a kind of rocky,
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 sort of dusty, um, rocky layer on the
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 outside. Uh, there's not that much to
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 differentiate between them until you knock
00:13:58 --> 00:13:59 some of the dust off and the thing. Thing
00:13:59 --> 00:14:00 wakes up.
00:14:01 --> 00:14:01 Andrew Dunkley: Yes.
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Um, so, um,
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 I think, uh, there's scope for us
00:14:08 --> 00:14:11 trying to do a survey. But it will be hard
00:14:11 --> 00:14:13 to know, uh, whether
00:14:14 --> 00:14:17 you've picked a dormant comet or you've got
00:14:17 --> 00:14:18 an asteroid. And it may well be that some of
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 the asteroids that we consider to be
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 asteroids are actually dormant comets.
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 Andrew Dunkley: So they're super duper old. I suppose the
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 smoking gun would be. Most of them have got
00:14:27 --> 00:14:28 Zimmer frames.
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 Professor Fred Watson: Could be, yep. Um, comet. Zimmer frame.
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 Yes. I like the sound of that.
00:14:36 --> 00:14:37 Andrew Dunkley: You never know.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:37 Professor Fred Watson: Um,
00:14:39 --> 00:14:41 Andrew Dunkley: worth looking for or not. But
00:14:41 --> 00:14:44 yeah. Okay, so, um, so
00:14:44 --> 00:14:47 they might be out there. When Michael said
00:14:47 --> 00:14:49 that, uh, a few have been confirmed in the
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 snow line. What's, what's he
00:14:52 --> 00:14:52 Meaning there.
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 Professor Fred Watson: So that means. So the snow line is,
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 um, basically it's on the far side
00:14:58 --> 00:15:01 of Mars's orbit. Ye, where, um,
00:15:02 --> 00:15:05 water vapour stops being vapour and
00:15:05 --> 00:15:08 freezes. It's the, uh, sort
00:15:08 --> 00:15:11 of outer side of the
00:15:11 --> 00:15:12 Goldilocks zone.
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 Andrew Dunkley: Okay, fair enough. Michael, thanks for the
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 question. Um, that was fascinating. Um,
00:15:19 --> 00:15:22 and um, yeah, I suppose one day someone might
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 go, aha, I've found a way. And then
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 we've got the answer. This is Space
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 Nuts, Andrew Dunkley with Professor
00:15:29 --> 00:15:30 Fred Watson Watson.
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 Space Nuts. Oh, that was. That
00:15:35 --> 00:15:38 was it. That was so short. I'm going to
00:15:38 --> 00:15:39 do it again. Space Nuts.
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. He's got a very nice voice, hasn't he?
00:15:42 --> 00:15:44 Andrew Dunkley: He has, yes. I can do that on my
00:15:44 --> 00:15:47 machine. Hang on. Yeah, wait for
00:15:47 --> 00:15:48 it. Uh, not there.
00:15:48 --> 00:15:48 Professor Fred Watson: Okay.
00:15:48 --> 00:15:51 Andrew Dunkley: Uh, no, not there. Oh, here it is.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:52 Space Nuts.
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 Professor Fred Watson: I, um. Yeah, I think you need some, uh,
00:16:00 --> 00:16:01 Gaviscon or something.
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 Andrew Dunkley: I can do it with this one.
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 Yeah, I could go on forever.
00:16:10 --> 00:16:11 Professor Fred Watson: I know you could,
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 Andrew Dunkley: but I won't. Um, we'll go to it.
00:16:15 --> 00:16:15 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah.
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 Professor Fred Watson: Anyway, I'm sure you can use that, uh, in
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21 suitable, uh, environments that, um, I
00:16:21 --> 00:16:23 mean audio environments that might intrigue
00:16:23 --> 00:16:26 our listeners or otherwise, um, confuse
00:16:26 --> 00:16:26 them.
00:16:26 --> 00:16:27 Andrew Dunkley: Indeed.
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 Our next question comes from Derek.
00:16:30 --> 00:16:33 Andrew Dunkley: Hi guys, this is Derek from southern Ontario
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36 and Canada. Again, um, just wondering if
00:16:36 --> 00:16:38 you could explain the orbital
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 mechanics behind Slingshots. Gravitational
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 slingshots. And uh, I'm trying
00:16:44 --> 00:16:47 to understand whether the rotation of
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 the planet has anything to do with that
00:16:49 --> 00:16:52 slingshot or if it's just, uh, uh, in
00:16:52 --> 00:16:55 terms of how close you get to the planet. Um,
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57 if you can elaborate a little bit on that,
00:16:57 --> 00:16:58 that would be great. Thank you. Love the
00:16:58 --> 00:16:59 podcast. Have a great day.
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 Andrew Dunkley: Thank you, Derek. Uh, it's a good question,
00:17:02 --> 00:17:05 uh, and I think we've seen
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 it used, uh, many times for some of these
00:17:07 --> 00:17:10 probes that have been sent, um, way out
00:17:10 --> 00:17:13 into the solar system because we
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 find it's uh, a much more efficient way of
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 doing things because we haven't got the fuel
00:17:17 --> 00:17:19 to send them all the way in under their own
00:17:19 --> 00:17:21 steam. That was certainly the case with the
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 Voyagers, uh, and they were two
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 of the best examples of using the gas giants
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 for slingshots, um, but
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 even launching things off our own planet.
00:17:32 --> 00:17:34 There's a bit of slingshot effect, isn't
00:17:34 --> 00:17:34 there?
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 Professor Fred Watson: Uh, yes, that's right, there is. Um, so,
00:17:38 --> 00:17:41 um, it's not just getting to the outer
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 solar system. I think, um, the uh,
00:17:43 --> 00:17:46 Bepicolombo, uh, spacecraft which is on
00:17:46 --> 00:17:48 its way to Mercury, I think that's had
00:17:48 --> 00:17:51 Something like seven slingshots with Venus
00:17:51 --> 00:17:52 and the Earth. That's right. Might be
00:17:52 --> 00:17:55 exaggerating, but, um, it's had a large
00:17:55 --> 00:17:58 number, and that's in order to make
00:17:58 --> 00:18:01 its velocity, uh, match the velocity of
00:18:01 --> 00:18:04 Mercury, um, which you'd think will be
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 easy as you drop things into the inner solar
00:18:06 --> 00:18:08 system, but it's not actually. It's quite
00:18:08 --> 00:18:10 hard to do. You've got to kind of catch up
00:18:10 --> 00:18:13 with Mercury as it steams around in its orbit
00:18:13 --> 00:18:14 because it's going faster than the Earth is
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 in its orbit around the sun. Um,
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 so, um, yes. So it's a very useful tool
00:18:21 --> 00:18:22 for exploring the solar system. I think
00:18:22 --> 00:18:24 you're about to confirm how many it's had.
00:18:25 --> 00:18:27 Andrew Dunkley: I haven't found it yet. I'm usually pretty
00:18:27 --> 00:18:28 quick, but I'm not.
00:18:28 --> 00:18:29 Professor Fred Watson: You are pretty quick, yeah.
00:18:30 --> 00:18:33 Andrew Dunkley: It's proving elusive at the moment, but I'll
00:18:33 --> 00:18:33 get it.
00:18:33 --> 00:18:36 Professor Fred Watson: I will get. Has had an elusive number
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 of slingshots, uh, uh,
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 but the bottom line is that it's a process
00:18:41 --> 00:18:44 that works well and is actually
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 very much a part of the
00:18:46 --> 00:18:49 astrodynamicists toolkit when they're
00:18:49 --> 00:18:52 actually working out the, um, orbits
00:18:52 --> 00:18:55 and um, trajectories of planets.
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 Andrew Dunkley: Exploring the nine slingshots.
00:18:58 --> 00:19:01 Professor Fred Watson: Nine slingshots. There you go. Seven was an
00:19:01 --> 00:19:01 underestimate.
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. One at Earth, two at Venus, and six at
00:19:04 --> 00:19:05 Mercury itself.
00:19:06 --> 00:19:09 Professor Fred Watson: Yes. Fantastic. That's what you need to
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11 match Mercury's orbital speed. Quite
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 remarkable. So, um, how does it work? Well,
00:19:14 --> 00:19:16 it's counterintuitive, isn't it, because you
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 think that a, uh, spacecraft falling in
00:19:19 --> 00:19:22 towards a planet, uh, it's going to
00:19:22 --> 00:19:25 gain velocity, but then as it leaves the
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 planet, it's going to decelerate and so it
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 would lose velocity. And you might think the
00:19:30 --> 00:19:33 two would balance up, but the bottom line is
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 they don't. And it's all about the angle that
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38 you come in, uh, when you intercept
00:19:38 --> 00:19:41 the planet's orbit. And if you get the
00:19:41 --> 00:19:43 angle right, you can have this situation
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 where, uh, without making contact at
00:19:46 --> 00:19:49 all, where some of the momentum of the planet
00:19:50 --> 00:19:52 is transferred to the spacecra.
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55 Um, and so the spacecraft gets
00:19:55 --> 00:19:58 a, uh, push in velocity, its velocity
00:19:58 --> 00:20:01 increases. The planet doesn't even notice the
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 difference because the spacecraft has so
00:20:03 --> 00:20:05 little mass compared with,
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 um, the planet. Um, so it's
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 balancing the momentum.
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 Momentum, of course, is just the mass times
00:20:13 --> 00:20:16 the velocity. Uh, and so you've got a very
00:20:16 --> 00:20:19 big mass transferring momentum to a very
00:20:19 --> 00:20:22 small mass. And, um, that means you get
00:20:22 --> 00:20:25 quite a significant velocity kick, uh, in
00:20:25 --> 00:20:28 doing that. And so it's not to do
00:20:28 --> 00:20:31 with the rotation. Um, so Derek is
00:20:32 --> 00:20:35 right to point out that as a query, is it to
00:20:35 --> 00:20:37 do with the rotation? The answer is no. So if
00:20:37 --> 00:20:39 you had a planet that wasn't rotating at all,
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 uh, you could still do a gravitational
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 slingshot very successfully with it. Oh,
00:20:44 --> 00:20:44 okay.
00:20:47 --> 00:20:50 Andrew Dunkley: So does the spacecraft, when it's doing
00:20:50 --> 00:20:53 this slingshot, actually steal some of
00:20:53 --> 00:20:54 the planet's energy?
00:20:54 --> 00:20:55 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah.
00:20:55 --> 00:20:56 Andrew Dunkley: Is that how it works?
00:20:56 --> 00:20:59 Professor Fred Watson: It's stealing momentum, uh,
00:20:59 --> 00:21:02 and um, using that to accelerate
00:21:02 --> 00:21:05 and sometimes quite dramatically. So the
00:21:05 --> 00:21:07 change in the orbital trajectory is really
00:21:07 --> 00:21:10 significant. But it's a fantastic tool
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 for exploring the planets.
00:21:13 --> 00:21:16 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah, it is until the day we can
00:21:16 --> 00:21:18 come up with a new way of,
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 a new form of engine
00:21:23 --> 00:21:24 propulsion. That's the word I was wanting.
00:21:25 --> 00:21:28 Uh, that um, renders
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 gravitational assist unnecessary.
00:21:30 --> 00:21:32 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, that's right. At the moment, we haven't
00:21:32 --> 00:21:34 got there yet. No, you're right.
00:21:34 --> 00:21:37 Andrew Dunkley: But it might. Yeah, it could be
00:21:37 --> 00:21:39 scramjet technology, it could be
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 nuclear power, like fusion engines, things
00:21:42 --> 00:21:45 like that. We're a long way from that. But,
00:21:45 --> 00:21:48 uh, those are possibilities. Yeah, yeah.
00:21:48 --> 00:21:51 Um, who knows? Um,
00:21:51 --> 00:21:53 but the more you speed up in space, the more
00:21:53 --> 00:21:55 you've got to be careful because there's lots
00:21:55 --> 00:21:57 of stuff you can bump into. You don't really
00:21:57 --> 00:21:58 want to do that at pace, do you?
00:22:00 --> 00:22:02 Professor Fred Watson: You've got to know where all this stuff is.
00:22:02 --> 00:22:04 And that's what astronomers are for.
00:22:04 --> 00:22:04 Andrew Dunkley: Indeed.
00:22:04 --> 00:22:05 Professor Fred Watson: Tell you where it all is.
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 Andrew Dunkley: Uh, thank you, Derek. I hope that covered,
00:22:08 --> 00:22:11 uh, your question adequately.
00:22:15 --> 00:22:18 Space nuts. What we're going to do
00:22:18 --> 00:22:21 now, Fred Watson, is, um, we've got, uh,
00:22:21 --> 00:22:24 we've had quite a Canadian influence in, in
00:22:24 --> 00:22:26 today's show by the look of it. Uh, this
00:22:26 --> 00:22:29 comes um, from Jason in Montreal, in
00:22:29 --> 00:22:32 Quebec. And uh, he says, I'm a big fan of the
00:22:32 --> 00:22:32 show.
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 I have a question regarding the rapid rise of
00:22:34 --> 00:22:37 fully automated smart telescopes
00:22:37 --> 00:22:40 and their place in the modern hobby.
00:22:40 --> 00:22:43 Uh, on one hand it feels like these devices
00:22:43 --> 00:22:45 are, ah, an incredible cost effective
00:22:45 --> 00:22:47 gateway. They allow beginners to dive
00:22:47 --> 00:22:50 straight into astrophotography and see almost
00:22:50 --> 00:22:52 instant results without spending thousands of
00:22:52 --> 00:22:54 dollars on complex gear right away.
00:22:55 --> 00:22:58 That immediate reward seems to be a fantastic
00:22:58 --> 00:23:00 way to spark a lifelong interest in
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02 astronomy. On the other hand, there
00:23:02 --> 00:23:05 seems to be a, uh, bit of a divide in the
00:23:05 --> 00:23:06 community with some traditional
00:23:06 --> 00:23:09 astrophotographers viewing them as cheating
00:23:10 --> 00:23:13 because the automated software removes so
00:23:13 --> 00:23:16 much of the steep learning curve. What
00:23:16 --> 00:23:17 are your thoughts on this technological
00:23:17 --> 00:23:20 shift? Do you see smart telescopes as a
00:23:20 --> 00:23:23 positive tool for opening up the night sky to
00:23:23 --> 00:23:25 a broader audience, or do you Feel
00:23:26 --> 00:23:28 something valuable is lost when we automate
00:23:28 --> 00:23:30 the setup and tracking process.
00:23:31 --> 00:23:34 Uh, I actually bought one recently and I've
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 already learned a lot over the past few
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38 months. Getting those quick results didn't
00:23:38 --> 00:23:41 stop me from wanting to learn more in. In
00:23:41 --> 00:23:44 fact, it did the opposite. Uh, it got
00:23:44 --> 00:23:45 me watching more astronomy and
00:23:45 --> 00:23:48 astrophotography videos than usual, uh, on
00:23:48 --> 00:23:50 YouTube and joining Facebook groups to learn
00:23:50 --> 00:23:53 from other users. And of course, let me
00:23:53 --> 00:23:56 find your podcast. Uh, thank you for the
00:23:56 --> 00:23:58 great episodes. Uh, that comes from Jason in
00:23:58 --> 00:23:59 Montreal. I'm going to show you something,
00:23:59 --> 00:24:00 Fred Watson.
00:24:00 --> 00:24:03 Professor Fred Watson: Yep. Let me see.
00:24:04 --> 00:24:06 Uh, I've got one.
00:24:07 --> 00:24:08 He's got one.
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10 Andrew Dunkley: Um, I've got one. And yes, it simplifies
00:24:10 --> 00:24:12 everything. It does all the hard work for
00:24:12 --> 00:24:13 you, but if you someone who doesn't like
00:24:13 --> 00:24:16 doing the hard work, it's a godsend.
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 Yeah, that's my take on it. I'll keep it nice
00:24:19 --> 00:24:22 and short. I know a couple of people
00:24:22 --> 00:24:23 who've got both. They've got a traditional
00:24:23 --> 00:24:26 telescope with the whole kit set
00:24:26 --> 00:24:29 up with their computers and the programmes
00:24:29 --> 00:24:31 and all the tracking technology.
00:24:32 --> 00:24:34 They like to do it the old fashioned way.
00:24:34 --> 00:24:36 And, uh, they've also got smart
00:24:36 --> 00:24:38 telescopes, um, which
00:24:39 --> 00:24:42 do the same thing. But, um, you know,
00:24:42 --> 00:24:44 you've got to rob Peter to pay Paul. The
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 efficiency and simplicity of that,
00:24:47 --> 00:24:50 uh, also means that your images aren't going
00:24:50 --> 00:24:53 to be nearly as good as a
00:24:53 --> 00:24:55 traditional telescope. Uh, so
00:24:58 --> 00:25:01 it ebbs and flows. There's a cost for
00:25:01 --> 00:25:03 the, um, let's not say the word cheating,
00:25:04 --> 00:25:07 but there is a cost. Um, uh, but it
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09 does make astrophotography
00:25:10 --> 00:25:13 immensely affordable for a lot of
00:25:13 --> 00:25:14 people.
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. And accessible too. Yes. Um,
00:25:17 --> 00:25:20 so, yes, look, um,
00:25:20 --> 00:25:22 I think Jason sort of answered his own
00:25:22 --> 00:25:25 question in exactly the way I would. Uh,
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 that, uh, you've got
00:25:28 --> 00:25:31 the two aspects of it. It's a
00:25:31 --> 00:25:33 brilliant way of getting
00:25:34 --> 00:25:36 into astrophotography,
00:25:37 --> 00:25:40 um, almost painlessly, um,
00:25:42 --> 00:25:44 on a very good level too.
00:25:45 --> 00:25:47 Uh, and if you then wanted to do
00:25:48 --> 00:25:50 more, if you wanted to go for a bigger
00:25:50 --> 00:25:53 telescope and do your image processing
00:25:53 --> 00:25:54 in a more, um,
00:25:56 --> 00:25:59 perhaps a more precise way that's,
00:25:59 --> 00:26:02 uh, still open to you, I think, as a tool
00:26:02 --> 00:26:04 for getting people involved in astronomy.
00:26:04 --> 00:26:07 I think they're absolutely fabulous. I don't
00:26:07 --> 00:26:09 have one myself. Uh, I'm glad you've got one
00:26:09 --> 00:26:11 one, Andrew, because I've seen some of the
00:26:11 --> 00:26:12 results from that and they are very
00:26:12 --> 00:26:15 impressive. Uh, I've got a number of other
00:26:15 --> 00:26:16 friends who've got them as well, who are
00:26:16 --> 00:26:18 themselves professional astronomers.
00:26:20 --> 00:26:21 Andrew Dunkley: There's a photo I took the Other night of the
00:26:21 --> 00:26:22 M8.
00:26:22 --> 00:26:25 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. There you go. And it's lovely.
00:26:25 --> 00:26:28 Colour balance. That's pretty well what you'd
00:26:28 --> 00:26:30 expect to see from a David Malin image.
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 And that's what's like.
00:26:32 --> 00:26:34 Andrew Dunkley: David Malan was a pioneer in this stuff.
00:26:34 --> 00:26:35 Professor Fred Watson: He did.
00:26:35 --> 00:26:36 Andrew Dunkley: Now you can do it from your lounge room.
00:26:37 --> 00:26:39 Professor Fred Watson: Yes. With. You can literally with your mobile
00:26:39 --> 00:26:41 phone. On your m. Mobile phone,
00:26:43 --> 00:26:46 Telescope outside. Um, yeah. I think
00:26:46 --> 00:26:48 it's fantastic. I'm very, uh,
00:26:49 --> 00:26:51 much old school. I love pottering around with
00:26:51 --> 00:26:53 a telescope with nothing more than an
00:26:53 --> 00:26:54 eyepiece. I've never really ventured into
00:26:54 --> 00:26:57 astrophotography. The nearest thing I've got
00:26:57 --> 00:26:59 to that has been a lot of aurora
00:26:59 --> 00:27:02 photography. Uh, um, which I
00:27:02 --> 00:27:05 love and is now also a lot more accessible
00:27:05 --> 00:27:08 just with a smartphone. Uh, so I don't
00:27:08 --> 00:27:09 carry around. Found all the kit I used to.
00:27:09 --> 00:27:12 When we go up to the Arctic, uh, to look for
00:27:12 --> 00:27:13 the aurora, just take my smartphone.
00:27:15 --> 00:27:18 Um, but you're right. Um,
00:27:19 --> 00:27:21 I think, as I said, I think Jason's answered
00:27:21 --> 00:27:23 it perfectly. It's obviously
00:27:23 --> 00:27:26 stimulated him to go further. Uh, he loves
00:27:26 --> 00:27:29 what he's got and he's finding out more. Uh,
00:27:29 --> 00:27:31 best of all, he found space nuts. Yes, nice.
00:27:31 --> 00:27:33 But, um. Uh,
00:27:34 --> 00:27:37 I would not be somebody who
00:27:37 --> 00:27:40 would frown upon these devices and
00:27:40 --> 00:27:43 saying, in my day we did not
00:27:43 --> 00:27:45 have this sort of thing. You know, we had to
00:27:45 --> 00:27:47 do it properly. We had to understand what was
00:27:47 --> 00:27:50 going on. Well, you can still do it
00:27:50 --> 00:27:53 and understand what's going on, uh, with
00:27:53 --> 00:27:56 your smart telescope. Well, what's. Sorry, go
00:27:56 --> 00:27:56 ahead.
00:27:56 --> 00:27:59 Andrew Dunkley: On mine, when I pick a target, it then gives
00:27:59 --> 00:28:02 me an audio briefing on what the target is,
00:28:02 --> 00:28:03 who found it, when it was found.
00:28:05 --> 00:28:06 Professor Fred Watson: That is fabulous.
00:28:06 --> 00:28:07 Andrew Dunkley: It is amazing.
00:28:10 --> 00:28:10 Good stuff.
00:28:10 --> 00:28:12 Professor Fred Watson: It's an astronomy class as well.
00:28:13 --> 00:28:16 Um, I think I'm right in saying that
00:28:16 --> 00:28:19 the first of these smart telescopes was a
00:28:19 --> 00:28:22 Unihedron. I think, uh, that was probably
00:28:22 --> 00:28:25 six or seven years ago when I saw the first
00:28:25 --> 00:28:27 one of those and I was very impressed with
00:28:27 --> 00:28:29 it. But what I was going to say was that they
00:28:29 --> 00:28:32 have now come down in price to be,
00:28:33 --> 00:28:34 um, really quite affordable.
00:28:35 --> 00:28:35 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah.
00:28:35 --> 00:28:37 Professor Fred Watson: And it's not beyond the realms of possibility
00:28:37 --> 00:28:39 that one day there might be one in the Watson
00:28:39 --> 00:28:42 household. Although I do like things that are
00:28:42 --> 00:28:44 made of brass. And do you look through one
00:28:44 --> 00:28:45 end and see how they.
00:28:45 --> 00:28:47 Andrew Dunkley: There are a mass of them out there and quite
00:28:47 --> 00:28:50 a few are, uh, well under a thousand dollars.
00:28:51 --> 00:28:51 Professor Fred Watson: Yes.
00:28:52 --> 00:28:54 Andrew Dunkley: So, you know, that makes
00:28:55 --> 00:28:56 a pretty wide target audience.
00:28:56 --> 00:28:59 The other thing mine does is you can click on
00:28:59 --> 00:29:01 the map on your phone and you can see where
00:29:01 --> 00:29:04 other uh, people are that are using
00:29:04 --> 00:29:06 the same gear as you.
00:29:06 --> 00:29:07 Professor Fred Watson: Interesting.
00:29:07 --> 00:29:09 Andrew Dunkley: I'm not sure, I'm not sure that goes down
00:29:09 --> 00:29:10 with the privacy laws.
00:29:10 --> 00:29:11 Professor Fred Watson: But anyway, uh, I was going to say is there a
00:29:11 --> 00:29:13 privacy infringement there? Maybe, yeah.
00:29:14 --> 00:29:16 Andrew Dunkley: I've got um, satellite navigation in the car
00:29:16 --> 00:29:18 that does the same thing. It shows you other
00:29:18 --> 00:29:21 users of that particular device but um,
00:29:22 --> 00:29:24 they've um, curtailed it in Australia so it
00:29:24 --> 00:29:26 only shows you where they were like 10
00:29:26 --> 00:29:27 minutes ago.
00:29:27 --> 00:29:28 Professor Fred Watson: Okay.
00:29:28 --> 00:29:30 Andrew Dunkley: Which is pointless. Just turn it off.
00:29:30 --> 00:29:32 Professor Fred Watson: Yes, it is of a waste.
00:29:32 --> 00:29:35 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. Uh, well, you know, we live in nanny
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 state New South Wales, so you've um,
00:29:38 --> 00:29:40 everything's on the table for uh, some sort
00:29:40 --> 00:29:43 of scrutiny. Probably me now after saying
00:29:43 --> 00:29:46 that. But yeah, Jason, look, I'm a big fan
00:29:46 --> 00:29:48 and you are too. And uh,
00:29:49 --> 00:29:51 I don't think it does spoil the tradition,
00:29:52 --> 00:29:54 uh, or the traditional approach to um,
00:29:54 --> 00:29:57 astrophotography because vinyl um,
00:29:57 --> 00:30:00 records have come back, back. So you know,
00:30:01 --> 00:30:03 you can't write anything off.
00:30:03 --> 00:30:05 Yeah, but I wanted that question
00:30:05 --> 00:30:08 to um, I wanted you to hear
00:30:08 --> 00:30:10 that question Fred Watson, because I know
00:30:10 --> 00:30:12 you've got a long history in um, in
00:30:12 --> 00:30:14 telescopes, you've written books about them
00:30:14 --> 00:30:17 and um, this is, this is the next big thing,
00:30:17 --> 00:30:18 I suppose.
00:30:19 --> 00:30:20 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah, yeah.
00:30:20 --> 00:30:22 Andrew Dunkley: While we're talking about it, um, when you
00:30:22 --> 00:30:24 were away last, um, Jonty
00:30:24 --> 00:30:27 Horner grabbed a couple of astrophotographers
00:30:27 --> 00:30:30 and we did a special on astrophotography
00:30:31 --> 00:30:33 which I'm not sure if Huw's released it yet,
00:30:33 --> 00:30:36 but I think he's still working on how to get
00:30:36 --> 00:30:38 that out there. It's quite a, I think it's an
00:30:38 --> 00:30:40 hour long special on
00:30:40 --> 00:30:43 astrophotography and the techniques and how
00:30:43 --> 00:30:45 they did it and what you can do. So if you
00:30:45 --> 00:30:47 really want to get into the nuts and bolts of
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49 astrophotography, have a look for that one.
00:30:50 --> 00:30:52 Um, I'm not sure it's been released yet. Yet.
00:30:52 --> 00:30:55 Um, it took some pretty heavy editing because
00:30:55 --> 00:30:57 there were four people on it. So it was okay,
00:30:57 --> 00:31:00 it was a big show. But uh, yeah, that one
00:31:00 --> 00:31:02 will be available soon, if not already.
00:31:04 --> 00:31:06 Uh, and thanks for all your questions. Please
00:31:06 --> 00:31:07 keep them coming at our, ah, website,
00:31:08 --> 00:31:10 spacenutspodcast.com or spacenuts
00:31:10 --> 00:31:13 IO and click on the Little AMA tab at the
00:31:13 --> 00:31:16 top and send us your text or audio questions.
00:31:16 --> 00:31:17 If you're sending us an audio question,
00:31:17 --> 00:31:19 please remember to tell us where you're from
00:31:20 --> 00:31:21 and your name.
00:31:21 --> 00:31:21 Andrew Dunkley: Name.
00:31:21 --> 00:31:24 Andrew Dunkley: Um, it doesn't do that by itself. Uh,
00:31:24 --> 00:31:26 although I know sometimes people forget to
00:31:26 --> 00:31:28 tell us their name on where they're from on
00:31:28 --> 00:31:30 text as well. Um, but that's
00:31:30 --> 00:31:33 okay. Um, it's not mandatory, but, uh,
00:31:33 --> 00:31:36 it just helps us to know where everybody's
00:31:36 --> 00:31:38 at. Fred Watson, we're done. Thanks very
00:31:38 --> 00:31:39 much.
00:31:39 --> 00:31:42 Professor Fred Watson: Oh, thank you, Andrew. Good fun and great to
00:31:42 --> 00:31:44 hear from the listeners as well. Especially,
00:31:44 --> 00:31:46 you know, when we get questions that, uh,
00:31:46 --> 00:31:49 cover everything from, from dark matter,
00:31:49 --> 00:31:51 stars and dormant comets to the latest in
00:31:51 --> 00:31:54 telescope technology. Where else can you hear
00:31:54 --> 00:31:54 about all that?
00:31:54 --> 00:31:55 Andrew Dunkley: Uh, exactly.
00:31:55 --> 00:31:56 Professor Fred Watson: Right.
00:31:56 --> 00:31:58 Andrew Dunkley: Yeah. All right. Thanks, Fred Watson. See you
00:31:58 --> 00:31:58 soon.
00:31:59 --> 00:32:00 Professor Fred Watson: Yeah. Cheers. Cheers.
00:32:00 --> 00:32:01 Andrew Dunkley: For now, Professor Fred Watson Watson,
00:32:01 --> 00:32:03 astronomer at large, and thanks to Huw in the
00:32:03 --> 00:32:05 studio, couldn't be with us today because he
00:32:05 --> 00:32:07 bought a smart telescope. He's
00:32:07 --> 00:32:09 not smart enough to use it. Uh, and from me,
00:32:09 --> 00:32:11 Andrew Dunkley, thanks for your company.
00:32:12 --> 00:32:14 We'll catch you on the next episode of Space
00:32:14 --> 00:32:16 Nuts. Bye bye. Space Nuts.
00:32:16 --> 00:32:18 You've been listening to the Space Nick Nuts
00:32:18 --> 00:32:21 podcast, available at
00:32:21 --> 00:32:23 Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
00:32:23 --> 00:32:26 iHeartRadio or your favourite podcast
00:32:26 --> 00:32:28 player. You can also stream on demand at
00:32:28 --> 00:32:29 bytes.
00:32:29 --> 00:32:32 Professor Fred Watson: Com. This has been another quality podcast
00:32:32 --> 00:32:34 production from Bytes. Com. Um,