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Join me Martin Lunn MBE while I take you on a journey around the solar system. If you need to contact me please email me at; [email protected]Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Amateur astronomy guide • brightest stars and how to spot them • constellations, mythology, seasonal visibility • comets through history and famous apparitions • supernova remnants and historical observationsThis podcast is a guided tour of the night sky and the solar system, presented as a simple, listener-friendly astronomy series. Across its episodes, it focuses on practical sky knowledge—what the brightest objects are, where they sit among the constellations, and how observers (especially in Britain) can or cannot see them due to latitude and seasonal skies. A recurring theme is orientation: using recognizable patterns and groupings to locate objects, such as prominent asterisms, and relating individual bright stars to their host constellations.
A substantial portion of the content is devoted to the brightest stars visible from Earth, moving through a ranked set of standout targets. These star-focused discussions commonly note how bright a star appears, what constellation it belongs to, and any distinctive features such as whether it is part of a multiple-star system, its relative distance, or its stage of stellar evolution (including red giants and supergiants and the possibility of future supernova events). The show also highlights which famous stars or constellations are better known in the southern hemisphere and which are hard or impossible to see from Britain.
Another major strand is comets, introduced as small bodies within the solar system and then explored through notable historical examples. These episodes connect prominent comet apparitions with how they were seen by people at the time, how long they remained visible, how bright they appeared (including daytime visibility), and how comets were interpreted historically as omens tied to wars, political events, or deaths. They also touch on observational milestones—such as evidence that comets are celestial objects beyond the Moon.
The podcast also begins a systematic survey of the 88 constellations, starting with an overview of common terms and then moving constellation by constellation. These entries mix mythology, history of constellation naming (including later southern constellations introduced in the 18th century), and notable deep-sky highlights visible to the naked eye.
Occasionally, the show steps into astronomy history and cultural context, such as investigating why a well-documented supernova observed in China was apparently not recorded in Europe.