AAA SKY is the Amateur Astronomers Association's podcast for astronomy fans in New York City and beyond. Join co-hosts Maggie, Kat, and Stanley as they interview club members, prominent scientists, and personalities on the New York astronomical scene. Topics range from current space missions, night sky observing, astrophotography, cosmological research—plus AAA news and messages. Join us to find out what’s happening above, with AAA SKY.
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In this episode, we speak with Nicolas Altobelli, the science operations and development manager for the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission. Launched in April 2023 by the European Space Agency, this interplanetary spacecraft is currently on its way to orbit and study three icy moons of Jupiter: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, and what would …
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In this episode MJ interviews Alfredo Viegas, the new President of the AAA. Alfredo details his vision for the future of the club, and highlights various new programs the club has for its members and New Yorkers in general. MJ and Stanley discuss the AAA’s collaboration with other groups and tell us about the various upcoming club events. And they …
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In this episode Stanley interviews Alan and Aaron Sliski, a father-son team of professional observatory builders. In a discussion full of anecdotes, Alan and Aaron give useful tips, advice, and discuss the various types of observatories and the reasons for building one, as well as the numerous pitfalls to avoid. We welcome our new AAA President, Al…
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In this episode Stanley interviews Paige Godfrey, Senior Software Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin about life at Lockheed, her inspiring career path, the dichotomy between scientists and engineers and oh yes, the Orion Space Capsule and Artemis missions. Brian says farewell, and MJ and Stanley speculate about life in a capsule and give us a head…
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Welcome back to AAA SKY! In this episode we introduce MJ, the newest member of the AAA SKY team. Kat interviews Brian Levine, science educator, who shows us a novel way of modeling the distances between planets in the solar system. And Brian and Kat discuss Astronomy on Tap. Have a question or a comment? Reach out to us at aaasky@aaa.org, even if j…
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In this final episode of the season Yui Hasegawa, AAA member and high school student extraordinaire, tells Maggie how she came up with an idea for how to make stargazing vastly more accessible to the New York public, and how she made it a reality. By combining the respective resources of the AAA and the Brooklyn Public Library, Yui developed a libr…
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In this episode Kat interviews Tony Hoffman, AAA Member and Citizen Scientist. Tony recounts his adventures photographing eclipses from airplanes in Africa, in northern Norway and wherever else the path of the sun and moon has taken him. He also gives tips on finding comets and even exoplanets. Kat and Stan discuss citizen science more generally an…
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In this episode Stanley interviews physicist and astronomer George Greenstein about Quantum Mechanics, how he became fascinated with the subject and why this highly successful theory still defies visualization and remains essentially strange to us. It is precisely the unfamiliarity of the quantum world which George captures and explains in his book…
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In this episode we mix it up! Join AAA President Brian Berg and Executive Vice President Bart Fried as they debate the merits and demerits of public vs. private space launches. From Sean Connery to Elon Musk, from Apollo to Artemis, our adversaries discuss the operations, financing and legality of putting people and robots into space. And we introd…
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In this episode Maggie discovers the amazing personal and professional journey of astronomer Matthias Schmitt, Dark Sky Coordinator at Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah and an astronomy guide for Stargazing Zion. He is an avid eclipse chaser with observations in Oregon, Argentina, Oman, the Antarctic, and other locations. Find out how joining …
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