It’ll be upon us before we know it: 2009 is less than three months away! It will be the International Year of Astronomy and as part of the festivities, a new podcast is being launched. Every day, a new episode of 365 Days of Astronomy will become available for your listening pleasure. Each edition will be created by a different person, or group of people from all over the world offering their own unique perspective. Who might you hear? Well, you, for a start!

To volunteer to make your mark and record your very own episode of this epic, podcast endeavour, you only need to register on the newly launched 365 Days of Astronomy website. After that, click on ‘Join In’ and follow the instructions.

365 Days of Astronomy represents a great challenge and it should be brilliant to tune in each day and hear something completely new and interesting. It is vital that as many people, from as many parts of the world get signed up. So ask your school, youth group, badminton club, football team, decorators and anyone else to take a look and think about having a go.

Podcasting is easier that you might think and to be part of this exciting global initiative would be something you’d remember forever. So whether you’re 1 or 100, 365 Days of Astronomy is waiting for you. The website will also be giving tips on podcasting and will be doing everything they can to make sure the process is reasonably simply and easy to do.

It wasn’t long ago that I was thinking to myself ‘where are all the science podcasts?’, now I have too many! When i first got my iPod a couple of years ago there wasn’t too much in the way of choice for science podcasts about. I am currently listening to episode three of Living Space, and there will be a new Jodcast soon - thats not to mention all the others I now like. Oh what the hell - let’s mention them:

The Jodcast - an irreverant but factual look at astronomy. Delivered monthly and available in feature-specific chunks as downloads online or via RSS feeds and iTunes.

Living Space - A sort of made-for-radio astronomy podcast (the best ones often are) which is very professionally done and each of its three episodes so far have been an improvement on each other. Keep it up guys.

Nature Podcast - A weekly podcast which highlights content from the journal Nature. They seem to have access to high-profile people and usually speak to the authors and researchers of the articles they discuss.

Guardian Unlimited Science - Weekly and fun, covers the Guardian’s science articles. Has been going for a while and developed personalities which make for a little more entertainment with your science.

Science Talk: This is a podcast from Scientific American. Its often nice and neatly short and covers maybe a story or two in a little detail.

Finally it is worth pointing out that if you use iTunes there is now something called iTunes U (for university) where you can download whole series of lectures from the big American universities and a couple of UK ones too. Not technically a podcast but near enough. This is a new service from Apple and one that should definitely be developed if everyone ever stops talking about the bloody iPhone!

So there you go, that’s what I’m listening to. I’m also listening to this, but its nothing to do with astronomy so I really shouldn’t mention it…

There is a new podcast called Living Space in the world of astronomy which is, according to the website,

…a collaboration between Chris Lintott (Oxford University and BBC Sky at Night) and Harriet Scott (Heart FM) to bring you the latest news from the worlds of astronomy and spaceflight.

and as far I can tell this is true. So far so good. The first two episodes of the program have been about half an hour long and they contain a mix of general observing notes and astronomy news as well as a couple of ‘features’, e.g. they interview Piers Sellers, the British born astronaut, in Show 2.

The show is very well made and sounds much like something you would hear on BBC Radio. This is partly due to both the presenters having good vocal presence, but also I assume they are using professional equipment to record the show, which is something many podcasts lack.

My only issue with the podcast is more of a quibble and I hope it will be ironed out as time goes by. Essentially I don’t feel that the show has really found its feet. For one they seem to be rushing through material at times. Particularly the first half of Show 2 felt quite manic. The ‘60 Seconds’ segment seems a tad ill-conceived for an audio medium. I had to pause it and rewind a couple of times to actually process what Harriet was saying. I am assuming of course that I am not just slow this morning.

Another annoyance is the almost American way in which I am told what they are about to talk about next. This is something BBC Breakfast news have begun doing and it irks me no end. “So what about this thingy we’re going to talk about - well we’ll talk about it after we talk about this other thingy”. There’s nothing wrong with giving a beginning and/or end summary for a half hour show. However my attention span is not so short that I need reminding intermittently what is ‘coming up’.

Other than that, there are two great things about Living Space. Firstly it is half an hour long. I love half an hour long things to listen to and watch. Thirty minutes just works for me and so in this respect the show actually beats out the wonderful Jodcast (Although the Jodcast does offer per-segment downloads and feeds). The show is weekly which, again, fits nicely into my listening habits. Secondly, the content is not wasteful. Chris, Harriet and whoever else may be involved in the show, are keeping all parts of the show to a minimum and moving on when its done. This is great and more podcasts generally should take heed.

Finally I wanted to say that with a bit of maturing, this podcast could become a big deal in Astronomy. The sort of thing they are talking about and the depth which they discuss it at is exactly right for a general astronomy audience. A weekly, half-hour show including observing notes, news and a couple of interviews is exactly what the BBC should do with the Sky at Night. I wonder if, with a bit of luck and publicity, this podcast could become what that TV show ought to be. The digital media world we are entering into makes this tantalisingly possible and I wish therm luck on their way.

So go and download Living Space (Show 1 or Show 2) or subscribe to their podcast feed. I shall be listening to this and the Jodcast and will interested to see how they interweave/overlap.

You may recall I blogged about The Jodcast. There are some podcasts I find I listen to on my iPod and there others I listen to on my Mac. The former is easy but the latter can be annoying - you have to open iTunes and open it there etc etc - how tiresome(!). So i like to go and get the dashboard widget of these podcasts and have them close to hand.

I couldn’t find one on the Jodcast website so I thought I’d spend a half hour making them one, so here it is. Easy enough to use, it gives you a drop down list of the latest Jodcasts and lets you listen by pressing play. It’ll even remember the playback position for you and also allow to subscribe via iTunes if you so wish. If anyone wants to port it, or recreate it for the Yahoo! Widgets Engine then feel free.

What do you call a podcast from Jodrell Bank? Well duh, its a Jodcast (Link). Running since early 2006, the Jodcast from Manchester’s world-class, historical radio scope is quite good fun. I’ve listened to the latest episode and also the special NAM episodes so far and have to say I rather like it.

It does have, you’ll be glad to know, a good amount of astronomy content. In fact it would be ideal for the astronomy enthusiast who doesn’t have access to journals etc. It is long and runs to just over an hour an episode (excluding the NAM specials) but since it’s only once a month this seems just about right. The guys who make it clearly have a sense of humour and they also give a crap - which you’d be surprised but can seem a novelty sometimes in academia.

I am now subscribed and will keep listening for at least a couple more episodes to see how it fits into my iPod’s busy life. I wish them the best of luck - not that they need it since their subscription base is in the thousands after just over a year. Well done them.