NAM may have finished last week but we still have a couple of interviews to upload. At the start of the National Astronomy Meeting the latest version of the AstroGrid software was released. Jonathan Tedds of the University of Leicester tells us all about AstroGrid - part of the UK involvement in International Virtual Observatory - which acts like iTunes for astronomers.

Using radio observatories in the UK and US and computer simulations, a team of astronomers have identified the youngest forming planet yet seen. Team leader Dr Jane Greaves of the University of St Andrews tells us about it.

MP3: Dr Jane Greaves Interview

We talked to Dr Douglas Pierce-Price of the European Southern Observatory about the telescopes they operate in Chile and the recent involvement in the Quantum of Solace James Bond movie.

MP3: Dr Douglas Pierce-Price Interview

Nick caught up with another of the plenary speakers - Professor Brian Schmidt - who led a team studying Type Ia supernova at huge distances. Brian tells us about those observations and how they required the introduction of the cosmological constant into our understanding of cosmology.

MP3: Prof Brian Schmidt Interview

Professor Richard Ellis gave a plenary talk on galaxy evolution on Tuesday morning. We caught up with him to find out more.

MP3: Prof Richard Ellis Interview

We found out about the Armagh Planetarium from its Director - Dr Tom Mason.

MP3: Armagh Planetarium Interview

NAM isn’t just attended by professional astronomers. At the Education & Outreach session a talk was given by Jacquie Milligan and pupils from a school south of Belfast - Glenlola Collegiate School. Jacquie is a biology teacher but has been using astronomy for various out-of-hours activities. The pupils have been using the Faulkes Telescope for various research projects and impressed all the professional astronomers and outreach people in the audience with their work. They were an inspiring group and at lunch I caught up with them to get an interview.

MP3: Interview with Jacquie Milligan and Pupils.

I have a strong feeling the first lecture I ever heard on gamma-ray bursts was by Nial Tanvir, now at the University of Leicester. I remember him explaining how in the early days of the field, astronomers studying GRBs were among the first people to get mobile phones as they needed to be told when a burst was detected. In the last few years, the advent of Swift has revolutionized the field, and I caught up with Nial in a rather echoing corridor to find out the latest news.

The National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) is organised by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). Nick caught up with the current President of the Royal Astronomical Society - Professor Michael Rowan-Robinson - to find out about NAM, the RAS and how Michael first got interested in astronomy.

MP3: Interview with the RAS President.

Yesterday at coffee time I caught up with Emily Baldwin who is the Society for Popular Astronomy’s “Chief Stargazer”. I asked her what that involved.

MP3: Emily Baldwin Interview.