#18 - December 2013

We have the planets, meteors showers and moon phases to look out
for in December and a look at the deep sky objects in the
constellations, Taurus & Gemini.


In the news we have Comet ISON at perihelion, a guide to comets,
the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission and NASA’s MAVEN both setting
sail for Mars and a bizarre asteroid that thinks it’s a comet. In
the 5MC, Paul explains the mysterious and awe-inspiring majesty
of a familiar object in the night sky – The Orion Nebula. Perfect
to listen to as you observe it!


We open up our Christmas competition to win a year’s subscription
to Astronomy Now magazine and the European Southern Observatory’s
2014 calendar.


We have two interviews this month – Dr Gareth Williams, who
officially calculated Comet ISON’s trajectory, tells us all about
the comet; and Dr Gerhard Schwehm, ESA Project Scientist on the
Giotto and Rosetta comet-chasing spacecraft missions.


Finally, we answer listeners’ questions about the evidence for
ancient alien visitors and the visibility of merging inactive
black holes.