General: [Sticky] Introduce Yourself

Hello and welcome to the Jodcast Forum!

As an introduction, I co-founded The Jodcast along with Stuart Lowe and David Ault back in 2005, with our first audio podcast show going out in January 2006; what a long time ago that seems. I edit the audio podcast occasionally, but mainly I interview astronomers about their research for the show. With The Jodcast going video, I'm also found working as camera-man.

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, part of The University of Manchester. My main research field is the discovery of extra-solar planets through gravitational microlensing: a technique arising from the lensing effect gravity has on light as predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

Hello. I'm yet another postdoc working for JBCA, but in another building, working mainly on more technical things. My interests are Cosmology, CMB anisotropy/polarization and anomalous microwave emission (AKA "spinning dust") and building experiments to measure them.

Started listening to the Jodcast during my exile in to a mountain top in Tenerife as a way to know what was going on back in Jodrell.

Hello to all the people I wish I could trade places with!

My name is James, and after watching "What We Still Don't Know About The Cosmos" on Channel 4 with Martin Rees a few years a go, I decided I wanted to get into Physics.

I am about 2 years into a Physical Sciences degree with the Open University at the moment and wishing I was better at Math.

Hello, I'm David Ault and I have been here since the start with Nick and Stuart. I was editor and presenter for the first year or so, before scaling back to just co-presenting and doing all the wacky intros/outros. I'm currently based in India performing Shakespeare and am a prolific voice actor across the internet.

David
www.davidault.co.uk

Hi everyone. I'm Roy Smits, Jodcast's little helper. I sometimes do interviews and editing. In my daily job I am a postdoc working at JBCA (although I am currently in Perth). My research involves the square kilometre array and radio pulsars.

As my accent on the Jodcast might reveal, I'm originally from the Netherlands.

Cheers,
Roy

Hello, all. I am an astronomy student in the online Masters program at James Cook University. I live in west central Ohio, in the midwest, which of course means I have some land and a barn (with animals!). Unfortunately there is a military base and large city nearby so the limiting magnitude is 5 or so.

I look forward to new Jodcast episodes each fortnight. It's fun and enthusiastically presented yet still packs a heavy punch of science. I love the interviews with researchers; the very latest theories and discoveries are clearly explained and the hosts ask the questions that I generally wonder myself. Congratulations on a terrific podcast and here's to years of continued funding - I'd write my MP if I had one.

Mark in Dayton

Hi,

My name is Jamie Lovelock. I live about 20 miles away from Jodrell Bank so visit a few times each year.

I have an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and my day job is writing software for financial institutions.

I've been interested in astronomy for many years now and have been listening to the Jodcast from episode 1. I have a small Meade ETX 90 telescope for back garden observing and dabbling in astro-photography.

Should the Jodcast require any help with software, servers and the like, drop me a line and I'll be glad to help out.

--Regards.

Jay.

Hi,

Andy Hewson here, not an astronomer, but just fascinated by astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. I've been listening to the Jodcast since shortly after it started (and still find new things to take in when I re-listen to them every now and again :) )

My background is in computers and IT (degree in Computer Science). I don't have a telescope, my 'observing' being limited to staring up in wonder, using bino's, and taking some photos as photography is another passion. Although I do have a wonderful view of the south to west horizons from my home here in Poole the local street lights are a pain in the a&*^! :)

Keep up the good work!

Andy

Hi there Geoff

hi yall...

im Danny, a Health Care Manager from Liverpool, always loved astronomy so the jodcast just feeds my thirst for knowlodge.. the forum looks great thanks guys

G'day

I'm Mike from Launceston,Tasmania,Australia. I'm a Medcal Imager by day and mainly amateur astronomical observor by night but I do have a couple of cameras lying about that will one day be used when I get myself organised. I've been involved in running Introductory Astronomy Classes for our Adult Education Unit here in Tassie and I really enjoy talking about astronomy and sharing views through my telescopes with people.

Hopefully some good discussions can get going here on the forum. I'll try not to be too shy commenting around all the very wonderfully knowledgable folks here.

Thanks Jodcast for the Entertainment (Intros/Outros) and Informative Interviews. I really look forward each month to listening in.

Cheers

Michael Booth

Hi i'm Nick i am a amateur astronomer and i also know Orphiuchi from slooh. i am currently living in the US and trying tio get more of my slooh friends to listen to the Jodcast. My interests are (astronomically) the Moon , Comets ARP Galaxies, Radio Astronomy and PN's, Outside of Astronomy i like Gardening,Cooking, Homebrew beer and wine, Archery,Amateur radio, Horse riding & Dog sledding. I am working on getting a new 10" Newt reflector with a CCD

Hi dannyliverpool, yodatheoak, MickelB, PiperKev, NickE and teapotcosy. Welcome to the forum.

Hi. I'm an amateur astronomer from the UK, and lover of the wonderfully accessible Jodcast. Thanks for what you do for astronomy and people like me. Your time and effort is hugely appreciated.
There is so much to be amazed by out there - particular favourite for putting everything into perspective is the HUDF pic - and please forgive any apparently stupid questions I may have as I don't have an astrophysicist's brain - as much as I'd like one - but I do wonder about a lot of things!!

Ask An Astronomer questions? - http://www.jodcast.net/contact.html

Nick this is my alternative to the Space bettween Jodcasts...you could look on it as dark energy http://365daysofastronomy.org/

Hi, I'm a journalist from Lancashire and I've always had a vague interest in astronomy although I'm not really sciencey at all. Have been listening to the Jodcast for a few months and am just going back through the whole back catalogue. Love all the segments especially the interviews which are always interesting, informative and fairly easy to follow. It would be interesting to hear interviews with you main presenters too - to find out what your own research interests are.

Thanks Stuart. Will have a listen.

Nick, that is a very useful list and I appreciate you compiling it. Here are some comments:
1. With Nick's departure, I've been tempted to go back to once a month because I don't have the time to edit two shows a month (we have alternated the effort between us). We'll try our best to keep the show twice a month but from May we'll have to see how it goes on a month by month basis as my real work is going to get busier than it already is (the mission I work on launches!).
2. I agree.
3. We've been playing about with the timings for the news for some time now so it is good to know that we've got to something that works.
4. We have mostly moved onto the two microphones/recorders that we bought with the grant money we were awarded in 2007. When our sound quality drops I feel bad. The news isn't recorded with our nice microphones because Megan is in Australia and some of the interviews are are not recorded on them due to not having access at the time. When we have to use alternate microphones the sound quality does drop. If we had money the first thing I would do is get Megan a good, powered microphone. I dream about having the resources of the BBC :-)
5. This is mostly due to our bad memories. Gentle prodding by listeners helps with that. I'd totally forgotten that we said we'd do anything about the engineering. I'll have to have a think about the best way to do that.
6. Nick has done this well. We will probably have to re-gain some of that experience over the next few months as we try to cope without him.

Starbug, unfortunately not. :-( I know that setting up a Cafepress/Spreadshirt account would be very easy (I've done that for personal things), but that idea was not approved of by our University accounts people. The number of t-shirts we would probably sell is quite small so they don't see the point in setting up anything specific.

On the subject of going back to once a month , I wonder if there is some keen/kind person who could be "persauded" to take up some of the work load. I apprecaite that you are often not in one place for that long and widening the team might mean that someone could be introduced gently ? Thought the reason for having less time is a fantastic one liner ! A subject for mention in an upcoming episode ?
Nick

Pity about the t-shirts - they're quite funky I bet!
Looking forward to the April edition - am going through the back catalogue at the moment.

Starbug, that is something that I keep trying to get Ian to do but always remember about it at the wrong time. I've added it to the list so it should hopefully appear soon. If anyone else remembers other things we never came back to, please do let us know.

Just a quick bit of additional info Starbug, have a look on Ian’s web page at
http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/telescope.html

Starbug - if you can, get along to an observing event where you can have a play with lots of different telescopes, see what their capabilities are, and talk to the people who own them about why they chose that particular design.