TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: Star Trails: A Weekly Astronomy Podcast

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96 episodes
2024 to 2026
Median: 13 minutes
Collection: Physics, Math, and Astronomy

Description (podcaster-provided):

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

This podcast is a weekly guide for amateur astronomers focused on what’s visible in the night sky from North America, blending practical observing advice with accessible explanations of the science behind what listeners are seeing. Episodes regularly include a “night sky report” that orients listeners to the week’s Moon phase, bright planets, conjunctions, and seasonal constellations, along with tips for observing with the naked eye, binoculars, or a small telescope. Meteor showers, eclipses, solstices and equinoxes, and darker “new moon week” windows for deep-sky targets are recurring touchpoints, often paired with suggestions for specific clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and asterisms to track down.

Alongside the weekly sky tour, the show frequently zooms out into larger astronomy topics and current space news. It explains key concepts that shape how the sky behaves—Earth’s rotation and orbit, retrograde motion, tidal locking, precession, and the long-term shifting of constellations—while also covering how astronomers measure time and navigate using relativity and precision clocks. Many episodes explore objects and phenomena across a wide range of scales: the life cycles and colors of stars, novae and supernovae, black holes and gravitational lensing, dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, and the history and fate of the universe.

A noticeable theme is the intersection of astronomy with human culture and imagination. The podcast draws on mythology and ancient skywatching, reflects on famous missions and images like the Pale Blue Dot and the Voyager Golden Record, and examines SETI-related questions such as the Drake Equation, the Fermi Paradox, and messages like the Arecibo transmission—sometimes with hands-on coding or simulations. The tone also leaves room for philosophical reflection on distance, time, and meaning as they relate to looking up at the night sky, while still keeping the content grounded in observational practice and scientific context.

Episodes:

The Myth of the Perfect Night 2026-Jan-25 23 minutes

Choreography of the Cosmos: Why the Sky Never Stands Still 2026-Jan-18 21 minutes

Night of the Hunter: A Deep Dive into Orion 2026-Jan-11 25 minutes

How to Begin (or Begin Again) With the Night Sky 2026-Jan-04 22 minutes

Winter’s Beacons (And a Holiday Gift) 2025-Dec-21 11 minutes

How to Build a Time Machine 2025-Nov-30 29 minutes

Eras of the Universe (Taylor’s Version) 2025-Nov-23 26 minutes

Sad Astronomy: Reflections on Distance, Death, and Meaning 2025-Nov-16 23 minutes

Playing Dice with the Universe 2025-Nov-09 26 minutes

A Postcard to the Cosmos: Recreating the Arecibo Signal 2025-Nov-02 25 minutes

The Silence Between the Stars 2025-Oct-26 21 minutes

Echoes from the Cosmic Graveyard 2025-Oct-19 13 minutes

The Mid-October Sky and The House of a Thousand Mirrors 2025-Oct-12 12 minutes

Unsolved Mysteries of the Cosmos (and a Supermoon Too) 2025-Oct-05 22 minutes

Star Trails will return on October 5 2025-Sep-27 2 minutes

Tempus Fugit: Time in Space and Sky 2025-Aug-31 13 minutes

A Dark Sky for Us, and a New Moon for Uranus 2025-Aug-24 13 minutes

The Black Moon & the Milky Way’s Hidden Companions 2025-Aug-17 13 minutes

Perseids, Planets, and the Smell of Space 2025-Aug-10 15 minutes

The Sturgeon Moon and the Fossil in the Dark 2025-Aug-03 9 minutes

Meteors, Mars, and a Betelgeuse Breakthrough 2025-Jul-27 12 minutes

The Quiet Planet and the Loud Sky 2025-Jul-20 12 minutes

A Star in Someone Else’s Sky 2025-Jul-13 12 minutes

Weighty Matters and Wandering Worlds 2025-Jul-06 16 minutes

Cosmic Fireworks and a Crazy Week of Space News 2025-Jun-29 14 minutes

Blazars, Bootids and a Blackout Moon 2025-Jun-22 10 minutes

Under the Same Stars: Ancient Astronomy 2025-Jun-15 17 minutes

Sunspots, Moon Tricks, and Meteors at Dawn 2025-Jun-08 15 minutes

Urban Alignments and Cosmic Parking Spots 2025-Jun-01 14 minutes

New Moon Week and the Mystery of Missing Green Stars 2025-May-25 9 minutes

Erased from the Charts, but Still Etched in the Stars 2025-May-18 13 minutes

A Crown, a Ghost Planet, and a Star That Ate Another Star 2025-May-11 12 minutes

Tracking Vesta and Exploring Alien Worlds 2025-May-04 14 minutes

Cosmic Rebels & Celestial Farewells 2025-Apr-27 11 minutes

Dawn Patrol: Planets, Meteors, and a Wandering Comet 2025-Apr-20 4 minutes

Crows, Cosmic Collisions, and the Coming Lyrids 2025-Apr-13 13 minutes

Sky Serpents and Space Legends 2025-Apr-06 11 minutes

Galaxy Season: A Deep Sky Adventure 2025-Mar-30 9 minutes

Spring Skies, a Solar Eclipse, and the Shadow of a Black Hole 2025-Mar-23 13 minutes

Planets Fade, Leo Roars, and the Equinox Arrives 2025-Mar-16 16 minutes

Blood Moon Rising: A Total Lunar Eclipse 2025-Mar-09 9 minutes

Cosmic Collisions: Asteroids, Comets, and the Science of Planetary Defense 2025-Mar-02 15 minutes

Dark Skies, Elusive Light, and Pluto’s Legacy 2025-Feb-23 16 minutes

Venus at Peak Brilliance and the Voyager Golden Record 2025-Feb-16 25 minutes

The Snow Moon & The Pale Blue Dot: A Cosmic Perspective 2025-Feb-09 16 minutes

One Year of Star Trails: A Journey Through the Cosmos and Time 2025-Feb-02 23 minutes

Hunting the Hunter: Orion’s Myth and Marvels 2025-Jan-26 16 minutes

Stars 101: The Building Blocks of the Cosmos 2025-Jan-19 16 minutes

The Wolf Moon and Mars: Spooky Occultations & Planetary Oddities 2025-Jan-12 17 minutes

A Beginner’s Winter Sky Tour & the Wonders of Ceres 2025-Jan-05 22 minutes

December Stargazing Highlights and a Holiday Break 2024-Dec-01 4 minutes

A Celestial Feast: Thanksgiving Under the Stars 2024-Nov-24 14 minutes

Skies Alive: Planets, Meteors, and Satellites in Motion 2024-Nov-17 14 minutes

The Beaver Moon, Planetary Pairings, and the Cosmic Ray Mystery 2024-Nov-10 16 minutes

Star Party Stories and November’s Night Sky 2024-Nov-03 17 minutes

Spirits in the Sky: Halloween Stargazing 2024-Oct-27 17 minutes

Chasing Comets and Conquering Light Pollution 2024-Oct-20 20 minutes

The Hunter's Moon and Celestial Resonances 2024-Oct-13 17 minutes

Autumn Stargazing: From the Draconids to Dazzling Planets 2024-Oct-06 17 minutes

A Comet, a Crescent Moon and the Myth of the Great Bear 2024-Sep-29 15 minutes

Autumn Arrives, Stargazing Adventures on Vacation 2024-Sep-22 15 minutes

Light and Darkness: From the Harvest Moon to the Far Side 2024-Sep-15 10 minutes

Quasars: Ancient Objects of the Early Universe 2024-Sep-08 10 minutes

Moon Mysteries and the Rise of Pegasus 2024-Sep-01 11 minutes

Celestial Triangles and Cosmic Clocks 2024-Aug-25 14 minutes

The Sturgeon Blue Supermoon and Cosmic Ripples 2024-Aug-18 14 minutes

The Perseid Meteor Shower and Wonders of Radio Astronomy 2024-Aug-11 14 minutes

Exploring Nebulae: Cosmic Clouds and Stellar Nurseries 2024-Aug-04 13 minutes

A Galactic Grand Tour; the Moon and Planets Gather 2024-Jul-28 14 minutes

Exploring the Milky Way, Our Galactic Neighborhood 2024-Jul-21 13 minutes

The Perseids Meteor Shower, a Conjunction, and the Summer Triangle 2024-Jul-14 15 minutes

Summer’s Starry Nights, a Nova Watch, and Planetary Adventures 2024-Jul-07 21 minutes

Dark Skies and Dazzling Sights: Summer’s Celestial Fireworks 2024-Jun-30 14 minutes

Summer’s Cosmic Wonders and Martian Milestones 2024-Jun-23 12 minutes

A Strawberry Moon, the Summer Solstice, and a Star Going Nova 2024-Jun-16 14 minutes

Moon Pairings, Planetary Highlights, and the Afterglow of Creation 2024-Jun-09 14 minutes

Planets on Parade, a New Moon, and How to Read a Star Chart 2024-Jun-02 13 minutes

Neptune's Secrets and May's Stellar Highlights 2024-May-26 10 minutes

A Flower Moon, Parading Planets, and the Quest to Prove General Relativity 2024-May-19 10 minutes

Saturn’s Disappearing Rings, Night Sky Lore, Plus, Telescope Talk 2024-May-12 11 minutes

The Shimmering Fury: Geomagnetic Storms 2024-May-10 4 minutes

May Meteor Showers, Dark Nights and Planet Nine 2024-May-05 8 minutes

Moving into May Skies, Plus, Paying Homage to Hubble 2024-Apr-28 7 minutes

A Pink Moon Rises; Plus, Making Sense of RA and Declination 2024-Apr-21 9 minutes

Twilight Whispers, and Mysteries of the Unseen 2024-Apr-14 8 minutes

The Wonders of Early April, the Eclipse, and the Life Cycle of Stars 2024-Apr-07 7 minutes

A New Moon in April Offers Dark Skies; Plus, All About Eclipses 2024-Mar-31 7 minutes

Spring Skies, a Comet Returns, and the Discovery of Uranus 2024-Mar-24 8 minutes

Spring Equinox Skies, Plus, Binoculars for Astronomy 2024-Mar-17 7 minutes

Marching into Spring: Jupiter Dances with the Moon; Tracing the Ecliptic 2024-Mar-10 8 minutes

Moving into March with a Messier Marathon and More 2024-Mar-03 9 minutes

February's Celestial Curtain Call: The Moon and Planets Dazzle 2024-Feb-25 4 minutes

Twilight Dance: Venus, Mars, the Snow Moon, and Winter's Guardians 2024-Feb-18 6 minutes

Valentine's Stargazing: Venus, Mars, and the First Quarter Moon 2024-Feb-11 4 minutes

February's Frosty Cosmos: Winter Constellations Unveiled 2024-Feb-04 3 minutes

Introducing Star Trails: A Weekly Journey Through the Cosmos 2024-Feb-04 1 minute