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I've started a new astronomy podcast. Your opinion is requested!

MikeWilson

By MikeWilson
in The Astro Lounge

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Space Beagle

Space Beagle

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Good work!

Nice relaxed style makes it very easy to listen to and keeps people interested, twenty mins passed by very quickly!!

Really very good indeed seeing as you are just starting out on this project! I think you will have lots of regular listeners, including me!

Doc

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jflowers

jflowers

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Is it possible to make mp3 files that can be easily uploaded to my phone or laptop?

If you install real Player basic (free) you can download from Youtube and use the free Real Converter to convert to an MP3 :)

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Hello everyone! :-)

Episode three is now out! We're talking about Meteors, Star Parties (including SGL!) & Kit Maintenance and trying not to spill our drinks. It's available on iTunes right now as well as our website: www.2020astro.com. Youtube will be available a few days later.

Thanks to everybody who has sent me words of encouragement and constructive criticism. I have many messages from various folks on SGL and it's been heartwarming and humbling to hear from various amateur astronomers whether newbie or old hand (as in experienced, not help-the-aged!).

@Vince1963: Thanks Vince, glad you like it!

@s7iffler: :)

@Space Beagle: Awesome name! :) I'm glad 20 mins passed quick! The latest podcast is about 25 mins so hopefully it's not going to bore you to tears! :D I hope you like it and that we can continue to do something you'll enjoy.

@Paul Schofield: Cheers Paul.

@Scosmico: Yes, yes, yes and another yes! We've taken this feedback on board and have put links to the mp3 files up for download (on our website episode pages) as well as going back and reworking the first two episodes into mp3's too.

@jflowers: Thanks for the tip! I didn't realise Real Converter was still running!

All the best,

Mike

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Vince1963

Vince1963

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Again Mike.... Loved it. hope you keep this going :laugh:.. It as a professional feel to it. Pardon my ignorance, but are you guys from media back grounds?. do you have a radio show?, If the answers no.... Watch this space.. I think you could be onto something. Again Thanks guys :icon_salut:

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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I actually had listen to it little bit would be greater if was live video and show some live astronomy :)

watched bit of youtube channel

you shud try ask local planetarium if you could do show in one them.

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't think we're quite ready for live video just yet but we're experimenting with it soon - watch this space (or more appropriately, the YouTube channel :p).

Just had a listen Mike. Very entertaining, as usual :)

Cheers Andy, if there's something you'd like to see in an upcoming episode please say :)

Again Mike.... Loved it. hope you keep this going :laugh:.. It as a professional feel to it. Pardon my ignorance, but are you guys from media back grounds?. do you have a radio show?, If the answers no.... Watch this space.. I think you could be onto something. Again Thanks guys :icon_salut:

Cheers Vince! No media background - I'm producing the show and am completely new to this although I wanted to produce something good quality that would be fun to listen to, rather than record it on a potato and simply throw it out there :p I've not done radio or anything like that before and it's really surprising quite how difficult it is to talk when there's a microphone in front of you. :p

Nice Mike,

It will be really nice to have it on mp3. I normally play it during my commute to work. Much better than listen to news of war.

Cheers.

"Username"'s suggestion is a good one although we already have mp3's that you can download for each show - download links are on the website and you can right click them and select 'save as' to download them to your desktop as mp3 files. They're 128kbps so small, about 20mb each.

For everyone that wants mp3 just paste the youtube url in to this site

www.video2mp3.net

Easiest way I know of.

I will listen to the casts later Mike in an astro marathon :)

Haha, cheers! If you still have a pulse afterwards and haven't fallen asleep, let me know :)

All the best,

Mike

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Vince1963

Vince1963

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Well Mike you've got something here.. I feel it in my water. The whole format is great and enjoyable to listen to. I think radio could do with a late show like yours, i know i would listen to it as would a lot of guy's on here would agree. :icon_salut:

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Well Mike you've got something here.. I feel it in my water. The whole format is great and enjoyable to listen to. I think radio could do with a late show like yours, i know i would listen to it as would a lot of guy's on here would agree. :icon_salut:

Well there's a fair bit of water around at the moment, but thanks for the compliment. We're recording again tomorrow night!

All the best,

Mike

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username

username

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Finally managed the marathon Mike. Good stuff! I failed first attempt due to staying up for Jupiter rising and trying to listen at 0430, needless to say I did fall asleep!! Tried again whilst shopping and succeeded. Got strange looks when laughing at 'pst is built like a Kalashnikov' :D

You mentioned about the pub noise in the thread, I like it. Thought it made a nice backdrop.

"Username"'s suggestion is a good one although we already have mp3's that you can download for each show - download links are on the website and you can right click them and select 'save as' to download them to your desktop as mp3 files. They're 128kbps so small, about 20mb each.

This is my new easiest way of getting the mp3 version ;)

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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I thought everyone who was subscribed to this thread might want to know - we've released a second channel (due to requests for more content!) called "2020 Extra Time" which is available on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/2020-astro-extra-time/id549246613 - it's scheduled to release fortnightly inbetween our main episodes but also has some extra content now and again :)

As always, feedback is welcome, I hope everyone likes it.

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pduk

pduk

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I've been listening to all the podcasts over the last few days and just wanted to write to say what a great job you're doing - keep it up! Also, I really like the 20 minute approach. I find many podcasts are just way too long... starship sofa is the worst for this (SF podcast) and I never manage to get through it all in one sitting.

As someone who also dabbles in podcasting (I do one occasionally about a musician, Roy Harper) I'm interested to know what equipment you're using to get such a nice sound in the pub! Any chance you can spill the beans on microphones, mixer, and special settings for post production (compression etc)? Just thought I'd ask :)

Paul.

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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I've been listening to all the podcasts over the last few days and just wanted to write to say what a great job you're doing - keep it up! Also, I really like the 20 minute approach. I find many podcasts are just way too long... starship sofa is the worst for this (SF podcast) and I never manage to get through it all in one sitting.

As someone who also dabbles in podcasting (I do one occasionally about a musician, Roy Harper) I'm interested to know what equipment you're using to get such a nice sound in the pub! Any chance you can spill the beans on microphones, mixer, and special settings for post production (compression etc)? Just thought I'd ask :)

Paul.

Hi Paul,

I'm glad you like it! We use a load of gear and cart it into the pub for every single session in several boxes and spend a lot of time working on the sound in the pub before we hit the tape recorder! We've usually frequented the bar at least twice in this time before we've gotten started :p Twenty minutes we feel is about right but we have some longer specials planned for those things that just can't be done in 20 minutes :) I've not heard of Starship Sofa but will check it out now you've mentioned it!

We are thinking about doing some live shows in the future, if you wanted to see more (although some pictures of us and our gear is on our website) in person. Stay tuned to the 2020 main show and the 2020 extra time show (both separate podcasts in iTunes) for more info on when this happens.

In fact, we're going to release a short piece on the curiosity rover, on 2020 Extra Time (a link on our site) tonight :)

All the best,

Mike

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aurochs

aurochs

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Watched Episode 1. I liked the laid-back, lighthearted style of it but, as a novice, when you were discussing different mount types I didn't know what you were talking about with the EQ, NEQ, etc. so maybe a bit more classification for complete novices would be beneficial? And I only knew what the dobsonian mount was like because I have one myself. So someone who isn't familiar with a dob mount isn't going to know what it really is.

Personally, I felt like it didn't really hit the 'crash course in astronomy'. Choosing a telescope was cited as a topic for the podcast but never really gotten into. I don't know how much of a 'beginner' you are aiming for, but words such as 'aperture' and 'focal length' have been thrown around and not explained, so an absolute beginner might be a little confused by it.

Maybe 20 minutes is slightly too short to get everything in that you want to talk about. You began by giving examples of what there was to see and spoke about dark skies, which was good. Then there was a tiny part about telescopes where you've said a bit about what views are possible, with regards to aperture and focal length, but haven't really told the viewer, who may be a complete beginner, what aperture or focal length actually mean. Then much time is spent talking about mounts where, like I said before, different types are mentioned without explanation. Choosing a first telescope doesn't really come into it. I liked that you spoke about some personal experiences e.g. with the drain pipe telescope and it was also good to speak about the benefits of a good mount vs a cheaper one, and the dangers of a 'department store' scope was very good subject to mention. Overall I felt it was too improvised and 'made up as it went along' and could have done with more structure, but I did like the informal style of the discussion.

Just my honest opinion.

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Thanks for the feedback aurochs. This is exactly what I wanted to hear.

We've received quite a lot of feedback along these lines after episode 1 and made some changes for episode 2 by shortening the introduction and tightening up our presentation. Episode 3 & 4 are even better as we've had a bit of practice now. Moving forward to episode 5 (out this week!), we've increased the amount of time that we spend on our review and crash course segments so that we now give a more thorough coverage without running out of time.

I've been attempting to ensure that we cover all topics with an explanation of technical terms wherever we use them but sometimes one or two slip through unexplained. I'll make this a priority for future episodes.

I really appreciate your honest opinion as it helps the show to improve.

Aurochs, If we could do one thing to improve the show that would mean you'd return to listen again, what would it be? ("Buy me a pint" notwithstanding!).

All the best,

Mike

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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We've released episode 5, the topic is, "Choosing the best telescope for your astronomy":

Show notes: http://www.2020astro.com/episode-5-choosing-the-right-telescope/

HTML player: http://bit.ly/P2tQi7

SGL is linked in the show notes and as usual, we recommend people come here for quick answers to their astronomy questions :)

Please let me know what you think; all of your feedback in the first two pages of this thread have hopefully been met for this episode so thanks very much for the critique!

All the best,

Mike

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