StarStuff

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About Me

Hi, I'm Stuart Gary, I'm a journalist and broadcaster with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. I love science, especially the majesty and wonder of space, so I put together a weekly astronomy show for the ABC called StarStuff.

In my spare time I like to fly planes, practice karate and pistol target shooting and play around with my cars, a twin Turbocharged Falcon GT Interceptor and a DeTomaso Pantera GTS.

I’m vegan, a life member of the RSPCA and a supporter of several animal welfare organisations.

My other great passion is music which is understandable when you realise that I was a radio music jock long before I became a journalist. My record library contains tens of thousands of singles, albums, videos, CD’s and DVDs. These days that’s all stored in an 8 terabyte raid enclosure linked to a desk top PC at home. My tastes range from rock and grunge through to trance and new romantics. At the moment I’m listening to heaps of MGMT, William Control, Hawthorne Heights and Short Shack, but I have lots of time for the classics like Placebo and the early stuff from Silverchair, In fact Neon Ballroom is still my favourite album, and Emotion Sickness is still one of my two favourite songs (the other being William Control’s Death Club).

StarStuff is a great name for the show, but it works on more levels than just astronomy, it’s really cool for any science program because everything in the universe after the quark gluon plasma of the big bang is star stuff even the iron which makes your blood red was manufactured in the supernova explosions of stars. Carl Sagan said it best, we are all star stuff.


This blog is designed to allow me to publish all the things which can’t fit into StarStuff. There’s heaps of really interesting stuff out there and only a half hour window for the show, so each week becomes a battle to try and squeeze it all in. This blog lets me do that.

You can check out the show at the offical ABC StarStuff website:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/starstuff/

There's also an official ABC StarStuff Twitter feed: @abcstarstuff

And an official ABC Science website: http://www.abc.net.au/science/


The legal stuff: This is my personal blog. The views expressed in this blog are those of me only and not the Australian Broadcasting Corporation or its management. I do not claim ownership of any of the media in this blog. where possible credit and or source will always be given. If one of your photos or other media is submitted in this blog and you would like it removed please let me know.

Blogs I follow:

Theme by: Miguel
  1. Transit of Venus wows astronomers worldwide Astronomers around the world looked to the sky last night and this morning to observe Venus as it passed across the face of the Sun for the last time this century. ESA’s Sun-watching space missions also tuned in for the solar spectacular. ESA’s microsatellite Proba-2, situated in low-Earth orbit, tracked Venus as it moved across the solar disc over a period of nearly seven hours. Venus appears to wobble thanks to the slight up-down motion of Proba-2 and the large distance between the satellite and the Sun. Of particular interest was the moment of first contact – when Venus first appeared to touch the limb of the solar disc – resulting in a tiny dip in solar brightness. The dip associated with Venus’ thick atmosphere, even before Venus had fully entered the solar disc, will help exoplanet scientists study the atmospheres of rocky Earth-sized planets outside of our Solar System. Another phenomenon observed during the transit included the ‘black drop’ effect – the small black teardrop shape that appears to connect Venus to the limb of the Sun just after it has fully entered the solar disc and again later, when it begins to leave the disc. Astronomers were also keen to capture the aureole, an arc of light seen around the planet’s disc during the first and last minutes of the transit. It was first observed during the transit of 1761 and revealed that Venus has an atmosphere. ESA’s teams in Svalbard enjoyed the transit under the midnight sun, in between cloudy spells. From ESA’s Space Astronomy Center (ESAC), Michel Breitfellner and Miguel Perez Ayucar observed the transit using solar and optical telescopes equipped with cameras. An identical set of instruments simultaneously streamed the transit from the other side of the world in Canberra, Australia. Despite interruptions from cloud, it was fantastic to observe nearly the full duration of the transit under the midnight sun in such spectacular surroundings,” said Pérez Ayúcar. Over the coming weeks, scientists and astronomers from around the world will compare their results with each other and with data collected by space-based observatories, including ESA’s Venus Express. “We’re looking forward to comparing the ground-based data with that collected by Venus Express during the time of the transit to provide a complete view of Venus’ rapidly changing atmosphere,” added ESA’s Venus Express project scientist Håkan Svedhem. image…. Transit of Venus as seen from Canberra, Australia Credits: Michel Breitfellner and Miguel Perez Ayucar/ESAC

    Transit of Venus wows astronomers worldwide

    Astronomers around the world looked to the sky last night and this morning to observe Venus as it passed across the face of the Sun for the last time this century. ESA’s Sun-watching space missions also tuned in for the solar spectacular.

    ESA’s microsatellite Proba-2, situated in low-Earth orbit, tracked Venus as it moved across the solar disc over a period of nearly seven hours. Venus appears to wobble thanks to the slight up-down motion of Proba-2 and the large distance between the satellite and the Sun.

    Of particular interest was the moment of first contact – when Venus first appeared to touch the limb of the solar disc – resulting in a tiny dip in solar brightness. The dip associated with Venus’ thick atmosphere, even before Venus had fully entered the solar disc, will help exoplanet scientists study the atmospheres of rocky Earth-sized planets outside of our Solar System.

    Another phenomenon observed during the transit included the ‘black drop’ effect – the small black teardrop shape that appears to connect Venus to the limb of the Sun just after it has fully entered the solar disc and again later, when it begins to leave the disc.

    Astronomers were also keen to capture the aureole, an arc of light seen around the planet’s disc during the first and last minutes of the transit. It was first observed during the transit of 1761 and revealed that Venus has an atmosphere.

    ESA’s teams in Svalbard enjoyed the transit under the midnight sun, in between cloudy spells. From ESA’s Space Astronomy Center (ESAC), Michel Breitfellner and Miguel Perez Ayucar observed the transit using solar and optical telescopes equipped with cameras. An identical set of instruments simultaneously streamed the transit from the other side of the world in Canberra, Australia.

    Despite interruptions from cloud, it was fantastic to observe nearly the full duration of the transit under the midnight sun in such spectacular surroundings,” said Pérez Ayúcar.

    Over the coming weeks, scientists and astronomers from around the world will compare their results with each other and with data collected by space-based observatories, including ESA’s Venus Express.

    “We’re looking forward to comparing the ground-based data with that collected by Venus Express during the time of the transit to provide a complete view of Venus’ rapidly changing atmosphere,” added ESA’s Venus Express project scientist Håkan Svedhem.

    image….
    Transit of Venus as seen from Canberra, Australia

    Credits: Michel Breitfellner and Miguel Perez Ayucar/ESAC

    2. 2 Notes
    1. sarahstocracy reblogged this from abcstarstuff and added:
      This is so happy :D
    2. abcstarstuff posted this