Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs make meaningful contributions to discoveries. Many professional researchers work hand-in-hand with teams of amateurs to make discoveries that just wouldn't be possible without this kind of collaboration. ...

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Hello,

What you're doing with Astronomy Cast is very, very interesting. It does take a lot of work and dedication to astronomy.
So - first of all - congratulations for this beautiful series of podcasts.
Second - I would like to tell you about a little error in you RSS feed, about episode 66.
When you have subscribed - like I have - to the Astronomy Cast feed ( http://feeds.feedburner.com/astronomycast ) - at episode 66 - you get this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/astro.../~3/198348473/ , which in turn translates to this final URL: http://www.astronomycast.com/solar-s...-to-astronomy/

And... this page is blank. No episode, nothing.

If, however - you go directly to the Astronomy Cast website - and then click the episode's link in the main page - you are directed to this URL: http://www.astronomycast.com/observi...-to-astronomy/ , which is, in fact - the URL for episode 66.

So - I wanted to show you that you have an error in the RSS feed - that you might want to know about.

Nevertheless - keep up the good work!

If I may correct Pamela on the entry cost for doing science, variable stars can be usefully observed with a pair of binoculars and eyeballs. See here: http://www.aavso.org/observing/aids/...larstars.shtml
8" telescopes and CCD cameras not needed.

__________________
Just this guy, you know?

I found this episode to be a very good round-up of what us amateur astronomers can do.

I'd love to be involved more in the science of astronomy. The best I have done is recording a Pluto occultation back in June 2006. Hoping to attempt another couple this year.

The problem I find is getting the time for it. For doing the work and for learning how to do the work. I run my scope automated but even that takes time - time to build the script, time to process images. Finding time for the steep learning curve of these science related areas seems impossible, I guess it would help to have someone local to bash ideas and progress about with. I also wouldn't want to consume lots of a pro's time trying to learn from them how to do the science, they'd have better things to do.

The galaxy one interested me quite a bit, because most of my photography is of PGC objects in the mag 14 - 21 range. It'd be interesting to hear more about that, if photographing galaxies could be combined with real science that'd be nice

Hi, I think this podcast really helps and encourages those who want to do astronomy but don't have those professional abilities.

Just a note, Geminids has been spelt as Gemenids in the show notes. Also, did Frasier mean "overestimate" when he said "underestimate"? (referring to 'underestimating' the amount of sky covered by telescopes)

Thanks for the podcast; now I'm going to the Galaxy Zoo.

Thanks for the heads up, Albertinix - I fixed the link in the feed. Sorry about the mistake!

-Rebecca B-F

Fixed the typo - sorry about that.

-Rebecca B-F