150 – The European Extremely Large Telescope

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In this episode we talk with Jochen Liske from the European Southern Observatory about the E-ELT Telescope for which construction is about to start. We discuss the engineering challenges of building a 40m mirror and the associated telescope, as well as the science that is planned to be addressed with the E-ELT once it is finished. We also discuss a number of issues around optical astronomy in general that were not covered in our episode about the LBT.

Joe Liske is also the host of both the HUBBLEcast and the ESOCast, two video podcasts about astronomy you may want to check out.

111 – Optical Astronomy and the Large Binocular Telescope

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This epsiode covers my visit at the Large Binocular Telescope near Tucson, Arizona. The episode is mostly a conversation with the telescope’s director, Richard Green. We talk about optical astronomy in general and the LBT in particular. I also talk to a scientist who is currently observing at the telescope as well as a telescope operator.

016 – Radio Astronomy and the ALMA Telescope

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This episode is a discussion about radio astronomy and the ALMA observatory with ESO’s Robert Laing, the European instrument scientist for ALMA. The episode has three parts. The first part talks about the science of radio astronomy: current challenges and physical basics. The second part adresses how observing with radio astronomy actually works: the principles behind telescopes and how they are built and operated. Part three then looks at the ALMA observatory specifically, a new, large sub-millimeter radio interferometer currently built in the Atacama Desert in Chile.