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Astronomycast, episode 319, the zodiac.

Welcome to Astronomycast, our weekly facts-based journey through the cosmos,

to help you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know.

My name is Fraser Kane, I'm the publisher of the universe today, and with me is Dr. Pamela Kay,

a professor at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and the director of CosmQuest, Pamela, how you doing?

I'm doing well. How are you doing, Fraser?

Great. How is your weather there?

It is gloriously sunny with orange and red leaves, and it's cold.

It's strangely warm here. Normally it's a lot colder. We got our first frost just a couple of days ago,

but it's just been so warm outside. It's been great.

We've hit the time of the year where you occasionally find critters that didn't find some place warm enough

before the sun went down, just frozen in space.

But you got a frog pick, right?

I did. I got a glorious. It's a toad.

It's an American toad that likes to scare the bejesus out of me once or twice a week.

How big are they?

This one's about the size of a fest. It's just big enough to be a challenge to pick up and move some place

that it won't get stepped on.

That's a big amphibian. We don't have anything like that here.

Awesome, amphibian.

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