McDonald Observatory and the Quest for Dark Energy

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Technology, Science

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2017

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The University of Texas at Austin’s observatory is high in the hills of west Texas. In this special episode, Mat Kaplan joins the tens of thousands who visit it each year. The occasion was the dedication of the vastly upgraded Hobby-Eberly Telescope, third largest on Earth.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Off to West Texas and a giant telescope this week on planetary radio.
0:07.0	Welcome, I'm a Kaplan of the Planetary Society with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond.
0:17.0	A special show this week as we visit famed McDonald Observatory.
0:22.0	If you're like me, you mainly know them through the terrific star-date radio feature,
0:27.0	but wait till you hear what they have begun to do with one of the world's largest telescopes.
0:32.0	Bill Nye has the week off as he prepares for the April 8th. of the world's largest telescopes.
0:32.6	Bill Nye has the week off as he prepares for the April 22nd March for Science to
0:37.8	say nothing of the April 21st premiere on Netflix of Bill Nye saves the world.
0:44.7	We hope to have an extended conversation with the science guy on next week's planetary radio.
0:50.1	Head east on Interstate 10 out of El Paso.
0:53.2	Go south when you reach Texas Highway 118,
0:56.3	you'll rise out of the West Texas scrub into the green rolling hills
1:01.2	that surround one of the world's foremost optical astronomy sites.
1:06.0	If you're lucky you'll arrive on one of the evenings when the McDonald Observatory adds
1:10.6	sharing science to merely doing it.
1:13.2	Telescope domes seem to be everywhere.
1:16.0	Under some of those domes,
1:17.8	starry-eyed visitors are being introduced to the wonders of the night sky.
1:22.0	You're going to hold on to this ladder,
1:24.0	and you're going to be looking right into that eye piece.
1:27.0	You were looking at those four bright stars in the center,
1:30.0	those form the trapezium,
	...

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