Starchaser: Extraordinary Astronomer Jay Pasachoff

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Science, Technology

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2019

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jay Pasachoff visits Planetary Society headquarters for a conversation about the latest edition of his and Alex Filippenko’s monumental textbook The Cosmos. But that’s just the start of a discussion that explores solar astronomy, art and science, the history of astronomy and Jay’s nearly 60-year history of total solar eclipse observations. The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 may look like LightSail 1, but Jason Davis tells us there are important differences between these spacecraft, beginning with their missions. What’s Up brings another opportunity to win Alan Stern’s great book, Chasing New Horizons in the space trivia contest. You can learn more about all of this week’s topics at: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2019/0529-2019-jay-pasachoff.htmlLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Extraordinary astronomer
0:02.0	astronomer, author, and Eclipse Chaser, Jay Passikoff,
0:05.0	this week on planetary radio.
0:07.0	Welcome, I'm Ad Kaplan, of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our
0:17.0	solar system and beyond.
0:19.5	As you'll hear, Jay Passikoff doesn't like the term Eclipse Chaser.
0:24.1	His alternatives for that title are part of our wonderful conversation with him that will touch
0:28.8	on art, poetry, mysteries of the universe, and the history of civilization.
0:34.0	Jay also makes a cameo appearance in this week's What's Up segment with Bruce Betts.
0:39.0	You might win a copy of chasing new horizons in the Space Trivia Contest.
0:43.8	Why is the launch of a second light sail spacecraft so important to the planetary society?
0:50.1	That's Society blog, Litesale 2 arrives in Florida, that our spacecraft is at its final destination
1:06.7	at least before it takes off for Earth Orbit.
1:10.7	And it's what, inside the Prox1 carrier now?
1:14.0	Yeah, it's already inside the spacecraft has been there since it was integrated back in New Mexico,
1:18.0	the Air Force research lab, and then they shipped them both as an integrated unit down to Florida.
1:24.0	So presumably at some point very soon it'll get attached to the launch vehicle.
1:29.0	From there it's launch time so it's coming up fast.
1:32.8	And as far as we know that launch date is still set for June 22nd?
1:37.0	Mm-hmm.
1:38.0	Yes, and we have a time now, 1130 in the evening, so it's going to be a night launch for the Falcon Heavy.
1:45.0	You and I will be there watching and that really will be spectacular.
	...

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