FMR's John Woodland is putting on a series of stellar choral concerts called 'The Place of the Stars' with Vox in the Observatory McClean dome and talks to Kechil about it in the dome itself.

Professor Oleg Smirnov at Rhodes University and SARAO talks some more to Kechil about the PARROT pulsar.

Kechil talks to Sam Wilson, author of The First Murder on Mars about some of the practicalities of living on Mars

Sara de la Fuente is the Science Operations Manager for a very interesting mission that was launched on 14th April to visit the icy moons of Jupiter. The mission will involve many different science instruments. For example, it will take detailed images and measure the magnetic fields around Jupiter's moons.

Two important rockets to talk about. Firstly the launch of the JUICE mission last Friday to the moons of Jupiter, and secondly Space-X's gigantic Starship.

The Earth, and every other object we know in space, could be bobbing around on an ocean of low frequency gravity waves. Kechil explains something about what this means.

More NEOs, or Near Earth Objects. An asteroid passed by at 175,000 kms. A close shave! What can we do about these threatening lumps of rock?

How is your cosmological coupling? What has this to do with Dark Energy? What are black holes up to? What is Cold Death and when might it occur? These and other questions may have nothing to do with your daily life, but they are fascinating. Kechil talks to Dr Chris Pearson who has the answers, or, as a true scientist, knows more of what we don't know.

Dr Chris Pearson tells Kechil about the scary Event Horizon, the point of no return when you get near a black hole. Hear it from the expert!

Black holes! What are they? How many are out there? How do we know they are there? Kechil talks to Dr Chris Pearson who was in Cape Town with the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project.

There is a big meeting happening right now in Cape Town at the South African Astronomical Observatory, where engineers, technologists and scientists have flown in from the four corners. Kechil talks to Louisa Quartermaine from Perth about the Australian component of the Square Kilometre Array, the biggest telescope being built in the world, in South Africa and Australia.

There is a pretty conjunction of Venus and Jupiter you might like to take a look at in the evening or just before sunrise, if you have a clear western aspect. Kechil motors through conjunctions, alignments and other geometric features of our position in the solar system.

A reminder that the observatory has open nights on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month at 8pm. You need to book which you can do from their website saao.ac.za.
The Very Large Telescope and the European Space Agency's space telescopes have combined strengths and produced images of an exoplanet orbiting around a star in the constellation of Lepus. You can see this for yourself either on space.com or on the European Southern Observatory's website eso.org.

Kechil talks to Sam Wilson, author of The First Murder on Mars about how societies and humans may evolve on Mars

There is a pretty chain of planets to be seen after sunset at this time, if you have a clear western horizon. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) has been visible in the southern hemisphere - a green blob that won't be back here, if at all, for a very very long time. And three more objects have been shot down by the US militia.

Last Sunday the US shot down a Chinese balloon which had made its way across US territory. What is special about balloons? What sort of balloon was it? Are we all living in a spy novel?

Kechil unpacks the Skittles image from the James Webb Space Telescope which she and astronomer Pamala Klassen were chatting about last week.

Pamela Kassen, an astronomer from Edinburgh, is here in Cape Town and talks to Kechil about the latest from the James Webb Space Telescope, a telescope up in space whose data she works with. Here she describes that the universe has far more galaxies than originally thought, and it is a colourful place.

A satellite launch recently failed from the UK on 9th January. Satellites were to be released from a rocket fired from a jumbo jet which took off from Cornwall, a southern county in England. This was the first ever satellite launch from the UK, but they will try again. Learn about some other failures, and how bad space can be for your teeth!

There is a comet arriving in our neighbourhood, listen out for announcements in early February. There are new lunar landers created by private industry, on their way to the Moon. These pave the way for more ambitious undertakings.

How is it that the Earth is not the center of the solar system? It does look like the Sun, Moon and planets move around us. Retrograde motion, epicycles, these are explained in 5-minutes, with some history thrown in.

The Orion capsule splashed down last Sunday, as part of NASA's Artemis programme, which will send humans back to the Moon. Find out how it's going.

Sumari Barocci-Faul, a Masters student at the University of Cape Town, tells Kechil about her research in cataclysmic variable stars: exploding stars - more great balls of fire.

Great balls of fire! A fireball, or bolide, was seen by many above Kirstenbosch Gardens at the concert last weekend. And other fiery topics: the eruption of Mauna Loa in Hawaii and volcanism on other planets in, and out of, our solar system.

Saturn's rings have disappeared! Also - what's a star party?

Chris Forder has spent a lifetime building telescopes, a very worthy hobby. He tells Kechil about the changes that have occurred in telescope design and materials over the last 60 years.

South Africa is to host a ground station for NASA to communicate with the Artemis lunar exploration programme at Matjiesfontein. This is great news for SANSA. Also a plug for the 2023 Sky Guide Southern Africa published by Penguin Random House / Struik Nature.

Five minutes at the end of each week explores the big and the small questions in astronomy, cosmology, and space science. Hosted by Kechil Kirkham, no subject is too big or too small, and experts are regularly brought on board to illuminate and excite. Cape Town is the place to be for astronomy, with some of the largest telescopes in the world housed or being built not too far away. Looking Up takes advantage of the shoals of scientists and engineers working on the planet’s most advanced astronomy projects, who live and work right here in the Mother City. Kechil has recently acquired an MPhil in Space Studies at the University of Cape Town, and works in South Africa’s space industry on the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope.

Kechil mentions a couple of new space engineering endeavours: how to get heavy objects through tricky atmospheres on other planets, and launching hypersonic planes from other massive planes. Also something scary for Halloween: a large asteroid missed us. Phew!

An ancient text has been found and accurately dated, to the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in 129 BCE. This is a major historical breakthrough as it shows that people were accurately measuring the stars at that time, and using charts to predict their positions and movements.

Out in the Karoo in the middle of the Northern Cape is the site of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, consisting of 64 MeerKAT radio dishes and other strange instruments, designed to capture radio waves from the universe. Turning them into something astronomers can work with requires the biggest super computer in Africa, massive power generation, and all sorts of high tech equipment. Here to tell us about this is Andre Walker who is in charge of the Data Centre.

A round up of recent astronomical news: the effect of hurricane Ian on space launches, Citizen Science and the search for exoplanets has a new SETI project, and no eclipse for us down in South Africa.

NASA's DART project could save the entire planet! Last Monday NASA successfully hit a small lump of rock in space, knocking it very slightly off orbit. This is a demonstration of a method that could be used to deal with a real threat to Earth from space.

Professor Paul Groote talks to Kechil about multiwavelength astronomy and how it is that we know so much about the stars.

Want to see the biggest single-mirror telescope in the hemisphere? Want to look at the stars through powerful instruments? Claudine Jasmine is a tour guide in Sutherland at the South African Astronomical Observatory and here tells Kechil what you need to do. Go to www.saao.ac.za to book for a day or night tour. It's fabulous. SAAO

What are the differences between the northern and southern hemispheres? Barry Linton from the south of England and a member of our local astronomy society, explains.

The James Webb Space Telescope has been at it again, and has found something odd - a star with concentric rings.

What has the James Webb Space Telescope been up to? It's found carbon dioxide on a far away planet, WASP-39b, and also taken a peek at Jupiter's auroras and rings.

Gamma-Ray Bursts: Simon de Wet gives us the low-down. Do not get in the beam of a Gamma Ray Burst. Sadly, the only way to avoid this is to leave planet Earth.

Latest from space: what is the impact on the invasion of Ukraine on the Russian space agency, Roscosmos? What's the latest on the NASA Mars rover? And how is the James Webb Space Telescope doing?

What does statistics have to do with astronomy? Sydil Kupa of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory tells us what the link is.

Kechil's colleague at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, Sydil Kupa, enjoys statistics. She tells us why

The James Webb Space Telescope's early images are superb. Kehil gives the lowdown on what this magnificent instrument will be up to in the coming years.

What was it like being an astronomy back in the day? Dr Robin Catchpole gives a personal account of life at the observatory in Sutherland. Why should astronomers wear a hat? Because it's cold? Well, not quite.

Continuing the theme of the history of astronomy in South Africa, Dr Robin Catchpole of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge talks to Kechil about the opening of the observatory in Sutherland, and how things (almost) went awry!

Dr Robin Catchpole, an astronomer with the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, started working in local astronomy in 1966, and gives us some background to the foundation of the observatory in Sutherland

"The Moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free" says the song, but what about Saturn's 128 newly discovered moons? Do we name them all?

100 years ago today the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa was formed, and here to tell us about it is Chris de Coning, Director of the History section. If you'd like more information please go to https://assa.saao.ac.za/centres/cape-centre/

Rotating liquid mirrors of mercury - bet you've never heard of that! There is a new telescope in India with such a mirror being commissioned at the moment. Also some news of a hypergiant, dying star.

What's up with our space telescopes? The James Webb has been hit by a meteorite (not serious) and the European Space Agency's Gaia telescope has found some interesting things hanging out in our galaxy. One of them is the James Webb.