Explore every episode of the podcast Allan I Carswell Observatory Presents: York Universe

This episode features soon to be MSc Sergiy Kernytsky who is joining us to talk about his astronomical and engineering research in satellites, and in particular how to find them. We discuss 'situational awareness' and his use of Event cameras as possible satellite detectors as well as a few other objects up there in our night skies.

Image Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/DECam DELVE Survey

Julie, Maheen, and Robin reflect on the lives of Fred Hoyle and Samuel Pierpont Langley, not to mention science communication and timekeeping.

Special guest Victoria Di Giovanni joins the team to talk about a very unique event held to help grieving folks heal through connection with the night sky.

Image credit: June Parsons/AICO

Join Dr. Hyde and Mahesh as they welcome Arfa Ali for her first York Universe co-hosting role with a dark astronomy topic. Black Hole stars are the news of the day in this exciting episode. We talk about black skies under eclipses, share some viewing stories and dive into the news around the Quasi-Stars or theoretical black hole stars that have been observed by JWST.

Image Credit: Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT

Join our crew for a journey in the skies. We look at our sky at night; it is meteor month in August, so there is a lot to enjoy! We also discuss a bit of history and the growing issue of space junk, whether as a threat to modern astronomy, an asset for interconnectivity, or a space traffic hazard.

Image Credit: AICO, KPPO, Bruce Waters, 2026 Astronomer in Residence Program

https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/air/astronomer-in-residence-blog/

Join our crew for a journey in the skies. We look at our sky at night; it is meteor month in August, so there is a lot to enjoy! We also cover some fun manmade objects at the International Space Station, from cancer treatment material to semiconductors, lunar space missions from China and much more!

Image Credit: AICO, KPPO, Ryan Marciniak, 2026 Astronomer in Residence Program

https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/air/astronomer-in-residence-blog/ 

Julie Tomé and Dr. Elaina Hyde do a deep dive into the Solar System's past and future. They discuss the Moon landings and the work of Chushiro Hayashi in This Week in Space & Astronomy History. In the news, why mirrors in space are a terrible idea if they are not telescopes, what the solar system looked like in the past, and what it might look like when the Sun dies.

Episode image: Mars Opposition 2020, credit, Bruce Waters, KPPO, AICO

Join Dr. Elaina Hyde and Sunna Withers for an exploration of excellent (and bad) satellites both past and present. We look at the James Webb Space Telescope, Rohini Satellite 1, Euclid and talk about the proposed Reflect Orbital. Science both past and present has used both ground based and space telescopes, what will the future hold?

Note: Link to Astro Fair 2026 Tickets mentioned in this episode is: https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/astrofair2026/

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Macarena Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI)

With the Tunguska impact having happened over 100  years ago,  June 29/30 is Asteroid day.  Here we focus mainly on asteroid relate topics and some great objects we can see in the sky over the summer months.

Mary and Julie discuss the discovery of Pluto's moon Charon, the summer solstice, then go on several side quests while discussing missions that have side quests. 

Image by A. Dunn from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Summer_Solstice_Sunrise_over_Stonehenge_2005.jpg

Join our host Maheen Hemani and cohost Dr. Elaina Hyde for a high-energy x-ray investigation of galaxies and history. We discuss the recent news from Chandra, MeerKat, JWST and of course York University. Did you know that the fastest wind near a supermassive black hole ever found (as of yet) at ultraviolet wavelengths was by YorkU researchers?

Tune into this weeks episode to learn about how to explore the summer skies, and hear about exciting space news in our galaxy and beyond! 

Image: The Milky Way over the 16'' telescope at Killarney Provincial Park Observatory. Image credit: Anna Skrinnik and Sunna Withers 

Rocky asteroids, planets and meteors make for dynamic objects. Tonight we talk about sky viewing for Mercury and Venus as well as asteroids and the recent Ontario meteorite. The host is Dr. Elaina Hyde and we are joined by special guest Mahesh Aravamudan, a RASC Toronto Center member and astronomy enthusiast to investigate.

Image Credit: The general shape of Psyche viewed from the south pole with an ellipsoidal overlay. Its major and intermediate axes with longitudes are labeled, and three major deviations from the ellipsoid, labeled Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, are shown. By Michael K. Shepard et al. (see https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/abfdba#psjabfdbaf9 for full list of authors).

Julie and Maheen explore the technology that makes scientific advancement possible. From using cinematography to record solar eclipses at the turn of the last century to AI use in future space missions and using fungi to grow food in regolith, thinking outside of the box has led to some pretty amazing stuff!

Episode photo: A view of the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse from Madras, Oregon. Credit: NASA/Gopalswamy

This week, we look at the night sky, some space and astronomy news, and, most importantly, celebrate some of the great mothers in the field!

Spectra and Light are important to all of Astronomy as we know it today. Join special guest Dr. Thomas Morris for a history and news adventure in spectroscopy with our host Dr. Elaina Hyde. What is light? What is it used for in Astronomy, and how can amateur astronomers help?

Image Credit: Fraunhofer made this copper etching in 1815, He coloured the spectra and lines as well as drew the spectral response curve above. A now standard view of spectra it was revolutionary at the time! Deutsches Museum Archv 43952

Here we talk about a few history topics and some planetary observations. 

Mars Express Observations 

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Ash_creeps_across_Mars

Julie and Elaina discuss the illustrious careers of Max Planck and Ibn al-Haytham in This Week and Space and Astronomy History. In the news, dark volcanic ash is moving across the Martian surface, the Lyrid meteor shower peak is almost here, mineral dust is increasing cloud production in the Venusian atmosphere, and NASA has found interstellar glaciers that are definitely not glaciers, but are very cool nonetheless.

Image Credit: Elaina Hyde/AICO

This week's episode is all about Artemis! Join Maheen and Sunna as they discuss the historic Artemis II mission to the Moon, as well as the history and future of crewed Lunar exploration. 

Image: Artemis II Earthset, NASA

As the seasons progress through the year, they also progress through observing targets. This week, we talk about Easter and observing galaxies from home or by visiting our observatory. We also look at some Apollo history, the upcoming Artemis II Mission, and more data than you can possibly imagine from the Vera C. Rubin behemoth!

http://yorku.ca/science/observatory

Contact us at observe@yorku.ca

This exciting episode features special guest Dr. Rachel Ward-Maxwell from the Ontario Science Center (https://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/). We cover mysterious Aurora, lunar launches, a bit of Artemis and of course a discussion of the newest science and sci-fi crossovers, the film Hail Mary. Observing tips and science tricks, we even discuss how to break the optical illusion that we all face in our lunar companion.

Image Credit: Rachel Ward-Maxwell, AICO, KPPO, 2025

An extra Northern Lights explainer from Ontario Science Center: https://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/science-at-home/explore-more/discover-the-northern-lights

Dark matter and dark energy can sound gloomy but there's no need to worry in this episode as Maheen Hemani and Dr. Elaina Hyde talk about dark matter in history, dark matter in the news, dark matter in the Milky Way…. and get very excited! The more we find out about this exciting topic, the less it seems we understand but that doesn't mean we're not going to try!

Image Credit: JWST, from March 14th, 2023 A prelude to a supernova the Wolf-Rayet star WR 124 is shown in all it's glory

Tune into this week's episode to learn about the history of the Voyager and Cassini missions, and important discoveries about Uranus! This week's hosts also discuss several recent news headlines, including an update on the Artemis program and the Vera Rubin Observatory. 

Image: Supernova 1987A by JWST. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA

We look at this week in history and have a discussion on Artemis II and other worthy news items!

Please note that we had a bit of a technical glitch on the recording near the beginning of the show but all the important bits are there.

Illustration of Orion in Low Earth Orbit - Image Credit: ESA

A possible Challenge to Cold Dark Matter?

A sad anniversary for the Space Shuttle Challenger

Hubble solves the mystery of Blue Straggler stars

Groundhog Day!

This week, we look at astronomy and space history, including important events in space exploration. We then follow up on the restoration of NASA and other science funding by US Congress, and give updates on manned space exploration. 

Image: Veritas Spacecraft in orbit around Venus - Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Here we touch on some brief history and then go onto what kind of astronomy we are looking forward to in 2026 including the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, Artemis as well as the Pandora and Plato missions to find exoplanets.

Welcome to our last broadcast of 2025.  We will be looking at the solstice this week and some of the ways it has been marked in the past as well as moon and venus landings and other current news.

Image : Heart O'Ireland - Cropped version of: File:Newgrange 053.jpg, CC BY 2.5, from Wikimedia commons

Tonight we discuss some fun history items, and of course the recent news about sugars and more on Bennu! The host is Dr. Elaina Hyde and we are joined by special guest Mahesh Aravamudan, a RASC Toronto Center member and astronomy enthusiast to investigate.

The allsky camera for AICO mentioned in this episode can be found at: https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/observers/

Image credit: Aview across asteroid Bennu's southern hemisphere and into space. The image was obtained on March 7, 2019, by the PolyCam camera on NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

Welcome to our holiday show!

What was the star of Bethlehem?

What is a great gift for an astronomer?

Here we look at a few Mars related topics, including possible karstic (water eroded) caves and other findings around the solar systems.

Image (open access) from Ravi, Sharma et al 2025 APJL 993 L36

Tonight the Leonid meteor shower peaks.  Here we look at the Leonids in detail as well as comets and Frank Drake.

Image: Leonid meteor storm of 1833 (Public Domain) 

find out more about the observatory at https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/

Julie Tomé and Dr. Elaina Hyde discuss many satellites - most good, some bad! From Lunar Orbiter 2, San Marco 1, and Sputnik to giant space mirrors (shudder) and the JWST (hurray!), explore some of the history and news around satellites.

Podcast Image: AICO, Sunna Withers, Zena Khadour

Tune in to go back in time to Tycho's Supernova of 1572, the history of daylight savings time, and how our view of the Universe was revolutionized, twice! This week's host's Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers also discuss astronomy news, including Comet 3I/Atlas and the chaos of galaxies in the early Universe. 

This episode features a round up of comets past and current, a bit of fun history, and some discussion of the 2025 Astronomer in Residence program. The host Dr. Elaina Hyde is joined by special guest John Wilmot, one of our 2025 astronomers who went out to Killarney Park as both an expert, and an amateur! Join us for a bit of fun, and keep in mind that the live views on YouTube for this episode include one of our comets from THIS season C2025/R2 (SWAN). The link to the observatory website mentioned in this episode is: https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/ .

Image credit: Comet C2025/R2 SWAN as imaged by the AICO 1m telescope on YouTube during the live broadcast for this podcast on Oct 27, 2025: AICO, Sunna Withers, Nakul Sethuram Ramjee 

Here we look at a number of interesting objects in our solar system, and missions to the less frequented places in the inner solar system like Mercury and Venus. 

Julie and Jeremy chat about the history of exoplanet discovery, notable astronomers Riccardo Giacconi and Ejnar Hertzsprung, and the discovery of Triton. In the news, a rogue planet is acting like a star, old data sets are reanalysed to get new insights into Venus and Enceladus, and the Universe might not expand forever.

Episode image credit: Sunna Withers, AICO

Join hosts Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers as we discuss spacecraft and astronomers who have gone boldly! We discuss both astronomy and sci-fi, including the nature of our Universe and the impact of Star Trek. 

Image: DART Impact

Image Credit: NASA/Farnham et al. 2025

Podcast Image: Cassini image of Saturn near its equinox in 2009

Photo Credit: NASA

Here we have special guests Nathan Minuk and Robin Metcalfe. Nathan is a member of York student rocketry group.  They are talking about the Canada Launch competition If any York students are interested please see arbalestrocketry.ca

We also talk about Osiris- Rex,the contributions of amateur astronomers, and other recent news.

Episode Artwork courtesy TheSkyLive.com

Image description: Uranus and its New Moon S/2025 U1

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Maryame El Moutamid (SwRI), Matthew Hedman (University of Idaho) 

Here we look at a number of phenemenon we have observed in the solar system including, eclipses, aurora, lunar quakes and rainbows on Enceladus.

Apollo 11 Seismic Experiment Image Courtesy NASA

Join Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers as we discuss interstellar visitors, the most distant black hole ever observed, and what's up in the sky this week. Also tune in for special guest Robin Metcalfe to learn about the upcoming Launch Canada Challenge!

Image: Apollo 8 Command Module - Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Il. Photo Credit: Paul J. Mackin

Here we touch on Vera Rubin and Maria Mitchell, two prominent female astronmers of the late 19th and early 20th century.

We also look at some aspects of life beyond our solar system and speculation about 31/Atlas

Image of 1878 eclipse - Public domain image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_29,_1878#/media/File:Solar_eclipse_1878Jul29-Corona_Pikes_peak_Langley.png

Join us as we discuss exploring our Solar System! Hosted by Paul Mackin and Professor Mary-Helen Armour, this week we discuss one of the most significant events in space history - landing humans on the Moon - and how we aim to achieve a repeat performance.  

In this week's episode we highlight missions with milestones on this day like Mariner 4, and New Horizons. We also look at aspects of asteroids and comets in the news, now in in this day in history.

Image  Credit: Hubble Space Telescope Comet Team and NASA

Julie and Mary-Helen discuss Newton, Shklovsky, and Bethe - three scientists with many achievements to list. They explore how technology has evolved while talking about Roswell, a bolide captured by a weather satellite, and new frontiers being pushed by JWST.

Episode image credit: NOAA-CIRA

In this episode Sunna Withers and Dr. Elaina Hyde investigate some historical moons of Saturn, Pluto, and of course our own Earth's Moon as well as the latest Moon news and discoveries from JWST. 

Image credit: 2025 03 08 The moon through the AICO Unistellar eVscope by Nakul Sethuram

Join us as we discuss everything from exploring our Solar System to the outermost regions of the Universe! Hosted by Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers, this week's episode highlights asteroid sample return missions and observing distant stars and galaxies.   

Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Gozaliasl, A. Koekemoer, M. Franco, and the COSMOS-Web team 

This episode touches on transits of Venus and their historical and astronomical importance. It also looks a bit at how the observations of the solstice could also be used to gain an understanding of Earth. Your hosts Prof. Mary-Helen Armour and Dr. Elaina Hyde touch on more modern history looking at lunar investigation by the Surveyor and Hayabusa2 investigation of asteroids. In the news we look at recent JWST discoveries, like one of the most distant and youngest galaxies every imaged, amazing aurora and hot exoplanets. 

Image credit: NASA (2012 transit)  https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10996/#media_group_349107