Night Sky Tourist Podcast
You are invited to take a journey with us as we chat with fascinating people about the night sky, get our questions answered by Ted Blank, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, and take a naked-eye tour across the night sky.Discover the wonder of the night sky from your own backyard, travel to a dark sky location, and listen to the star stories of other cultures and civilizations. Night Sky Tourist helps the entire family connect with nature by engaging with the stars, moon, and planets.
Every two weeks, we release a new episode. Subscribe to it so you don’t miss a single episode. And if you like what you hear, please leave a written review so that others can discover us.
Episodes
Episode 46- Hovenweep’s Archaeoastronomy and Dark Sky Treasures with Austin Tumas
Ranger Austin Tumas joins me from Hovenweep National Monument to talk about the Ancestral Pueblo people who once lived there and the remarkable archaeoastronomy they left behind. Austin started working for the National Park Service 7 years ago as a college student....
Episode 45- Australia Stargazing Excursions with Dimitri Douchin
Australia is a stargazing paradise and offers different night sky views than we experience in the Northern Hemisphere. In this episode, I chat with Dimitri Douchin, founder of Blue Mountains Stargazing. He shares about the unique experiences his company offers and...
Episode 44- Calendars, Clocks and Seasonal Living with Ric Alling
Ric Alling chats with me about the fascinating world of how humans used the sky to develop calendars, why we invented clocks and the benefits of getting back to seasonal living. Ric is the manager of the Community Outreach Program at Arizona State University’s School...
Episode 43- Let There be Night with Paul Bogard
Paul Bogard chats with me about his book The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light. He is also the author of The Ground Beneath Us: From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt Tells Us About Who We Are. His most recent...
Episode 42- Skyglow Project with Harun Mehmedinovic
Harun Memedinovic is one of the founders of Skyglow Project. In this episode, we chat about our shared love for dark sky advocacy and how Harun uses his photography skills to bring attention to the issue of light pollution, or skyglow. Harun is an award-winning...
Episode 41- Take Home a Piece of Geoff Notkin’s Personal Meteorite Collection
Geoff Notkin, star of the tv show Meteorite Men, stops in to chat about the auction for his personal meteorite collection that ends on June 22, 2022. Learn about his 30 years in the world of meteorites, how he assembled his collection over the years, and details about...
Episode 40- Starry Nights at Olympic National Park with Jared Low
I chat with Jared Low, a Supervisory Park Ranger for the Interpretation Division at Olympic National Park. Jared manages the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center and the Olympic National Park Visitor Center in Port Angeles, WA. He coordinates the interpretive programming...
Episode 39- Late Spring Break
The Night Sky Tourist podcast is taking a late Spring Break to refresh and come back this summer. There will be no new episodes during the month of May 2022. But check out my suggestions for your stargazing experiences during this break. SPREAD THE WORD Help us...
Episode 38- Astronomy on Tap with Emily Rice
Emily Rice, aka DJ Carly Sagan, is an organizer for the International Astronomy on Tap program. She’s fun and witty, but she’s also super smart! Emily is an Associate Professor of Astrophysics at Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York. She is a...
Episode 37- Hidden Star Map at Hoover Dam with Patti Aaron
Patti Aaron chats with me about a gorgeous star map hidden in plain sight at Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam is an extraordinary engineering work that controls the Colorado River. Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the dam in 1936. The dedication site now has a star map and other...
Episode 36- Lakota Star Knowledge with Dr. Craig Howe
Dr. Craig Howe chats with me about Lakota Star Knowledge and the relationship between the Lakota and the night sky. He is the founder and director of the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies and has served as the Deputiy Assistant for Cultural...
Episode 35- Wild Nights Out with Chris Salisbury
Chris Salisbury is the author of the book “Wild Nights Out: The Magic of Exploring the Outdoors after Dark”. He is the founder of WildWise, an outdoor education, and training company. He uses every creative means at his disposal to encourage people to enjoy and value...
Episode 34- Aboriginal Skies with Paul Curnow
Paul Curnow chats with me about Aboriginal Skies in Australia. He has been an astronomy lecturer at the Adelaide Planetarium for the past 30 years. After 3 decades of research, he is regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on Australian Aboriginal night sky...
Episode 33- I Heart Pluto with Kevin Schindler
Kevin Schindler is the historian and Public Information Officer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona where Pluto was discovered 92 years ago. He is the author of seven books, including one titled “Pluto and Lowell Observatory”. He is the organizer for a really...
Episode 32- 1000 Hours Outside with Ginny Yurich
Ginny Yurich is a Michigan mother of 5 and the founder of 1000 Hours Outside. She has inspired thousands upon thousands of parents around the world to raise their kids with nature-based play. She has a degree in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Education from the...
Episode 31- Discovering Utah’s Stargazing Secrets with Justina Parsons-Bernstein
Justina Parsons-Bernstein takes us into the world of dark skies across Utah’s State Parks. In fact, she created the Utah State Parks Dark Sky Initiative in 2015. Find out some of the very best places in Utah to see a pristine dark sky and also where to go to find an...
Episode 30- Winter Solstice from Alaska to Costa Rica
In this Winter Solstice special, we take trips to Alaska and Costa Rica to find out what it’s like to experience the shortest day of the year in these extreme locations. Ted Blank, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, answers my burning question about the weather and the...
Episode 29- Transform Your Life Outdoors with Amy Bushatz
Amy Bushatz is the host of the wonderful podcast Humans Outside. She is also a journalist and an editor specializing in coverage of the Alaska outdoors and the U.S. military. When here husband left the active-duty Army in 2016, their family moved sight-unseen to...
Episode 28- Returning Darkness to the Night Sky with John Barentine
John Barentine is the founder of Dark Sky Consulting. He joins me in this episode to talk about returning the darkness to the night sky. John holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has worked for the National Solar Observatory, Apache Point Observatory, and the Sloan Digital...
Episode 27: First Anniversary Special
Night Sky Tourist podcast is celebrating its first anniversary this week. But we’re also celebrating another milestone. The Night Sky Tourist website is celebrating its second anniversary. I’ve just launched a beautifully redesigned website with new features. You can...