What’s that Strange Light in the Sky? In this episode of the StarCast, Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski wrap up season one by exploring the strange and often misunderstood atmospheric lights that casual observers report in the night sky, from Starlink satellite flares and rocket launch plumes to natural phenomena like persistent meteor ion trains, red sprites, and STEVE.
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In this episode of the StarCast, Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss the arrival of the “Golden Nights”—the prime window for astronomical observation—while exploring recent space news including the first direct study of an exoplanet surface and the release of declassified Pentagon UAP files. Episode Links https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanets/how-do-exoplanets-get-their-names Surface-details-on-a-nearby-super-earth https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/lhs-3844-b/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPtvJrzxTrk
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In this episode of the Deep Sage Nine StarCast, Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski explore the “golden age” of distributed astronomy, discussing how interconnected camera arrays and crowdsourced data from amateur observers are revolutionizing the way we track meteors and visualize the deep universe. https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-next-generation-very-large-array-would-be-263-radio-telescopes-spread-across-north-america
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The Right to the Stars In this special International Dark Sky Week episode, Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski explore the latest lunar discoveries from Artemis 2 and ShadowCam before discussing the urgent need to protect our ancestral night skies from light pollution and emerging orbital threats. Episode Links:
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Hubble Tension This week’s Starcast dives into the Hubble Tension, exploring how conflicting measurements of the universe’s expansion rate—one from the early cosmos and one from the local universe—challenge the standard model of cosmology and hint at new physics. Episode Links: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-universe-is-decelerating-and-standard-candles-arent-so-standard-according-to-a-new-study https://briankoberlein.com/blog/tipping-scale/ https://briankoberlein.com/blog/masering-tale/
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Dark Energy This week’s Starcast dives deep into groundbreaking research suggesting the universe’s expansion is actually slowing down, prompting a major reconsideration of the nature and evolution of dark energy away from the standard cosmological model. Episode Links: https://science.nasa.gov/dark-energy/ https://phys.org/news/2025-11-universe-expansion-evidence-mounts-dark.html https://www.poetry.com/poem/32878/the-great-explosion
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This episode of StarCast discusses the intersection of astronomy and wildlife, revealing how migrating birds, sea turtles, and even dung beetles use stellar navigation—like the North Star and the Milky Way—to find their way at night. The hosts also cover current space weather, celestial events like the Zodiacal Light, and issue a call to action […]
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Balloons in Space! This week, hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss the potential for a G1-class solar storm and what’s visible in the night sky. The episode also delves into astronomical balloons, their scientific applications, and the citizen science projects that use them for research. Episode Links: Younger Dryad Impact Hypothesis articles […]
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It’s All Relative This episode explores the fascinating connections between Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity and modern technology, like GPS. The hosts, Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski, explain how both special relativity (which deals with time dilation from speed) and general relativity (which explains how gravity warps spacetime) are essential for the accurate functioning of […]
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Astronomy on the Cheap Join hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski on this week’s Starcast for a deep dive into the universe! We kick things off with a look at the latest space weather, including an aurora forecast. Then, get ready for some lunar magic as the waning crescent moon passes by the Pleiades and […]
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