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Deep Sage Nine StarCast: Your Guide to the Cosmos. Explore astronomy for beginners and curious sky watchers! Get the latest astronomy news, learn essential stargazing tips, and discover educational content. Hosted by astrophotographer Jay Shaffer from the Deep Sage Nine Observatory near Taos, New Mexico.
40 Episodes
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Shooting the Blood Moon In this episode of Starcast, hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss current space weather, NASA’s strategic pivot for the Artemis program, and technical strategies for photographing the upcoming total lunar eclipse on March 3rd. Episode Links: Planning & Ephemeris Apps The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE): Used for calculating the exact […]
E. T. and the Presidents In this episode of the Starcast, hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss the history of U.S. presidential involvement with UFOs—from JFK’s Cold War concerns to recent disclosures by Obama and Trump—while weighing these political admissions against scientific frameworks like the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox.
Voyage to the Center of the Galaxy. In this episode of StarCast, hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewenski explore three conflicting scientific studies that challenge our understanding of the Milky Way’s center, debating whether it houses a traditional supermassive black hole or a dense core of fermionic dark matter.
Go Dark Hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss the importance of preserving pristine night skies while highlighting International Dark Sky Week, occurring April 13th to 20th, 2026, through community advocacy, citizen science, and local astronomical events. Episode Links: International Dark Sky Week (official): https://idsw.darksky.org/ Crestone Dark Sky : https://www.darkskycrestone.com/ Globe at Night App: https://globeatnight.org/ Sky […]
Tracking Space Junk Hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss the latest solar activity, lunar events, and a groundbreaking new method for tracking re-entering space junk using seismic sensors. Episode Links: Dragon Re-entry: https://youtu.be/F9ByyNkjUt8?si=CoYVpI95Lr5KsaSw Space Junk Paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz4676 Global Meteor Network: https://globalmeteornetwork.org/
The Mystery of “M” In this episode of Starcast, hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss recent solar activity, upcoming celestial events, and the history of astronomical catalogs such as the Messier and New General Catalog. Episode Links: https://earthsky.org/clusters-nebulae-galaxies/what-are-messier-objects/ https://astrodaily.mro.nmt.edu/2020/08/11/the-messier-catalogue-the-masterpiece-in-the-mess/ https://www.space.com/16686-charles-messier-biography.html http://www.messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/marathon.html https://donmachholz.com/messier-marathon/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet_of_1744https://georgebishopjr.com/2013/07/03/cheseauxs-comet-of-1744/
Winter is Here. In this episode of Starcast, hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss current space weather and lunar alignments before sharing expert tips and technical strategies for successful stargazing and astrophotography during the cold winter months.
MACHOs and Micro-lensing In this Starcast, MACHOs and microlensing are the primary tools discussed for mapping the cold, dark, and lonely objects that make up the majority of the universe. Mike Lewinski explains that while traditional gravitational lenses are stable over centuries, microlensing involves smaller objects like isolated black holes or free-floating planets that temporarily […]
Destination: Moon! In this episode of Starcast, hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss current space weather and a rare triple lunar alignment before diving into the ambitious 2026 lunar exploration schedule and the significant technical and human challenges of establishing a presence on the moon. Episode Links: Lunar Radiation: https://www.space.com/moon-radiation-dose-for-astronauts-measured For All Mankind: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772588/ […]
“Essential Equipment” This episode of Starcast features Mike Lewinski and Jay Shaffer discussing an incoming G2-G3 solar storm, the upcoming Geminid meteor shower, the discovery of life-precursor sugars like glucose in the Bennu asteroid samples, and sharing their favorite astrophotography equipment, including a sky quality meter and a budget star tracker, for a holiday gift […]
Meteorites and “Wrongs” This episode of Starcast, recorded on the anniversary of the first known person to be injured by a falling meteorite, covers an active space weather forecast featuring Sunspot 4294, news of a supermoon and the Geminids, and a deep dive into how to distinguish actual meteorites from “meteor-wrongs” using four key tests […]
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/
We’ve Got Green! (Northern Lights) The Starcast for the week of November 16, 2025, covers the past week’s spectacular geomagnetic storm and aurora display, the upcoming Leonid meteor shower peak, and the successful launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on the Escapade mission to Mars. Episode Links: Mike’s Time-Lapse: https://youtu.be/DD0fahqCMq4 Jay’s Time-Lapse: https://youtu.be/pG7XphglrhU […]
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
Dark Mass Mike and Jay discuss recent astronomical observations, including the departure of Comet 3I/Atlas and Taurid meteor activity, before diving into a detailed overview of dark matter, its historical discovery, observational evidence through gravity, and its inferred distribution in the universe as a cosmic web. Episode Links: Taurid threat: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576525006460#sec5 Dark Matter: […]
Candle Stars The podcast episode discusses how the pioneering work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt on Cepheid variables—giant pulsating stars whose period of pulsation directly relates to their true luminosity—provided the first reliable standard candle for astronomers like Edwin Hubble to measure vast cosmic distances and understand the expansion of the universe. Episode Links: On […]
Wayback Machine This week Mike and Jay discuss a new study about the early, warmer-than-expected universe, which leads to a deep dive into the properties of cosmic microwave background radiation and listening to the Big Bang. Also, a launch of Kuiper satellites, and an update on space weather and the night sky. Episode Links: The […]
KEEP IT REAL! Mike and Jay discuss the profound importance of direct observation in astronomy. The hosts share personal anecdotes, emphasizing how witnessing phenomena like the Orion Nebula or space launches firsthand provides an undeniable, grounding connection to the reality of the universe. The episode also explores the week’s celestial events, including a Super Harvest […]
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 […]
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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