Bang! Goes the Universe Ron Voller

A 45-minutes discussion with the director of the Carnegie Observatories about his journey as an astronomy, the state of research, new technologies and the development of the Giant Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas, Chile. John is renowned for his research on dark matter in galaxy groups. As observatory director he has spearheaded outreach programs for astronomy lovers and aspiring astronomers young and old. Check the links below for a video version of this episode and links to the GMT and Ca...

Alan Friedman is an award winning amateur solar photographer whose work and techniques have been the subject of lectures, articles and interviews. He has appeared on NBC's Today Show and offered a TEDx Talk on solar photography. The impending solar eclipse convinced me that this would be an ideal time to talk with Alan about solar astronomy and photography. We had an in-depth, informative and lively discussion on the subject. The interview will also appear on my YouTube page later...

A quick review of some of the names and events we discussed in season 1 and a short preview of what's coming up in season 2 of the show. It's been a hoot so far! Hope you've enjoyed it. Season 2 is coming soon!Don't forget to check out my website for details on upcoming events or scroll through the Bang! blog page for more information on the people and developments we discussed in season 1.https://www.ronvoller.com/Support the Show.

Daniel Lewis is the Dibner Senior Curator for the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California. A native of Hawaii, he's an environmental historian and author whose latest book, Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future, is due to be released in March of 2024. The library has connections with Caltech and University of Southern California and houses some of the world's foremost collections of manuscripts and o...

One of the most brilliant men of science in the ancient world, Eratosthenes was best known as a scholar and librarian in his day, But he made his greatest contribution to science in the realms of geometry and astronomy fueled by his curiosity, ingenuity and reason. From his home in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, he used a chance reading from a book at the library of Alexandria to devise a method of determining the shape and size of the earth. Not stopping there, he later determined the size...

This Ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician built upon the suppositions of his predecessor creating a heliocentric model of the universe with the earth, moon and planets orbiting the Sun during the 3rd century BCE. Using an observation from Anaxagoras about the cause of eclipses, some geometry and some clever thinking, he devised a method of determining the size of the sun and moon and even took a stab at understanding their distances to the earth. His work would be built on further by Er...