As Halloween approaches, we drift into one of astronomy’s most haunting questions: if life in the universe is so likely, where is everybody? This week, we explore the famous Fermi Paradox — from Enrico Fermi’s lunchroom question to Frank Drake’s mathematical quest for cosmic company.

Along the way, we revisit humanity’s attempts to speak into the void — the Arecibo Message, the golden records aboard Voyager, and the global volunteer army of SETI@Home. We also consider the possibilities: is the eerie silence a warning, a mystery, or simply a distance too vast for even radio waves to cross?

Plus, your night sky report for October 26 through November 1, 2025 — featuring a first-quarter Moon, Saturn and Jupiter shining bright, Mercury at greatest elongation, and a visit from Comet Lemmon.

For more episodes and resources for backyard astronomers, visit www.startrails.show. Share the wonder of the stars with friends and continue your cosmic journey with us. Also, connect with us on Bluesky @startrails.bsky.social, or YouTube @TheStarTrailsPodcast.

If you're enjoying the show, consider sharing it with a friend! Want to help? Buy us a coffee!

Podcasting is better withRSS.com! If you're planning to start your own podcast,use our RSS.com affiliate link for a discount, and to help support Star Trails.

The veil between life and death is thin in late October, and not just on Earth. This week on Star Trails, we take a haunting journey through The Cosmic Graveyard, a place where dead suns still glow, galaxies devour one another, and the faint aftershocks of ancient explosions echo across time. From the slow cooling of white dwarfs to the bottomless depths of black holes, we explore the universe’s quietest afterlife.

But before venturing into that darkness, the night sky itself offers reason to stay up late. The Orionid meteor shower peaks under a new moon, delivering pristine, moonless skies for deep-sky observing. Saturn still commands the early evening, Jupiter gleams after midnight, and the autumn constellations fill the heavens with galaxies, clusters, and nebulae ripe for exploration.

Plus, a listener’s question sparks a timely detour into the strange beauty of black holes and the now-iconic image of a glowing ring surrounding a dark center. Is it art, or reality? We explain the physics behind those haunting visuals and how Einstein’s relativity sculpts light itself into the illusion we see.

So settle in beneath the cooling autumn sky, and listen as we wander the universe’s silent necropolis, where every dying star leaves behind a spark, and even the ashes of creation still shimmer with light.

Mentioned in this episode:

• What do black holes look like?

The nights are growing longer, the air is sharpening, and the Moon is finally stepping aside. In this week’s episode, we look to the skies from October 12th through the 18th, and discover a season in transition: Saturn still reigning in the south, Jupiter climbing before dawn, Venus returning to the morning sky, and the Orionid meteor shower quietly stirring to life. With the waning Moon, late-week skies will be perfect for deep-sky observing — from the Andromeda Galaxy to the Helix Nebula.

Then, we step into a stranger realm: The House of a Thousand Mirrors.

In this eerie cosmic funhouse, light bends, time folds, and a single distant galaxy can appear dozens of times across the sky. We explore the phenomenon of gravitational lensing — from the elegant Einstein Cross to the ghostly arcs of Abell clusters, and even a supernova that appeared twice in two different years. It’s astronomy that feels like science fiction, except it’s real.

For more episodes and resources for backyard astronomers, visit www.startrails.show. Share the wonder of the stars with friends and continue your cosmic journey with us. Also, connect with us on Bluesky @startrails.bsky.social, or YouTube @TheStarTrailsPodcast.

If you're enjoying the show, consider sharing it with a friend! Want to help? Buy us a coffee!

Podcasting is better withRSS.com! If you're planning to start your own podcast,use our RSS.com affiliate link for a discount, and to help support Star Trails.

The Harvest Supermoon rises over crisp autumn nights as Saturn reigns in the southeast and Pegasus climbs the eastern sky. In this week’s episode of Star Trails, we examine the celestial highlights of October 5–11 — including lunar encounters with Saturn and the Pleiades, the Draconid meteor shower, and a check-in on interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS.

Then, as the night deepens, we open the cosmic case files: five enduring unsolved mysteries of the universe. From the invisible grip of dark matter to the baffling Hubble tension, these are the riddles that defy physics and haunt the night sky.

Whether you’re observing from your backyard or just viewing the stars in your imagination, this episode blends practical stargazing with spine-tingling cosmic intrigue.

For more episodes and resources for backyard astronomers, visit www.startrails.show. Share the wonder of the stars with friends and continue your cosmic journey with us. Also, connect with us on Bluesky @startrails.bsky.social, or YouTube @TheStarTrailsPodcast.

If you're enjoying the show, consider sharing it with a friend! Want to help? Buy us a coffee!

Podcasting is better withRSS.com! If you're planning to start your own podcast,use our RSS.com affiliate link for a discount, and to help support Star Trails.

It’s been a short break due to technical issues, travel, and life in general, but the show is far from gone. Thanks to everyone who wrote in asking about it — your messages mean the world.

Here’s what’s happening in the night sky from September 28 – October 4:

• September 28: A waxing crescent Moon appears, climbing higher each evening.
• September 30: The Moon reaches first quarter, brightening the evening skies.
• Saturn is well placed for evening viewing, glowing steadily in the south.
• Jupiter rises late at night into the pre-dawn hours, a bright beacon in the east.
• It’s the quiet buildup before a busy October — meteor showers, conjunctions, and cosmic curiosities await.

The next episode (October 5) will feature a special segment on the unsolved mysteries of the cosmos—from strange planetary tilts to unexplained cosmic signals. Think of it as an astronomy-flavored Unsolved Mysteries.

Until then, clear skies!

This week we explore both the night sky and the cosmic tick-tock of time itself. The Moon waxes from half-lit to nearly full, while Saturn shines golden in Pisces with its razor-thin rings. Jupiter and Venus rule the morning skies, and the faint Aurigid meteors and Comet Lemmon make cameo appearances for early risers.

In the second half of the show, we dive into the strange and fascinating world of “time in space.” From NASA engineers living on Martian sols with their custom-built Mars watches, to the Omega Speedmasters strapped to Apollo astronauts’ suits, to the atomic clocks aboard GPS satellites that literally rely on Einstein’s relativity to keep us from getting lost—this is a journey through the cosmic heartbeat that guides explorers and Earthlings alike.

For more episodes and resources for backyard astronomers, visit www.startrails.show. Share the wonder of the stars with friends and continue your cosmic journey with us. Also, connect with us on Bluesky @startrails.bsky.social, or YouTube @TheStarTrailsPodcast.

If you're enjoying the show, consider sharing it with a friend! Want to help? Buy us a coffee!

Podcasting is better withRSS.com! If you're planning to start your own podcast,use our RSS.com affiliate link for a discount, and to help support Star Trails.

This week we head outward to the seventh planet, where the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a brand-new moonlet orbiting Uranus. Barely six miles across, this tiny world is so small you could, in theory, walk around it in a single day. But is “walking” even possible when the surface gravity is only a whisper? We run the numbers and explore what it would feel like to live in such a micro-gravity landscape, where a careless jump could fling you into orbit.

Back under Earth’s skies, the nights begin in darkness. The week opens with a fresh New Moon, offering deep-sky windows before the crescent brightens. Saturn dominates the evening hours, Venus and Jupiter rule the dawn, and the Aurigids meteor shower brings a chance of surprise streaks before sunrise. We’ll also shine a light on three quieter constellations — Lacerta the Lizard, Aquarius the Water-Bearer, and Capricornus the Sea Goat — exploring the lore behind their faint patterns and the clusters, doubles, and globulars tucked among their stars.

From new moons both near and far, to the myths written across our own skies, this is a week for patient eyes, and a reminder of how scale and story intertwine in the universe.

For more episodes and resources for backyard astronomers, visit www.startrails.show. Share the wonder of the stars with friends and continue your cosmic journey with us. Also, connect with us on Bluesky @startrails.bsky.social, or YouTube @TheStarTrailsPodcast.

If you're enjoying the show, consider sharing it with a friend! Want to help? Buy us a coffee!

Podcasting is better withRSS.com! If you're planning to start your own podcast,use our RSS.com affiliate link for a discount, and to help support Star Trails.

Under a rare seasonal Black Moon, this week’s sky rewards early risers and deep-sky wanderers alike. We start with a whisper-thin crescent slipping closer to the Sun each morning, then pivot to a dawn showcase where Mercury reaches greatest elongation while Venus and Jupiter stack higher above the horizon. On Tuesday and Wednesday a paper-thin crescent Moon joins the lineup—a perfect wide-field photo op—while evenings bring Saturn rising into prime viewing on its road to September opposition. With moonlight out of the way, scan the Milky Way for under-sung binocular treats: Delphinus the Dolphin, M11 (Wild Duck Cluster) in Scutum, and the Coathanger asterism in Vulpecula. You may even catch a few Perseid stragglers in the pre-dawn dark.

In the second half, we widen the frame to reveal the Milky Way’s “hidden companions”—dozens, maybe hundreds, of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies quietly orbiting our own. We unpack why they’re so hard to see (surface brightness, not just brightness), how modern surveys like SDSS and DES ferret them out, and why they matter for big questions about dark matter, galaxy growth, and the “missing satellites” problem.

Links in this episode:

• Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Dark Energy Survey
• Gaia Sky

For more episodes and resources for backyard astronomers, visit www.startrails.show. Share the wonder of the stars with friends and continue your cosmic journey with us. Also, connect with us on Bluesky @startrails.bsky.social, or YouTube @TheStarTrailsPodcast.

If you're enjoying the show, consider sharing it with a friend! Want to help? Buy us a coffee!

Podcasting is better withRSS.com! If you're planning to start your own podcast,use our RSS.com affiliate link for a discount, and to help support Star Trails.