Show Notes
September 2026: Rogue Rockets, Untethered Astronauts & Extremely Large Telescopes
This month on Please Look Up, Leon and Alyshia look to the September skies, where Venus meets the Moon, Mercury makes a brief appearance and the constellation Ophiuchus wrangles a celestial snake.
Back on Earth (and the Moon), a rogue SpaceX rocket creates a brand-new lunar crater, China has a spectacular space fail and an enormous Starship hitches a ride home. Plus, we revisit the terrifyingly brilliant time NASA let astronauts fly around completely untethered to retrieve broken satellites, and step inside the aptly named Extremely Large Telescope – a 38-metre-wide monster currently taking shape in Chile.
Alyshia's Space Pic: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Satellites_For_Sale_-_GPN-2000-001036.jpg/960px-Satellites_For_Sale_-_GPN-2000-001036.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=parser&utm_content=thumbnail https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/51a-46-057.jpg
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/capturing-satellite-november-1984/
Leon's Space Pic: https://cdn.eso.org/images/screen/potw2627a.jpg
Chinese Rocket that snapped in half & exploded https://teams.microsoft.com/l/message/19:67aad3c7-8912-4bb1-ae4e-868dc4da5dfb_e7ef984c-f199-4c38-8af5-4104649eb015@unq.gbl.spaces/1788418794605?context=%7B%22contextType%22%3A%22chat%22%7D
More from Please Look Up
This month Leon and Alyshia explore the wonders of the October night sky, starting with Saturn's intriguing new shape and the potential discovery of dark matter and some questionable pictures sent to the moon.
This month Alyshia & Leon discuss Australia's accidental trip back to 2006, a giant space teapot, glowing red-hot rockets & the telescope hunting the universe's biggest mysteries.
This month Alyshia & Leon discuss galaxy sub-clumps, space jellyfish, weird egg shaped stars & yelling at the moon. *Disclaimer - There's a 4 letter swear word around 30 mins in that starts with an "s."
Leon is joined by Sharna, a Scitech Planetarium Presenter, to highlight a collection of creatively named objects you can see in the Perth night sky. Some examples include Grus the Crane and the Spare-tyre nebula.