Live weekly astronomy roundup on Google+!

Fraser Cain (from Universe Today) and I are trying something new... and by new, I mean new. We're going to be holding a live video weekly astronomy and space roundup on Google+! We'll have a roundtable group of scientists and science journalists discussing the latest cosmic news, explaining it, and letting you know what it all means. We have a pretty good group of folks lined up for this, and the first one will be held today, Thursday, January 5 at 18:00 UTC (1:00 p.m. Eastern US time).

[UPDATE: We're live now!]

These will be held on Google+ using Hangouts on Air - a live video stream that can be watched by an unlimited number of people. You have to be on Google+, and then circle Fraser Cain -- that's G+'s version of adding friends. He'll have the link to the video feed in his stream once it's set up (and I'll update this very blog post as well). And once you're in, you can ask questions for us in the comments section on the post! You can read more about this on Universe Today.

I'm very excited about these live video news session. For one thing, we've done this a few times already in a rather impromptu way, and it's worked out really well. We can talk about news, switch from one person to another, and take questions from people watching. It's all live and real-time -- yesterday, we even had a live feed from a telescope in Bucharest where we observed the Moon! That was amazing.

Also, Google+ is turning out to be a really cool place to be, with a lot of very intelligent and thoughtful participants. It is not Facebook, with endless announcements of games, ads, and such. It's far more of a discussion and an exchange of ideas. The addition of live video conferencing is a huge benefit too. Fraser and I think that this will change a big chunk of the internet... and maybe more. If you're on G+ please circle me, and if you're not, you're missing out.

We have big, big plans. Just you wait.

But until then, I hope to see you on G+ for our roundup!