A few years ago a friend of mine bought a basic telescope. He wanted to have a hobby he could share with his kids. Unfortunately the kids were more interested in Playstations than planets, and the telescope collected dust.

Not wanting his investment to go to waste my friend offered me the scope at a reduced price. Of course I snapped it up; I'd always had a passing interest in space and Astronomy and had wanted a good telescope for some time. Now I have one. My friend now has tropical fish.

The problem is that I live in Florida, not the best state in the Union for skies suitable for star-hopping (but excellent if you like tropical fish). The high humidity and frequent cloud cover allows only a few nights out of the year when viewing is optimal. Even so I've seen some amazing things with my modest scope: The bands of color on Jupiter along with several of its larger moons, Saturn with its rings that look more like handles, red Mars with it blotchy face, I've even seen the gaseous wisps of the Orion Nebula. Of course, the Moon is stunning and I could spend a lifetime studying it's many craters and mountains.

There are few things that can make something so seemingly intangible as objects in space more real than to view them yourself. Of course, not everyone can be an astronaut or have a friend willing to sell a great telescope at a good price. Those of us with iPods are in luck, however, because we can view video podcasts that feature photos and movies of objects in space.

One such podcast is SPACEGEEK Video hosted by Doctor P.

What's cool about SPACEGEEK is that the tidbits of space related knowledge Doctor P imparts is done so that even a layperson can understand it.

Take the episode titled Celtic Astronomy: Doctor P explains that the Celts weren't into farming, like the Chinese and Egyptians were, so when they built Stonehenge the Celts did it for spiritual and intellectual reasons. How 'bout that!

SPACEGEEK chats up the Celts and Stonehenge

There's lots more info about the Celts and other space related topics in the many SPACEGEEK podcasts. You might also check out The Outer Space Collection featured on the iTunes Store. It's a collection of video and audio podcasts, all space related. Pointy foil hat not required.

You know, when I'm not staring into the deep void I sometimes feel like committing a little bit of murder. Not a lot, mind you, and I don't just whack anyone, I like to take out the scum and villainy that infest our otherwise noble world like ridding my home of so much garbage. The innocent are safe from me, but I can't make that claim for Seth Silver, the main character in the made-for-podcast podcast, Getting Away With Murder.

He's Getting Away With Murder

To everyone, including his mom, who he still lives with, Seth may seem normal, but in reality he's a contract killer who is just trying to find his way in this big, crazy world of ours.

I'm a big fan of Getting Away..., the production quality is top notch, and there are 14 episodes, enough to keep you busy for a bit. Check out Getting Away With Murder at the iTunes Store.

Finally, if it's news you need then there are loads of places on the Web to get it, but few offer the eye candy in the form of Kristin Holt, and she can be found on The Daily Feed.

Your brain on The Daily Feed

I'll admit, I was attracted to The Feed by the photo of the buxom Layla Kayleigh in the show's description. Unfortunately Layla only appears in a few shows, but Kristin takes up the torch nicely and does a bang-up job feeding us the news.

There are are MANY episodes, each about 3 minutes long. The Feed covers anything of interest to the nerdy or the nerdy at heart. The writing is fresh and include video clips of the subject at hand. It's all done quite professionally.

So, if you need a quick shot of daily nerd news check out The Daily Feed.

I would also like to mention that a new iPod (5th gen only) game is available; Brain Challenge. It's a brain trainer that has an assortment of puzzles and games designed to tax your gray matter and give it a work out.

I've played similar games on the Nintendo DS System and they are a lot of fun. This offering from Gameloft looks like a blast too. Check out the preview at the iTunes Store.

That's going to do it for this week. Here's LOTS more free stuff at the iTunes Store: