Episode 2 – "Alien Attack!" – of Bad Universe airs this Wednesday, October 6, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time on Discovery Channel (check out the sneak peek!), right after the season premiere of MythBusters!

To celebrate, as I did for episode 1, I’m giving away some BU swag related to the show. All you have to do is leave a comment on this very post! Well, there are other rules, too, but more on that in a sec.

Here’s the loot [click the pix to embiggen]:

Specifically, the winner will receive:

- A signed copy of my book Death from the Skies! on which Bad Universe is based

- A Bad Universe promotional postcard

- A glossy color brochure for the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds, with whom I flew for the second episode

- Some Thunderbirds stickers – yes, two are missing; I used one my for my car, this is free so deal with it… but the other was used for:

- A water bottle given to me for the Thunderbirds F-16 flight with one of the above stickers on it

- An "I’m a Bad Astronomer" button from the New Detroit Science Center and the Cranbrook Institute

- An alien drink bottle

- A sticker for SETI’s Are We Alone radio show signed by astronomer (and featured scientist in Episode 2) Seth Shostak

- A NASA Kepler planet-finder mission bookmark

- A limited-run Surlyramics Bad Astronomy necklace with a flying saucer on it, made by my pal Amy Roth

- A wind up jiggly-robot thingy that will make sense once you watch the show

- A bottle of NASA anti-bacterial hand-gel. Yes, I’m serious, I picked it up at an astronomy meeting from a NASA booth, so it’s official, and why NASA needs it I don’t want to know, especially after making this particular episode.

… and, just for kicks and because they’re the lead in for my show Wednesday night: a ridiculously oversized MythBusters swag bag from Comic Con 2010, featuring My Close Personal Friend Adam Savage™ on one side and all 5 ‘busters on the other!

RULES:

So how do you win this great stuff? Here’s the deal:
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I’m very pleased to announce that once again, Discover Magazine and the venerable telescope company Celestron have teamed up for the Capture the Universe astrophotography contest!

The rules are pretty simple. Just like last year, you have to register on the Celestron images website, read the rules, and then enter your picture(s). An important caveat: at least one piece of equipment you use must have Celestron optics.

Once again, my mind control beam has worked perfectly: Discover Magazine and Celestron picked me to judge the entries. I won’t tell you outright what might win and what might not, but like last year, I’m looking for beautiful images, interesting images, out-of-the-ordinary images. For example, the picture to the left won last year because it was such a cool idea – the photographer took a picture of every planet in the solar system (except Earth, and, for you diehards, Pluto) and the Sun all in the same 24 hour period, then put them together in this montage. You can also check out the other images from last year, too. They’re all really amazing shots.

The contest prizes are very nice: a Celestron Nexstar 8SE telescope (retail value: $1199) for the Grand Prize, an Axiom LX31 eyepiece ($399) for the Runner Up, and a 50th Anniversary First Scope ($70) for the Viewers’ Choice picture.

The contest starts TODAY, October 1, 2010 and ends on October 30, 2010. So get out there and start snapping.

Clear skies, everyone!

[UPDATE: We have a winner! @Pryced got the winning retweet, picked at random. He sent me an acknowledging email, and the package is on its way to him. But don't fret! More fun giveaways are coming soon...]

I haven’t done a contest in a while, but this one was worth the wait: I have some very cool Mythbusters swag I’m giving away!

Here’s the loot:

To wit:

• A ginormous Mythbusters swag bag from the San Diego Comic Con 2009,
• An autographed hardcopy of the cover of the September 2009 Popular Science magazine that had contributions by Jamie Hyneman and My Close Personal Friend Adam Savage™,
• A t-shirt, size medium (though it’s a bit small for me and I’m average in build, so consider it a small), from Comic Con 2008. The shirt has a drawing of Jamie on the front (with the caption "METHODICAL") and Adam on the back ("IMPULSIVE"). This shirt is also autographed by both Adam and Jamie. The sleeve has the SDCC and MB logos on it. And…
• … what the heck: I also have a lot of miscellaneous cool stuff I’ve picked up over time, and I’ll throw a pile of it into the box. Stickers, buttons, things like that.

So how do you win this fabulous prize? Here’s the deal:
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DARPA is running an interesting contest: they are placing ten red balloons somewhere in the continental United States. Social media groups can register with DARPA, and the first one to submit the correct latitude and longitude of all 10 will get $40,000!

I found out about this at Fark, and so I’ll throw my hat — and all of you — in with them. If Fark wins, they’ll donate the $40k to Toys for Tots.

This all starts Saturday (December 5) at sunup! It’s already started! So read the DARPA page, and if you spot one of the balloons, don’t put it in the comments — we don’t want the competition to see! — but instead, send an email to the Farktabulous Melissa (her email is in that link).

Fark has been pretty good to me, so it’s nice to be able to send a little back. Let’s spot some balloons!

Note: I hate to say this, but if you have delicate sensibilities, then maybe Fark isn’t the best place for you. I, however, still have some atavistic humor left over from being a 15-year-old-boy some time ago, so I love Fark.