Lucy Hambly shares her insightful wisdom of astronomy with Giacomo Panico on CBC Radio

(On January 3, 2025, Lucy Hambly of Stittsville was invited to CBC Radio to be interviewed by Giacomo Panico to share her knowledge on the Quadrantids meteor shower and the Blue Ghost mission. Photos: provided)

Stittsville Central is thankful that Lucy Hambly has been contributing her monthly articles on astronomy since the spring of 2023, with her first article being published in April. Her articles are articulate and contain astronomical events and findings that many in our community (including this editor) enjoy reading, and learning from, Lucy’s knowledge. Conversations with Lucy led to her monthly contributions as we wanted to provide a platform for her to share her passion for astronomy. So insightful is Lucy, that CBC has noticed!

Recently, while attending the Stittsville Public School time capsule unveiling, this editor was speaking with Simon Smith of CBC who was also covering the event. As our chat evolved, Lucy’s name came up and Simon was told of the diligence and knowledge she shares in her monthly columns. He wanted to know more, so some of the topics about which she had written were shared and, of course, how her articles could be read on our website.

This conversation led to an email from Simon to Stittsville Central on Thursday, January 2nd – would Lucy be interested in being interviewed by Giacomo Panico the next morning? Simon wrote, “I saw her most recent column on your site and thought she’d be a great guest for our morning radio show! The article is so well written and it’s clear she’s very knowledgeable – we’d love to ask her about the upcoming Quadrantids meteor shower and the Blue Ghost mission.” Simon got in touch with Lucy’s Mom to get permission and set the interview up.

Lucy had written about both events in her December 29 article and with the Quadrantids meteor shower taking place the night of January 3 and the early morning hours of January 4, interviewing her on Friday, January 3 would be perfect timing to share her knowledge prior to the event.

We caught up with Lucy after her interview to hear her thoughts – “Getting to go down to the studio at 7:00AM for the live interview was super exciting, and I loved getting to see the behind-the-scenes process of how CBC Radio operates. Everything was so professional, and the whole process went off seamlessly! It was very easy to forget that I was talking to more than just one person during the actual interview, and the actual speaking time passed quickly.”

Lucy added, “After the interview was over, I really enjoyed getting to hear the thoughts of my friends and family who had either listened to it live or from the clip posted online. I was even told later that CBC would like to have me back on eventually when there is more major astronomy news to be shared, which I would definitely be up for.”

We also look forward to hearing Lucy again in a future interview. For those who may have missed Lucy’s CBC interview on Ottawa Morning with Giacomo Panico, take a few minutes and listen to it at this link.

Lucy not only has a passion for astronomy. She is an accomplished author having won awards with the Ottawa Public Library’s Awesome Authors contest in 2021 and 2023, she was an award winner in the Stittsville District Lion’s Club public speaking contest in 2020. She has also contributed articles about Stittsville events for Stittsville Central.

Lucy is also passionate about STEM and back in 2023 she earned the title of School Champion for the University of Waterloo’s Fryer math competition, having scored the highest number of points among her grade 9 peers at South Carleton High School. She also participated in a robotics competition hosted by Natural Resources Canada during March break of the same year for another opportunity to explore the world of STEM. Students from grades 9 to 12 were split into teams of three whereby they were challenged to create a functional robot that could navigate a pre-built maze with ultrasonic sensors and use a thermistor to detect and move towards a heat source.

Lucy’s ultimate passion is astronomy, which is what she intends to pursue as a career, “I would ideally like to work as an astrophysicist or astrobiologist for NASA, specifically under the topic of exoplanet detection and research.”

We at Stittsville Central are eager to see what’s next for Lucy and I’m sure her family could not be prouder of Lucy’s accomplishments. In the meantime, Stittsville Central looks forward to eagerly reading and sharing Lucy’s monthly Astronomy articles with the community.