Ira Flatow brought his popular public radio show "Science Friday" to Huntsville for the first time Tuesday night, and he went back to New York City impressed by Alabama.

"This was a very receptive audience, " Flatow said after the taping at the U.S.Space & Rocket Center "They were a smart audience. They laughed at the right places. They knew what was going on."

The Huntsville show airs Friday afternoon on WLRH public radio 89.3 in Huntsville and other public radio stations across Alabama. "Science Friday" reaches a combined on-air and podcast audience of 2 million each week, and the show travels from New York only four times a year.

Flatow checked in on the space science in Huntsville, but that was just the beginning. One of the audience favorites Tuesday was Sarah Parcak, a space archaeologist and anthropology professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Parcak calls what she does "finding things we can't see." She uses satellite imagery to spot ancient ruins and even cities hidden beneath the sand. Tanis, an ancient city in Egypt, was one of her targets.

"It's Egypt's largest (archaeological) site. It's absolutely massive," Parcak said. Temples have been excavated there, she said, "but the actual settlement of Tanis had never before been fully mapped, and that's something we've been able to do."

Flatow interviewed Julie Robinson, chief scientist for the International Space Station, about science done on the station and managed by NASA teams in Huntsville.

And he talked with Les Johnson, deputy manager of the Advanced Concepts Office at Marshall Space Flight Center and author, about deep space travel and how his day job influences his science fiction.

Johnson likes sails powered by the sun to reach deep space. "If you want to go to the stars, you've got to think big," he said. "Think a sail thinner than a human hair the size of the state of Texas. Now, we have no idea how to build that. I will not claim I know how to build a sail that large. But Mother Nature has not said it's impossible."

Richard Miller, a physicist and associate professor at UAH, briefed Flatow on the fascinating sub-atomic particles known as muons. They could be coming to a border detector near you because of some of their interesting properties.

Phillip Bitzer, an assistant professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, brought Flatow up to date on the latest in lightning science.

And Bitzer confirmed, in response to a question from Flatow, that you are safe in your car during a lightning storm. It isn't the rubber tires protecting you, he said. It's the metal cabin of the car that acts as a shield.

Ending the show was Huntsville's "Smarter Every Day" You Tube star Destin Sandlin. Sandlin had the audience laughing out loud at his experiments to explain complicated science concepts by simple means like breaking spaghetti, observing a chicken and riding a very strange bicycle.

You can listen to the Huntsville show during the first hour of Science Friday's national broadcast Friday. Tune in from 1-3 p.m. on 89.3 FM/HD1 and again at 89.3 HD3-News/Talk at 9 p.m.

WLRH brought the show to Huntsville as a community event. Helping were sponsors Redstone Federal Credit Union, Calhoun Community College, Alabama Public Television and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

(Updated April 22 at 5:45 p.m. CDT to correct the spelling of lightning scientist Phillip Bitzer's name)