Go well 🙂
Emeritus Professor of Materials Physics. Public understanding of science. Astrophotography (more aspiration than success 😉); Creative Writing; occasional blogger: https://bobreflected.blogspot.com. Husband, father, grandfather, believer.
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Go well 🙂
"Despite all of the areas of photography where digital imaging has improved the photographic experience, there is still one area that needs improvement, and it is in the way that digital photos must be viewed." Via PetaPixel - petapixel.com/2025/08/31/w...
It's several years since we stayed in Lisbon, but remember well the trip up to the higher level. It's very sad news.
I loved 'Apollo Remastered' and I remember Mercury and Gemini from my school days - so this is a must-buy 🙂
For those who don't know: This is Brandolini's law (also known as the 'bullshit asymmetry principle'): 'The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it' We're facing a lot of that with regard to climate change.
Perfect. I hadn't thought of the mission.
It's incredibly disappointing to hear that a quarter of UK schools don't have a specialist physics teacher. It's essential that we can all see the basics of how the world works & it's fun to satisfy that very basic curiosity. Physics gives us all agency in a complex world.
Cloud and rain here.
Yes, rain here.
I haven't done much visual observing for ages. I'm now nostalgic for my old 6" Newtonian 🙂 (Nice scope by the way; how is it for imaging?)
It took a while 🤔 However, now I've read a report on the Nature article I *think* I've worked it out: Gaia/Earth, Spiral Throne/Milky Way, Guardians/Magellanic Cloud and pals. What a superb title! It makes my u3a titles seem very boring 😂
Totally agree 😂
I expect the birds are queuing up 😉
I rather like this 'close up' - the core often gets lost in an overly-bright splodge when the wider galaxy is imaged. I've heard something about the non-merger between the Milky Way and Andromeda - I must do a little research 🙂 I hope your talk goes well: who are you speaking to?
Oh, I do: I first read the books half a century ago and have the 'Director's cut' Blu-rays 🤫
Ah, the ol' first derivative playing its game with us again 🙂
How apt 👏 Nice images too.
That's awesome!
Nice work - those dark clouds are tough to process.
They're heavy aren't they. I hope the tendon is fully recovered. (My problem is that I'm in my 70s 😂)
Nice work 🙂
I've just signed this open letter in support of science & discovery centres in the UK. Maybe you'd like to add your name?
Quite a harvest 🙂 I really must get my head around scheduling...
I didn't know, but I can truly empathise - good news is so welcome isn't it 🙂
Yes, much the same for others involved in research 🙂
I wish you well. I didn't restart my adolescent astronomy hobby until after I retired - and even then focused for a few years on solar system objects and binary star systems. So, I decided to avoid a thematic approach to deep sky - I'm just going for interesting targets 😉
Wow - I tried to do a few sketches back in the 1960s using my pocket money telescope. It was a 'sad' experience in several ways, and when I took up the hobby again in retirement it never even occurred to me to try again.
We will never colonize mars. Our bones would be come jelly. Astronauts with Olympic level fitness become geriatric real quick on the space station. There is no maybe. We will never colonize mars.
About 0.1 percent of the global population, some 8.8 million people, identifies as scientists, which means only a small fraction of people personally know a scientist.
Wow; I know quite a few folk collecting the catalogue - some visually but mostly via astrophotography - you seem as close as any 🙂
Yes, I imaged binary systems before knowing anything about deep sky imaging: all done using my 'lucky imaging' methods.
Nice.
Impressive!
Seems right: definitely 5ish where I am.
It was good wasn't it, with some long-standing salutary lessons. Chatting her over a tea break once is a fond memory.
Happy very significant birthday 🙂 ... Lovely image by the way.
Either way: success! 😃
Very similar with Lords, particularly for international cricket. My son and I succeeded once, but after a while we gave up. (Also, he got way more busy.)
But it's back: hello Orion 🙂
Haha - I have trees like that 🙄
After the extensive refurbishment of the Royal Society building, some years ago, it was noticed that the chirality of the 'DNA' within the handles on the front doors was wrong. They were quickly replaced.
Lovely; welcome back Orion 🙂
Great image 🙂
SN2025rbs shows up nicely - and you have the Deer Lick group just above NGC7331. Wonderful 🙂
Absolutely right. Your 'incidental' image is better than mine - but I guess we were both going after SN2025rbs. I loved seeing Stephan's Quartet and the Deer Lick Group as a bonus.
On a former platform I was blocked because I liked classical music from before 1900 as well as more modern compositions. Bizarre.
I loved that book and recommended it to a lot of people. Yes, apt painting.
This is maddening (especially in light of the thousands - literally - of houses slated for fields around me). It couples with the failure to share the overheated SE economy into the N of the country. Empty houses increasing whilst green fields are concreted over ... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Nice images. I like your '1 hr rule'. I've got into the habit of setting something going - now two things given my Dwarf robot - and disappearing indoors to sleep for a few hours. With the longer winter nights I may have to rethink 😉
I've tinkered a little with my first batch of Dwarf3 deep sky images (using AffinityPhoto2). I'm pleased with my new pet robot. Still experimenting, still learning ...
Thankfully no
My pet robot (Dwarf3) worked hard for 5 hrs last night for this image of Andromeda 🙂 It even gave me the option of a star-free image, although I'm not a fan of the look (but it might be useful if I tinker with the images on my PC later 🤔). Everything here done from the Dwarf phone app.
From a few days ago: M27, the Dumbbell planetary nebula. A pretty remnant of a star's decline. (Almost 15,000 years ago an ageing star puffed off its out layers - just as our Sun will do - leaving a cooling white dwarf behind.)
Similar here, plus a heavy mist.
My 'observatory' under a dust sheet to keep a little more of the sunlight off. I love dry periods where there are several clear nights in a row as I only need to make the multiple trips to/from my garage, polar align etc. once. However, ... #astrophotography
Very creative 😃
No foxes in my back garden, but a foraging hedgehog in the undergrowth nearby is hard to ignore, and we have at least three who include us on their rounds 😉
"Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors … Won't you please, please, help me?" I doubt John & Paul were thinking about astronomy - but I've benefitted from so much help and advice and encouragement since picking up my teenage stargazing (now astrophotography) hobby in retirement.
Love it!
I can't compete with that 🫡 I occasionally put out an old wildlife camera for the local hedgehogs - it captured me back in the spring. I guess the only eccentricity is the generic one associated with all astronomy enthusiasts. (My laptop is hidden in a pop-up 'tent' sold for pets😉)
😂 Maybe not, but at least it's high Summer - and if you can't be just a little eccentric at our age (forgive the presumption) then when?
What a shot! Far too cloudy here - and to be honest I was far too tired after three consecutive clear nights playing with my astro toys 😉
Wow! Sadly, cloud-covered down here.
Same here - together with a depressing level of light pollution ...
Ah, you're ahead of me on that one - I have some targets in mind, including that one, but I think that may be a few steps ahead 😉 Unfortunately, Andromeda is visible only from my front garden and I suspect the D3 is eminently stealable. If I have to babysit it I'd be better off going out of town 🙂
A wise course. I'm still learning - e.g. when to select the default timing (15/30/60) so I don't have to retrace my setup steps ... again 😉 I've barely begun on the in-app processing options etc. However, having it do its complementary thing whilst I wrangle my old-school setup is becoming a joy.
I'm slowly getting the hang of my Dwarf3, and what it's good at. Last night I pointed it at the North America nebula; the result using only on-phone processing - is quite pleasing. The lesson for me was clear: play to the strengths of the kit and stop attempting like-for-like comparisons 😉
Frustrating isn't it.
I love your posts 🙂
It's no wonder one still has to explain the difference - the gulf - between astrology and astronomy 🙄 Oh well, it got them studying the sky carefully ... 😉
Nice shot 🙂
The only other thing I've tried is to loosen the compost by mixing in something granular like grit or vermiculite.
It was an interesting thought though.
Definitely not high 2nd - in fact mostly 2nd hand. However, I'm hoping it was good enough to facilitate capturing an image of a recent supernova in another galaxy.
Definitely. I have had a go using my refractor - but that was the time I learnt what can happen when one cools a camera chip too quickly and dogs everything up. Oh well, we live and try to learn 😉
Is it absolutely essential? I'd value an expansion of this statement. (My own diction is 'average', perhaps that explains my mediocre writing 😉)
Well done; I empathise. In my case I went to bed at 4 am, having spent time with my telescope under an all-too-rare clear sky.
Impressive I had my first outing with mine last night. I chose the Bubble nebula because I had a good view of it and an idea of what it 'should' look like. I've had no time to process the subs yet but the raw live-stack looks promising.
Well done. I got to bed about the same time as it turns out - imaging the new supernova in NGC7331 using my old 80 mm refractor ... and using my new Dwarf3 for the first time. We've had weeks of short and cloudy nights and it was good to get back out there in one of my 'happy places' 🙂.
Whereas mine is totally cloud-covered, though less windy.
Oh my word, that's beautiful.
I'd have loved one of these - about the same level of safety as the chemistry sets I had 😉
She's right: a lovely book 🙂
Not sure I'd call it 'fun' 🫢 The only one that occurred whilst I was in your part of the world I slept through 😴
I can save you some time 🙂 youtu.be/iWrSeqGrtSA
Reminds me of the final scenes in '2001: a space odyssey'. Nice. @davidbflower
People say, “There’s zero benefit to studying dead languages and old books.” The benefit is that you won’t grow up to become the sort of person who spends your one precious life online, yelling at strangers that they must never learn beautiful things.
'ploofing': I love that verb 🙂
Yes, I've got a list of 'seen the airport and a conference venue' pins in the map as well 🤫
Oh well, it was worth trying 😉
Nice result. P.s. please send me some clear skies 😉
Definitely 🙂
Yes, you wouldn't want to trip and fall in the dark 😬 Beautiful image though 🙂
Thanks for this thread. I was pleased to see the announcement - a nice complement to her Scottish counterpart - but I hadn't folded in the context you provide. Interesting, useful 🙂
I did enjoy reading it as part of my preparation for the 'living off-world' course I led earlier this year for my local u3a (- www.u3a.org.uk )
Sensible piece. My experience as an early adopter of Turnitin (i.e. as soon as the site licence was in place) was that it provided an excellent teaching/learning tool. I've been out of the system for a decade now, so no experience with the AI variant - but it sounds very useful.
I'm glad I'm retired and missed the need to face this issue. I don't envy you (- well, apart from the whole being in my 70s thing 🫢). However, your sensible advice is close to what I used to say in the context of collusion and plagiarism. I worried that, for many, I was whispering into the wind 🙄
Steady hands.
This is hands-down the best description yet. Full marks, no notes.
