My effort to automate a Jupiter animation capture had mixed results last night. Good conditions were thwarted by a USB traffic issue and my failure to anticipate a meridian flip! This is 1 hour of the planned 4 hours of Europa ingress and egress and GRS transit. Details in ALT #astrophotography

Good for a practical application example #ITeachPhysics

AstroBin's Image of the Day: "Jupiter, Ganymede & Io | 20-Dec-25" by Tom Williams www.astrobin.com/scs3o5/ #astrophotography

The boys are back in town! The river otters like to warm up in the early morning sun on our dock after a chilly swim.

We had great views of the Cascades driving south from Sunriver, Oregon yesterday. I spotted the first quarter moon hovering next to the 14,179 ft peak of Mt. Shasta from the McDonald's parking lot in Weed, California. Shastina is the 12,330 ft peak in front of Shasta. #astrophotography

I love the story because it is absolutely peak engineer, 10/10 no notes. But it is also so ironic and sad that the measurements they take are literally changing on some peaks due to climate change melting the ice caps – and thankfully, that is clearly pointed out in this article!

DC area Friends - If you don’t have NYE plans yet, consider joining us at McGinty’s in Silver Spring. It’s going to be a really fun night. GROOVADELICS will rock your body & soul with some new material, a few special guests, good food, no cover charge, free bubbly at midnight… Come join us!

Greetings, all! Here's an animation depicting NASA's Dragonfly mission to Titan. With all of the NASA cuts going on in Trumpistan, is this still going ahead? Would be a massive shame if not. #SciArt #spaceart #Blender

There are a few apps.apple.com/us/app/weath...

This was never hard to imagine..all the (pre-)work was done—all that remained was execution…

I probably won't have a chance to capture more images this year, so here is my 2025 #Astrophotography Highlights video, set to MVHS Madrigals Choir music. It features planetary and galaxy images taken with my new Meade 8" SCT. I still have a lot to learn, enjoy! youtu.be/a48QNu2IC7w?...

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, whatever floats your boat! #SciArt #spaceart

The detail of Earth 🌍 captured in Bill Anders’ first color photo taken from lunar orbit on #christmaseve in 1968 #OTD really is amazing. This is a crop of AS08-14-2383, in its original orientation, from a scanned 70mm @nasa film original 16-bit TIFF file by a project team at Arizona State University

🔭 Mystery: Little Red Dots in the Early Universe Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JWST; Dale Kocevski (Colby College) apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25122...

Electrifying development on EelTok @erinbiba.bsky.social

I probably won't have a chance to capture more images this year, so here is my 2025 #Astrophotography Highlights video, set to MVHS Madrigals Choir music. It features planetary and galaxy images taken with my new Meade 8" SCT. I still have a lot to learn, enjoy! youtu.be/a48QNu2IC7w?...

Take advantage of Advanced registration rates for #AAPTWM26! These rates end on January 6th. Register now! ➡ ow.ly/lA5E50XxtUl #AAPTMeetings #AAPTConference #PhysicsEducation #PhysicsTeachers

The "Big Dipper in 3D" installation in our "Astronomy for Everybody" exhibition started out as a toothpick-and-plasticine mock-up on a cardboard. :-) 🔭🎢

Tangentially related, ever since a friend played it at the stroke of midnight on 12/31/1987, the first song I’ve played every New Years is the live version of Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads. youtu.be/TGofoH9RDEA?...

Cécile DeWitt-Morette, a towering figure of mathematical physics, was generous, approachable, and brilliant. She passed away in 2017 at the age of 94. UT-Austin put together this extensive online memorial about Cécile DeWitt-Morette's life and scientific contributions. (18/n)

#Iteachphysics Daily agenda for the project this year. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Day 21 of #ArtAdventCallendar. Here's an animation of an orbital ring. It surrounds the Earth in a continuous loop and could serve as a platform to launch vehicles from low-Earth orbit. Read alt-text for more details. Made with #Blender #sciart #scifi

Pantone just updated their Color Of The Year

Sunday is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Why does our planet have seasons, when other planets like Venus and Jupiter do not? I posted a full explanation at: www.fraknoi.com/.../winter-s... #astronomy #astroed #sky #scienceteaching #scienceeducation #science

Michelson was born in Prussia but moved to the US at a young age. He grew up in little mining towns across California and Nevada. In Nevada his family lived in Virginia City. 100 years later this would be the setting for the TV show “Bonanza.” This was too good for the writers to pass up! (2/n)

In the episode “Look to the Stars,” a young Michelson performs various experiments and measures the speed of light. The plot of the episode revolves around the Cartwrights helping him gain admission to the US Naval Academy. (3/n)

What to do with a bunch of exposures from the Geminid meteor shower? Make a star trail image with StarStaX of course. This was made from about 1 hour of images from Sunday night. There was not much meteor activity, I can spot one in this image. #astrophotography markus-enzweiler.de/software/sta...

THE LAST MOONSHIP - FOR NOW... This was the last crewed ship to take off from the Moon. Here you can see Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan through the window of the ascent stage of the Lunar module. The Apollo 17 crew returned to Earth 53 years ago today! 🔭

J.J. Thomson was born #OTD in 1856. He discovered the electron, developed experimental techniques that led to mass spectroscopy, and trained physicists like Rutherford and Bohr. He was later BETRAYED by his own son, in the ultimate act of 20th century filial physics rebellion. (1/n) 🧪 ⚛️ 🎢

Are you a K-12 teacher planning to attend #AAPTWM26? Check out the meeting resources available to K-12 attendees. Learn more ➡ ow.ly/L1Hv50Xuimc #AAPTMeeting #AAPTConference #ITeachPhysics

#ArtAdventCalendar day 18 Illustration of a cave on the Moon, with the Earth visible from the opening. Caves have been known there for some time. Some of them are where lava tubes have collapsed in places, revealing the interior. They would make good places for human habitats. #SciArt #blender

Do you smell something? Yes but I can't quite place it. Wait a minute! Skunk! Run!

Not many meteors on Sunday night, but if you were out looking east around 4:00 AM Monday morning (I was not!), you would have seen these 2 bright ones within 8 seconds of each other. The over-exposed Moon is rising on the right. #astrophotography

#PPOD: A flash of lightning, and then—something else. High above a storm, a crimson figure blinks in and out of existence. If you see it, you are a lucky witness of a sprite, one of the least-understood electrical phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Credit: Nicolas Escurat; Text: Miles Hatfield 🧪

'My year end reading statistics' (originally for @theguardian.com books). p.s There's still time to pick up new book Physics for Cats at good bookshops and online www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2

Join us for the next AAPT Virtual Coffee Hour on "Physics Meets Climate: A Collaborative Coffee Hour with AAPT and NESTA" with presenters Elissa Levy and Natalie Macke on January 13th at 7:30 pm ET. This event is open to the public. ow.ly/vaMl50XGQYf #AAPTCoffeeHour #PhysicsEducation #ITeachPhysics

The Northern Trifid Nebula (NGC 1579) is a delinquent compared to its famous namesake. Its central dust lanes are askew, its blue reflection nebula are scattered like dirty clothes on a bedroom floor, and what's with all the surrounding dust, does it ever vacuum? Details in ALT #astrophotography

A Christmas cartoon from my new book of science cartoons PHYSICS FOR CATS. In good bookshops and online now: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2

Physics Teachers! Get your students registered for the preliminary exam in the 2026 U.S. Physics Team selection process. All students are encouraged to participate! Learn more and register today! Registration deadline is January 20, 2026. ow.ly/zOx850XnNPA. #USPhysicsTeam2026 #ITeachPhysics

A composite of Geminids from Saturday night. Holiday lights reflecting off Lake of the Pines add to the colorful show. Orion is center right, M42 is a visible pink smudge. Each meteor trail added to a base image where observed relative to the stars, revealing the Geminid radiant. #astrophotography

A Christmas cartoon from my new book of science cartoons PHYSICS FOR CATS. In good bookshops and online now: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2

🎢 All the cool kids will be staying at the Horseshoe Las Vegas for #AAPTWM26 - and I’ll be there too! It’s in a great location and way walking distance from innumerable attractions.

#Physics, #astronomy, #science teachers, join the AAPT/NASA Heliophysics Education Activation Team's free virtual workshop series one Sat. each month. Register for the next #workshop on "EZIE Science *New!*" January 24, 2026 from 1:00 - 2:30 PM ET. ow.ly/UUML50XKjr0

WEBINAR: Get off to a great start with Engaging Chemistry Demonstration with PhET Simulations. Learn about an effective way to use computer simulations as thought-provoking demonstrations, with the support of scaffolded prediction sheets. Sign up vz.to/4ht1YnG #iTeachChem #chemistry #teacherPD

The school’s Van de Graaff generator was there when I arrived in 1986 (it was vintage 1960s), and still working when I left in 2021. It inspired a favorite demo with a favorite title: Charging Ahead. When we went remote, I created a robust presentation. phyzblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/rtdl...

Here they are: www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/the-le...

Animals with misleading names. I'm seeing this go around as part of a viral tumblr thread so I thought I'd reshare it.

The largest dunes can reach several hundred meters in width. Taken by the HiRISE camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2018 from 302 km above the surface. The imaged area is less than 1 km across. Learn more: beautifulmars.tumblr.com/post/1729937...

Hi BlueSky, I wrote a song for you mitchrocket.bandcamp.com/track/blue-s...