After weeks of rain -- the Owl Nebula soars high above the Surfboard Galaxy, which surfs enormous interstellar tides. Image credit: my tiny telescope #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

I just realized that today is Chinese New Year, the 1st day of Ramadan, AND Fat Tuesday. That means the Chinese new moon lined up with the Ramadan crescent and also fell exactly the right amount of time before the Easter full moon. An extremely rare lineup of 3 major moon-based traditions!

International Women in Science Day fell on Feb 10th. I had the honor of being featured in a blog post by the smart telescope company Vaonis (the brand of telescope I use)! vaonis.com/blogs/travel... 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

Just like the snake-haired Medusa of Greek mythology, this nebula's head writhes with tangled thick filaments, leading to its name, the Medusa Nebula. The result of a star cooling into a white dwarf. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Just like the snake-haired Medusa of Greek mythology, this nebula's head writhes with tangled thick filaments, leading to its name, the Medusa Nebula. The result of a star cooling into a white dwarf. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

"...Aristarchus has brought out a book consisting of certain hypotheses... His hypotheses are that the fixed stars and the sun remain unmoved, that the earth revolves about the sun on the circumference of a circle, the sun lying in the middle of the orbit..." -- Archimedes, _The Sand Reckoner_

Gorgeous image! Can you believe, that in the next weeks to a few months, there are going to be four humans which are going to go in a spaceship and sail around the other side of this other world that just hangs in our sky. Go look at the Moon. Four people will be on the other side of it soon.

See the solitary bright crater on the lower left? It's named after Aristarchus of Samos, who proposed that the Earth orbits the sun 1,800 years before Copernicus. An unbelievably insightful idea for its day (sadly ignored). Image taken tonight by my tiny telescope. #science #history 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The beautiful Markarian chain, a drooping string of distant galaxies. And the loner who refuses to join the party, M87 on the lower left, hiding a supermassive black hole inside its heart. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Not many connect math and Dr. Martin Luther King. But in 7th grade, I saw my geometry teacher silently weep through the school's MLK Day assembly, hiding his eyes behind a napkin. An unintended gesture that placed a symbolic welcome mat in front of his math-covered chalkboards.

Good morning from the moon...

The Perseus Galaxy Cluster. A thousand galaxies trapped inside a cosmic web of filaments containing hundreds of thousands more. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

History forms when order breaks. In this case, NGC 660 is wearing its history at an angle. Long ago, a collision yanked its outer arms away from the core, leaving a warped galaxy, which still manages to hold itself together. Image credit: my tiny telescope (about 15 hrs) #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

How to enjoy an iced latte in Detroit!

What wisdom will the Soul Nebula whisper for 2026? Astronomers know how to listen. [1/2] Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

Four giant stories in one frame! Each of these nebulae exists in different evolutionary stages and at different distances from us. Details in alt text. Image credit: my tiny 2" telescope (and lots of patience) #astronomy #science 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

Hello BlueSky! This is the Christmas Tree Cluster. I color-mapped the heart of the nebula to tree-green to bring out the effect. Would you like this as a wallpaper? I'm happy to share for free: photos.app.goo.gl/e9LNThCC97NZ... Image credit: my tiny telescope. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

I happened to be up in San Francisco during the massive power outage tonight. The dark skyscrapers imparted a weird, Dickensian feel.

This looks fake, but I took this photo in the middle of one of many aimless walks that my kids have led me on.

The Iris Nebula. The unusual thing about this nebula is the vast filament structures that persist all the way down to tiny scales. Right now, astronomers want to know why. Turbulence, magnetic fields, radiation pressure, or...? Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

The Iris Nebula. The unusual thing about this nebula is the vast filament structures that persist all the way down to tiny scales. Right now, astronomers want to know why. Turbulence, magnetic fields, radiation pressure, or...? Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

A story about snowflakes and chaos. Read my latest about how noise enables subtle, intricate patterns at every level (for Scientific American). www.scientificamerican.com/article/math... #science #math #physics 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

A story about snowflakes and chaos. Read my latest about how noise enables subtle, intricate patterns at every level (for Scientific American). www.scientificamerican.com/article/math... #science #math #physics 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

I love the progress from a 48” telescope in 1966 to a 2” telescope today and the vast improvements made in between. Makes you wonder what’ll possible in the next 60 years!

The Helix Nebula! I know, that name confused me too. So I found the first known photo of this nebula... 1/2 (thread) Image credit: my tiny 2" telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The amazing mushroom I encountered on a hike today! It was cataloged in 1984 as a "bear's head".

24 Hour Fitness desk guy: Are you an astrophysicist? I saw your NY Times articles and your astro photos Me: Nope, a physicist. But I love writing about the universe! Guy: I have major questions about black holes We spent the next 20 mins discussing the mind bending consequences of extreme objects

Rover's snaps as it strolls around Mars will never get old!

Huh. I was only aiming at this while waiting for other targets to rise, but then... wow!! All those Milky Way stars (and dust) make it hard to see this galaxy, hence its mysterious name "The Hidden Galaxy". Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The Sun and absolutely enormous spots in white light. 3 December 2025. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour

Here's what I've been looking at the past week: * NGC 2403, a weird galaxy that produces too many supernovae * Thor's Helmet, looks cool * NGC 660, another weird galaxy whose core is on a different axis than its arms * The Snow Angel - you can only see the wings #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Here's what I've been looking at the past week: * NGC 2403, a weird galaxy that produces too many supernovae * Thor's Helmet, looks cool * NGC 660, another weird galaxy whose core is on a different axis than its arms * The Snow Angel - you can only see the wings #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

So exciting!! Last night's moonless, cloudless, freshly rain-scrubbed sky allowed me to pull out Leo, a tiny ghostly satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Its's the faint blob next to the much brighter star, Regulus. Image credit: my tiny telescope (about 4 hrs) -- 1/2 #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

Hello BlueSky! This is the Christmas Tree Cluster. I color-mapped the heart of the nebula to tree-green to bring out the effect. Would you like this as a wallpaper? I'm happy to share for free: photos.app.goo.gl/e9LNThCC97NZ... Image credit: my tiny telescope. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

In anything less than true darkness, the "Phantom Galaxy" slips away like a ghost, its delicate light too faint for many amateur telescopes. The core may harbor a rarity: an intermediate-mass black hole! Image credit: my tiny telescope, about 4 hours of imaging. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

A sparkling midnight rose, known as Caroline's Rose (or NGC 7789 if you prefer catalog names). This open star cluster is an anomaly among its peers due to its "straggler" stars which appear deceptively younger than their neighbors. 1/2 Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

I used a tool to remove the stars from this photo. So if you're sitting in a spaceship right next to it, this is what you would see. This is the "fossil footprint nebula" because it has 3 toes that look vaguely like a dinosaur footprint. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

I used a tool to remove the stars from this photo. So if you're sitting in a spaceship right next to it, this is what you would see. This is the "fossil footprint nebula" because it has 3 toes that look vaguely like a dinosaur footprint. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Amid all of yesterday's excitement, this was last night's "Beaver moon", named for the season when beavers feverishly prepare dams and lodges for winter. And especially cool is the "lunar halo" that encircled it (caused by moonlight refracting off of ice crystals in clouds). #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The cave nebula: a delicious interstellar cauldron of hot gas, baby stars, and organic molecules. Far too hot for life right now, but maybe after things have cooled down... Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The cave nebula: a delicious interstellar cauldron of hot gas, baby stars, and organic molecules. Far too hot for life right now, but maybe after things have cooled down... Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Yes, the core, where the sunlight-generating nuclear reactions, occur, is in the central ~25% of the Sun. In fact, that makes the image even more amazing. Not only are we seeing through 100% of the Earth but 75% of the Sun as well!

The Little Rosette Nebula began as a cloud of cold, dark gas. Over time, gravity transformed the center into a cradle, kindling newborns stars. These infant suns then poured their energy back into the gas, warming it into a stunning nebula. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Monday morning on Earth. Life first stirred on our planet 4.5 billion years ago. In another 5, the Sun will exhaust its hydrogen, swell into a red giant, and draw our small world into its fading heart. Our story -- whatever it is that you're doing today -- is at its midpoint. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

One of the biggest and most publicized disputes in stellar astronomy in recent decades centers on the distance to this star cluster, the Pleiades (the 7 Sisters). Image credit: my tiny telescope (~4 hours) #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

This astronomical snake thing is my most distant observation to date! You're peering beyond our Local Group at the "Rose Galaxies", 350 million light years away. Image credit: my tiny telescope plus 16 hours of photon collecting. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Not many pulsars have been identified optically, but this one has. And you can actually hear the moment when the discovery was made.

I think I also caught the light from the surrounding nebula generated by the pulsar too, a while back! These are 10s integrations (so, not seeing it blink on/off) but rather the accumulated light over the course of an hour from pulsar effects. Position is consistent with professional shot below!

Here are the remnants of a massive star that ignited in 1054. Ancient astronomers marveled at how they could see the supernova even during the day. All that's left today is the faint, colorful smudge called the Crab Nebula. Image credit: my tiny telescope - only 2 hours! #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The "Pillars of Creation" lie deep in the heart of the Eagle Nebula. According to a 2025 paper, these pillars have a hue of red that is off from what we'd expect, hinting that the dust inside is anything but ordinary. Image credit: my tiny telescope (8.5 hrs of observing). #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬