IT IS TIME.

At this exact time and date — 14:19 Eastern US time on September 22, 2025 — the center of the Sun is directly over Earth's equator (in technical terms, it has a declination of 0°), marking the moment of the September equinox. Happy equinox!

New spooky season mug for the office (hand wash only, so it will live here instead of at home)

I kept a couple pancakes out of the freezer for a nice Monday morning pancake breakfast

Gus could not have chosen a more obstructive way to finally settle into the recliner with me 😂 I *was* reading but that’s a little difficult now

Time to restock the freezer with buttermilk pancakes

This chaos also speaks to the growing awareness of the profound corruption of the Supreme Court. The excessive H1B fee is clearly illegal according to the text of the applicable statute. But no one can have any confidence anymore that it will ultimately be thrown out.

The first one of the season is always so good

Another win from the small collection of non-alcoholic beers I picked up a few weeks ago. It was hot an a bit humid today, and I spent way too long in my gross barn clothes running errands and dealing with things. I feel so much better after showering and having a nice beer with my early dinner

Today has been a very mixed bag. Barn went well this morning, but then my car made truly god-awful noises on the way home. Noises stopped and quick inspection at the dealer says it looks fine. Made it home in time for my vaccine appointment. Then couldn’t get the vaccine…

Whelp. Walgreens is still refusing to do Covid vaccinations without prescriptions despite the governor’s order

Also to clarify, the cost is $100K per year of the visa, so it is actually $300K for a 3-year visa. As postdocs cost about $100K/year, this fee doubles the cost of postdocs on H1-B visas.

Had one overripe banana and a little bit of leftover yogurt. So it’s time for improvised toaster oven banana muffins (wherein I eyeball everything with no recipe and it usually turns out fine, albeit with variable texture 😂)

Ok, well now you're just showing off. ...we're not mad about it though. This spectacular nightscape of NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory in Chile features the striking band of the Milky Way and its companions.🔭 🧪

So much for international faculty or tech workers. This is how you lose all the money invested in international PhD students. Just let them all go back home. Well done.

We’re all coping in our own ways.

Never ask Gus if it’s too early to go to bed 😂 he would be up for going to bed at 4pm if asked

Finally some proper monsoon rainfall!

Anyway, now we know what the FCC thinks is in the public interest: Fox host advocating for executing homeless people? Yes ABC comic suggesting Trumpers are using a death cynically? No

things looking up!

Doing laundry during the planetary society budget briefing. To cheer myself up, I decided it’s time for my Halloween kitchen towels. My Halloween napkins are also close to being in rotation

Echo thinks she’s more interesting than my zoom call. But I’m learning about @spacejammie.bsky.social’s super cool science art she’s done for burning man. So, sorry Echo, but you gotta move!

Tragic and alarming: From the states collecting data, 68% of U.S. counties and jurisdictions have immunization rates below 95% for the MMR vaccine — the level of herd immunity that is required to stop the spread of measles.

Ooh. 38 whole dollars from the Facebook lawsuit. That’ll cover maybe like 1.5 bags of groceries these days…

Drat. Sleeping for 12 hours did not manage to get rid of whatever bug I picked up (which multiple rounds of tests say isn’t rsv, fly, or covid af least). my body didn’t take kindly to the last two weeks of sleep chaos

The people at NASA headquarters do *not* understand how submitting proposals works from the user-end. Changing the required order of things in the proposal document less than a week from the deadline is asinine and they better not penalize people whose intuitions required uploads before that change

Any planetary folks going to the winter AAS this year? It’s not often well-attended for solar system stuff in particular, but it’s so close to me that I’m contemplating at least partial attendance

Yay!! That makes my life so much easier! (I have been too busy this week to even think about how to get a prescription, and now hopefully I can just go get my updated shot over the weekend)

Everyone writing about Perseverance today should be asking how many of the scientists and engineers who were involved in this discovery no longer work for NASA bc of Trump.

Column: This year's monsoon in Tucson was disappointingly dry. What compounded the disappointment were long- and short-term National Weather Service forecasts that repeatedly predicted rain that never arrived, culminating in a hurricane that veered away. tucson.com/news/local/s...

This is not my best pancake work 😂 whatever. I’m really tired and they taste fine even if they’re messy and the stupid blueberries weren’t even distributed

The cats have the zoomies because I’m up much later than usual (stupid proposal deadlines…). At least the meowing and sounds of little furry bodies ricocheting off furniture will help keep me alert 😂

I know how hard it is to plan meetings (it’s hard!), but was there *really* no alternative than to schedule the DPS members meeting such that it’s at 5:30am eastern time in the US? Basically means no one not at the meeting in-person is likely to benefit from the virtual participation option….

Different officemate, same lack of personal space as yesterday 😂

Someone broke the water in his stall and flooded it while I was gone last week. He gets to live in an outside stall until his stall inside dries up. He’s kind of annoyed about that but it’s his own fault

Thankful to past me for having stocked the freezer for quick dinners for busy weeks like this one. My enchilada casserole wasn’t *quite* as good reheated as it was fresh, but it did allow far a quick “throw stuff in the toaster oven” dinner

Tucson folks in CD07: check your voter/ballot status for the September 23rd special election. I realized today that my ballot hadn't arrived yet. Turns out I mysteriously got removed from the permanent early voter list I've been on for 15 years.

If you’ve been paying attention you will know this was their strategy with all of the spending including NASA, NIH etc

Are you looking graduating and looking for fellowship opportunities? The UW is a host institution for 51 Peg b! Applications are open now, and due October 3rd. We have faculty available in multiple departments available to host, across subfields in Planetary Science. Reach out for more info!

For people in a state that is asking for a prescription, try a CVS MinuteClinic. Some MinuteClinic’s are getting around restrictions by having nurses on site who will give you a prescription during a visit. They ask to confirm if you are high risk but don’t ask for proof.

Time to get back to work. My officemate missed me while I was gone and isn’t going to be giving me much personal space today

This isn't my sub-field of astronomy, but someone needs to give this conference 1000 internet bonus points for the best, most geographically relevant acronym, plus their logo is ADORABLE https://uwaterloo.ca/astrophysics-centre/geese-on-2025 GEESE-ON […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

1. If passengers book a flight from the EU and it is canceled or significantly delayed, they are entitled to cash compensation — $300 to $700. In the US, flyers were supposed to get similar rights soon. But those plans have been scrapped by the Trump administration. Here's how it happened. 🧵

Sad to be missing out on DPS/EPSC this week! But didn’t have the travel funding and couldn’t have been gone from home for two weeks anyway to do that and the workshop last week. But wish the time zones were better for virtual participation from pacific time

September means I can get my spooky season mugs out to go with my Monday morning pancakes

Happy to be home and to have finally gotten some good sleep. And very glad my kitties are cooperative and let me sleep for 11 hours without interruption. Good kitties

Managed a couple touristy things in Bern today after the fun workshop this week. Now I’m off to Geneva to catch my flight home tomorrow morning!

That is a pretty nice view

It’s that time of year when I start making my global warming Christmas trees! These are a big hit with the parents in laws in Arizona. ♥️💚 in my etsy shop. Surly.etsy.com

Happy crying because kitty is already in love with his new people and turning into the snuggle bug I just felt like he was meant to be (but I would not have guessed he would turn that corner so fast!!!). The world is crappy right now, but the cats are alright