Well, that was very satisfactory! Christmas present @naturespy.bsky.social camera set up in my back yard yesterday afternoon, and last night we had a couple of visitors:

Following a post about about my wife’s delicious home-made Yule log, I was asked if there are any one-armed spiral galaxies. So I pointed the 🔭 at NGC 1961, henceforth to be known as the Swiss Roll Galaxy! (So rare that this “nearby” example is 170 million light years away).

A rare clear night to go after The Hidden Galaxy, IC 342. It is one of our nearish neighbours, and big — the third largest on the sky after M31 & M33. Only discovered in 1892, because it lies close to the plane of the Milky Way, so heavily obscured. But imaged beautifully by Celestron Origin 🔭!

Following a post about about my wife’s delicious home-made Yule log, I was asked if there are any one-armed spiral galaxies. So I pointed the 🔭 at NGC 1961, henceforth to be known as the Swiss Roll Galaxy! (So rare that this “nearby” example is 170 million light years away).

A rare clear night to go after The Hidden Galaxy, IC 342. It is one of our nearish neighbours, and big — the third largest on the sky after M31 & M33. Only discovered in 1892, because it lies close to the plane of the Milky Way, so heavily obscured. But imaged beautifully by Celestron Origin 🔭!

The days between Christmas and New Year are the closest that working people can get to understanding what it is like to be retired.

Some Christmas gifts are more sensible than others…

Why is Christmas now? Most often we hear it was a borrowed pagan ceremony, but I rather like the 9-months-after-Easter theory. (Truly, as a small child, I was bemused as to how Jesus had fitted it all in when he only lived for three months…) www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people...

It’s gone 10 o’clock and the sprouts aren’t even cooking yet…

Father Christmas thought it was time I did some proper astronomy, and learned the constellations.

Our early-Spring camellia now seems to be a pre-Christmas camellia.

Pre-Christmas tradition duly respected. I do love listening to Amahl — such a perfectly formed piece, which always takes me back to listening to it as a small child with my family. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amahl_a...

I wonder if anyone has done an analysis to see whether putting “Nominated for the Booker Prize” on the dust jacket increases or decreases a book’s sales. Anecdotally, I know of one purchaser it is pretty much guaranteed to lose.

The thing about art is that it can be interpreted by the viewer as they wish, especially when the artist gives no comment. I choose to interpret the latest Banksy as a statement on the importance of astronomy… 🔭

Great thread! Happy birthday, Grote! 🎂 🔭

The Grim Rea-Bear.

Somehow my son has managed to get to 22 years of age without ever seeing the greatest Christmas movie of all time. Putting that right tonight.

Prediction: Avi will now emphasise his (arbitrary) assertion that there was a 40% chance #3IATLAS was an alien spacecraft, to claim that he was right all along. It’s almost as if he was hedging his bets for media attention, rather than doing science… 🧪🔭 www.newsnationnow.com/vargasreport...

In case you wanted to know what a back-pedalling astronomer sound like… 🔭🧪 www.newsnationnow.com/vargasreport...

When you hear one of those uplifting stories about how wonderful it is when adopted children are reunited with their birth parents, and how their characters and lives suddenly make sense, spare a thought for their adoptive parents.

Time for my venerable address book’s annual outing, to write some Christmas cards. (First entry was more than 50 years ago!)

It’s official — the skunk is on the tree.

🚨 🔭 #3IATLAS update: *Still* a comet. Beautiful shot by Dan Bartlett (app.astrobin.com/i/kav0rj)

Surely the finest piece to camera of all time. youtu.be/cCJh5D0FCZk

Let us celebrate quite what a director Rob Reiner was.

Displaying my latest art work.

Amusing myself designing and 3D printing a very minimalist Christmas tree.

The man’s modesty knows no beginning. avi-loeb.medium.com/babies-that-...

“How can anyone claim to be an expert of interstellar objects when the sample size includes only two previously known examples” Says the guy who confidently asserted a 40% probability of alien technology a few months back. avi-loeb.medium.com/the-tale-of-... 🔭

What’s the difference is between an astronomer and an astrophysicist? If you’re on a long-haul flight and the person in the next seat asks what you do, you tell them you’re an astronomer if you want to spend the next 4 hours talking to them, or an astrophysicist if you want to get some sleep. 🔭

I knew those 3D-printed clamps would come in handy. And while the glue dries my wife can pretend to be a dalek.

Apparently, McDonalds have pulled the plug on this AI Dutch advert, due to public backlash. A shame really — there should be more ads that have a pop at the expensive emotionally-manipulative sentimental pap that we are fed by most advertisers. www.adforum.com/creative-wor...

As you may have noticed, I rarely leap to defend university management, but this allegation is outrageous. What other Government-regulated industry has had what it can charge consumers largely frozen for a decade, eroding its value by a third? (www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...)

🚨 #3IATLAS update: still a comet. 🔭🧪 (Great photo from www.facebook.com/share/p/17ba...)

A rare clear night, so decided to go after quite a challenging object with the Celestron Origin 🔭, the small star-forming region Sh2-209 in the outskirts of the Milky Way, some 25,000 lightyears away. Its hydrogen gas glows red where excited by embedded hot young stars.

Sometimes I call it. #F1 #AbuDhabi

Prediction: Norris does a Schumacher-esque lunge into Turn 1, and takes Verstappen out. #F1 #AbuDhabi

Off through the mist for some Christmas cheer at Harlaxton Manor.

I am sure they will get their just desserts.

Now that’s what I call a stomping!

Pottered over to the University, and finally got into the museum there to find the stocking stuffer I have been looking for. Do you know what it is? It polished up pretty well when I got it home. Think they’ll miss it? 😉

Always kind of amazed that, by combining our knowledge of gravity, nuclear physics, energy transport and atomic physics, we can understand the colour-magnitude diagram, and the evolution of stars over billions of years as they traverse this plane. Perhaps the ultimate in synoptic physics. 🔭🧪

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Building blocks of gummy bears found in space. Time to rewrite their origin story. 🔭🧪 www.nasa.gov/missions/osi...

Me and my dad, touring the solar system together. youtu.be/zD5gEZP4Btg

A little clear sky today, and a seriously impressive line of sunspots with the Dwarf 2 🔭.

I see the Guardian has a page of letters pushing back on the claim that the liberal arts sets itself up as the only place where critical thinking is taught (www.theguardian.com/education/20...) Unfortunately, I have repeatedly heard exactly this claim, which is clearly nonsense.

Too much cloud for the 🔭 tonight, but clear enough for a quick photo of the Moon.

New neighbours making their presence felt.

So now you know how the moon landings were faked. All it took was a couple of linear motors, a @seeedstudio.com XIAO ESP32S3, a bit of nifty coding by ChatGPT to connect to an iPhone as a controller, some 3D printing, and a couple of magnets.

Late to Your Friends & Neighbors, which is excellent hooey (White Collar meets Breaking Bad), but this from tonight’s episode is exceptionally lovely, and works so well acoustically. youtu.be/gPqGHnKa5QA