I'm terrible at being online these days but last year I somehow persuaded STFC (the UK astrophysics research funding council) to give me one of their Leadership Fellowships in Public Engagement and today I had my first project meeting with my team and I'm very excited!

Honoured and excited to have been elected President of the Society for Popular Astronomy this afternoon, taking over from the wonderful Prof Lucie Green! The SPA is the UK's leading entry-level astronomical society, find out more at www.popastro.com

Watching astronauts Suni Williams and Nick Hague work on repairs of our baby, X-Ray 🔭 NICER!! streaming live from space: www.youtube.com/live/RYPk8fz... 🧪

I talked about SaxaVord and UK vertical launches and the possibility of the first launch happening this year on the radio yesterday and then this news comes out today! It feels like there's so much happening in the space sector right now, it's hard to keep up!

ICYMI … the NRAO is on The Sky! [radio astronomy is slowly taking over the socials and this is the future envisioned dot tumblr]

I had a blast talking to Chris Jarvis (of Cbeebies fame!) on BBC Radio Solent this morning about lots of exciting things that are happening in space this year. Putting this photo out there for when they get us to do the next series of Cbeebies Stargazing together 😉

At the BBC Radio Solent studio this morning to talk about space in 2025. Think I'm on around 11.10, UK peeps should be able to listen online!

Spending a bit of time reading up on highly protected marine areas and I think this is another entry to "things I never thought would form part of my future job when I did a PhD in astrophysics"

A proper daytime moon spotted on today's lunchtime dog walk 🤩

The perfect ceiling lampshade doesn't exi-

Cold nights = clear skies! Driving to get the kids and spotted a gorgeous crescent moon with an incredibly bright Venus nearby, then Jupiter above Orion who's just peeking up over the horizon.

My aurorawatch notifications have been pinging this afternoon - completely cloudy here (and possibly too far south) but if you're in the north and have clear skies it might be worth keeping an eye out!

When your kid has a different bedroom setup since last year and you suddenly realise you have nowhere to hang the stocking - it's an Institute of Physics lanyard to the rescue!

And that's me done with work for 2024! It's been quite the year - a challenging time for the UK higher education sector with redundancies and cost saving measures all over the place, but also a brilliant year personally for me as I grew my team and won grants to do exciting projects...

Last week of work and everyone seemed to get their toys out! A mini Mars rover and a work in progress from @trayford.bsky.social

I love the work that my colleague @trayford.bsky.social is doing with the sonification of astronomical data! Truly groundbreaking stuff. You can read more about it in the blog post he links in his post.

OK friends, can someone please tell me how to say in an email when I'm free so people actually understand me?? I say I'm free apart from 2-3pm, they send me an invite for 2pm. I say I'm free 9-11am or 12-5pm they ask to meet at 11am. I give up!

Co-presented our internal seminar on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion yesterday & it dredged up a memory of the time I was in the pub during my PhD and our visiting colloquium speaker (a senior academic) became convinced I was Latina and wouldn't let it go as if I didn't know my own heritage 🙃

It's the 30th November which means it's time to refill the most excellent advent calendar that has ever existed! 🚀

I had no idea about this - just up the road from where I am in Winchester! Will have to go see it next time we're in Andover!

Spending the morning in a school with a bunch of 9/10 year olds talking about space is one of my all-time favourite things to do. Questions today included "what happened before the Big Bang?" "how can birds fly if gravity is pulling them down?" and "how many stars are there in space?" 🤩

It's blooming cold out there but at least it means breathtaking views of the night sky! I had my first glimpse of the season of Orion last night when I popped outside before bed, and now Mars is looking lovely and red out of the back door while I make breakfast!

Another day, another beautiful daytime moon to keep me company while I wait for my car tyres to be changed before work!

I moved into my own office at work recently (from a shared one) and have slowly been making it feel like mine. Finally got this poster to stay up today after many attempts (rumour has it these are sound proofing rather than pin boards) - what do we think are the chances it'll still be up on Monday??

We've got a little gang of ICG-ers on here now - all gathered together here if anyone wants to give my lovely colleagues a follow!

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

If you've followed me on other platforms you'll know I'm a big fan of a daytime moon and this mornings's was a particularly nice one!

My three year old asked for "all the books about space" at bedtime tonight and I feel like his indoctrination has finally commenced...

Welp, I hit 1000 followers at some point overnight! That's a lot of you! I should probably think of something interesting to say...

Just off BBC Radio Scotland, talking about 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿ScotRail's decision to sign up to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet for all their Highland trains. I think I rather upset presenter Kaye Adams with this story of space junk falling from the sky...😬🔭 ℹ️: www.scientificamerican.com/article/spac...

Not gonna lie, I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed in here at the moment with the rate of new follows and figuring out a new platform. If I followed you in the other place and am yet to do so here please give me a shout!

The Future of Orion xkcd.com/3012

My brain is still processing yesterday's Institute of Physics Communicators and Outreach conference - so many great presentations and lots of food for thought. Did feel like our keynote speakers were trolling me slightly with the number of photos of me that they included though...

@barnesowl.bsky.social 👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾

Very happy to see the Lovell Telescope pop up in my feed this morning - my first academic home ❤️

Out of the house early to get to the Institute of Physics Communicators and Outreach conference (that I help organise). Standing room only on the train up to London...

Earlier this week I collected my 6 year old on my way home from work, got home, and went to open the front door to realise she hadn't followed me from the car. I looked back and she was staring up at the stars in wonder, trying to pick out the Big Dipper. That's my girl 🤩

OK I think I'm ready to dabble in here a bit more... Who's around?!

It's the big Bonfire Night fireworks display in my hometown tonight and I forgot to bring some diffraction grating glasses home so I rooted around and found these that have definitely seen better days but will have to do!

I seem to have gained a few new followers today so hello 👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾 I don't tend to post much on here at the moment so please manage your expectations accordingly!

I'm in a couple of episodes of this! For US friends only unfortunately but I had a blast filming for it (in the studio and on location!)

One year since we released our first feature documentary, Rapid Motion Through Space. If you've not seen it yet, tis FREE on YouTube! "The trademark Cosmic Shambles mix of ultra-nerdy science discourse and unabashed silliness" - Physics World Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYDd...

New year, new job?? We're looking for an Outreach & Public Engagement Fellow to join my team at the Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation, main responsibilities to deliver our schools outreach and develop new space-related engagement activities. Find out more & apply at mss.port.ac.uk/ce0732li_web...

Went to IKEA today and they have a new kids space range and it's epic and I need it all! Check it out here - www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/af...

I had such a blast at the @cosmicshambles.com Nine Lessons for Curious People last night - saw some friends, acted totally awkward in front of Kiell Smith-Bynoe AND people seemed to like my set!

Super excited to be heading up to London tomorrow for #NineLessons! A handful of tickets have been released for tomorrow night's show so come join us - anyone with me in the niche astronomy/emo crossover will hopefully be pleasantly surprised by my set!

They used a photo of me while they were talking about this on the One Show earlier so I guess the cat's out of the bag - I'm so excited to be in a couple of episodes of Tim Peake's Secrets Of Our Universe which is airing later this month on Channel 5!

Just went out to try to spot some Perseids before bed but all I saw was patchy cloud and the massively powerful searchlights of the Boomtown festival sweeping across the sky 🙄

It's been announced in an all-staff email so I guess it's ok to publicly say that I've been promoted and as of September I'll be an Associate Professor in Public Engagement and Outreach 🥳 Feeling grateful that Portsmouth recognises non-traditional academic roles like mine!

Is there anything more perfect than the sight of a daytime moon in a bright blue sky??