Tall avogadro

Went to CAST so I could see the 4 foot tardigrades

Off to another ASET meeting. Each month the club grows!

Enjoy this picture I took of a Long Tailed Skipper on an azalea. Urbanus proteus are cool butterflies because they look so much like moths that they used to be in an entirely separate superfamily from other butterflies (Hesperioidea), but through genetic studies are categorized alongside them.

The average in my AP PHYSICS class is hanging around a 45, it's not looking good.

C/2025 A6 looked great this morning through a 6 inch tabletop dob. From the suburbs it was not naked eye visible, but in an 8 second photo with a 50 mm lens, it shows up clearly. You can still see it in the mornings for the next few days, around UMa

Had a day off to get something done. Accidentally spent the day summarizing how the big bang is a real theory to my family, who don't believe in the big bang. Poof, now its 5 pm and I have 30 tabs to close again.

My school IT group has decided that we can't use open source software since it is a security risk. Wtf? I'm sorry but even the supposed 'closed source' code in every other application still depends on languages and packages that are inherently open source. Any ideas on how I can convince them?

Slapped together a new Atwood machine this afternoon with a pair of 2x4 and some nails. I think it will work fine for the senior labs this year. But next year I'm definitly going to need to improve it.

Fun things about teaching physics: I get to use power tools sometimes. This week I'm slapping together a few Atwood machines for the AP class. Maybe I'll publish the plans or something.

Replaced my 10 year old ram sticks today, and now I have a whopping 16 GB of ram. My PC rises from the dead.

Hey, if you see a hatch act violation, report it here. osc.gov/Services/Pag...

I need this mug so bad, especially if it is in the squiggly handwritten font

Ever wonder why astronomy is important? Read this. iauarchive.eso.org/public/theme...

We had 600 PEOPLE at the star party in shreveport last night. Crazy stuff! I operated the 14" SCT, and the line went beyond where I could see.

My clone army has arrived, they are beautiful

Did a 70 person star party with the 10 year old 6" telescope I got in high school. People love seeing saturn!

I found a class set of cloud chambers in the prep room, probably left over from the 80s. Each one had a bit of uranium ore inside. I dabbed a little HEET into the felt band and set one on dry ice. Little particle streaks!

Got my flu shot. It was weird being the only one in the clinic for it.

Got three new skywatcher dobs for my astronomy class, now I need to open them up

Saw a cool lenticular cloud today! At least, I think it was. Not a cloud expert.

Bluesky nerds, what were your absolute favorite physics 1 labs? I'm thinking of diversifying my physics labs a bit this year.

Ran titration with my high school students today. Only 99.5 percent error! Yaaayyyyyy

I wish I could see the aurora tonight. #southernproblems

Finally got my first hand samples of Goethite today. Found them on the side of the road in Lone Star, TX. Its crazy I've been living here in east texas for so long without getting any.

I may be the only person using a Meshtastic node in all of East Texas. Its been days since I bought it and turned it on and I have received exactly 0 messages. :(

A student posed an interesting problem to me today. Take a wavy circle, where the radius is equal to a constant + a sine function in theta. For an arbitrary point outside the circle, find the closest point(s). Here is a diagram of the circle.

I've forgotten how to do calculus now for the 4th time. Now I have to relearn it all over again. Guh.

I look at duolingo. Duolingo looks back at me. We both look exhausted.

Local thrift shop has every book ever written by right wing conspiracy nuts, and only had half a shelf of nonfiction science. I like to think this just indicates science books are more popular that conspiracy books.

It's a new school year. As a certain rapper once said, "back to the lab again, yo"

News from the front line: The school cell phone ban has been incredibly good. Just finished teaching a fractions lesson to my 9th period class of 11th graders, and they were HOOKED. They asked questions. They discussed with each other. They tried checking their answers with each other!!!!!

Lasagna got a matching orange hat.

Found a new clock to hang in my physics class! And yes the hands are black on a black background with no numbers.

Just talked to one of our art teachers and she is in despair about AI. I cant imagine trying to teach art with he sheer amount of slop these days.

Did you know that 80% of Americans can’t see the Milky Way from where they live? Experiencing a dark sky for the first time often sparks the realization: “We’re missing this every night?” Learn how stargazing inspires change: darkskytexas.org/how-stargazi... #StarrySkies #StargazingMatters

I'm hanging this on my door

Planning an absolutely diabolical 20 question math quiz for my AP students this year, with scorching questions such as "Solve vt = d for v."

I get to teach AP physics AND astronomy this year. Best course load yet!

Thinking about how Astronomy Week is coming up next month for the US. ASET is gonna have a star party at a state park to celebrate!

Took me WAY too long to realize that this wasn't a star pretzel in the sky, but was instead the weird way Sky Safari shows dark nebula. I'm almost done with the messier catalog. Just 16 more to go.

This summer, go see a sundial. Here in east texas, the TJC planetarium has a really nice one! sundials.org/index.php/su...

Astronomer friends: In the early universe, H, He, Be, and Li were the only abundant elements. Lithium has a solid phase. Is it possible that population III stars may have had lithium rocky planets orbiting them?

Finally getting around to reading Hyperspace. It's been sitting on my desk for 8 years (8 YEARSSS) and I kept ignoring it. I'm about halfway through now. Its hard to read because every time Kaku mentions a math or physics concept, I find myself looking it up to get details he doesn't give.

Lasagna says hello!

Got to see the Lagoon nebula and the Omega nebula this weekend at Enchanted Rock. They looked gorgeous in my 16" dob!

In this weather you can save several quarters by cooking your food on a dashboard instead of an oven

Giant fireball exploded over the US south about 2 hours ago. Some observers caught it on video. Really cool! fireball.imo.net/members/imo_...

New coolant pump installed! Always feels good doing my own mechanical work.

My computer using TCP during allergy season