Follow-up comment on how bad it is on the ground at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. 🔭

Anonymized chat from a telecon right now on the scale of destruction at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and how the best news source about it is the volunteer Greenbelt News Review (www.greenbeltnewsreview.com). ☹️ 🔭

What Sarah said.

roses are red cherenkov is blue just use a screwdriver what's the worst it could do

It occurs to me that I never announced my *major* career news on this site. A little over year ago, I took over as Director of the Imaging Technology Lab (ITL; itl.arizona.edu) at U. of Arizona. Founded by Mike Lesser when I was still a nascent proto-astronomer, ITL makes scientific imaging sensors.

Hey y'all. I'm hiring. Are you interested in building instruments for astrophysics? wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...

Interesting paper on requirements for undergraduate astronomy degrees and how non-uniform they are, and how this impacts students with these degrees: arxiv.org/abs/2602.03959

As an astronomer I get asked a lot what kind of telescope 🔭 so-and-so should get for themselves or their [spouse/kid/etc]. I’m clueless. I use BIG telescopes and have never purchased one in my life. But @philplait.bsky.social knows! Thx, Phil! badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/ban-275-te...

Find a person who will not only buy you a Galaxy-class starship, but get in line early enough to get the limited-edition bonus gifts.

brush boops borb* *that's "bunny orb" not to be confused with "bird orb"

The Florence Project does great work. I highly recommend them for your charitable giving this season. Especially if you’re an AZ resident and are looking for an organization to provide for this year’s Charitable Tax Credit (1:1 tax reduction up to $495/$987 for those filing single/joint this year).

FIRRP does great work, give them your money and support.

Are you an IR detectors nerd, or need to go deep into detector systematics for your #JWST MIRI science? You might be interested in this paper on MIRI's Reset Switch Charge Decay effect (RSCD) by Mike Ressler et al 🔭🧪https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/ae0afb

i made a template you can use to think about what "frame/negation/kirby" looks like for other issues. For example: Frame: DOGE is a govt efficiency project to save $ Negation: Actually it made things less efficient and cost $ Kirby: DOGE was a project to break and privatize federal bureaucracy

Fresh JWST view of Uranus taken Oct 6 2025 with NIRCam. Full size & more info: flic.kr/p/2rByidu 🔭🧪 Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Andrea Luck CC BY Proposal PI: Varun Bajaj Proposal ID: 8975 Filters: F150W2-F162M, F410M

Ahhhh gorgeous! Sample print of Leviathan’s Wake has arrived. Just have to decide on a couple sizes, which is a bit tricky since the original was an awkward size

Somehow I missed that there’s a new Neko Case album out?

I 100% thought this was meant to be an image/drawing of a nautilus or some relative.

A lot to say about this, but one thing is that the Professor in question was a lecturer, and thus did not have tenure. The destruction of academic freedom is inextricably linked to the loss of worker protection in the university.

Highly recommend any opportunity to listen to and hangout with acclaimed authors and all-around wonderful human Manuel Muñoz!

You might have heard of this company that wants to put giant reflectors in space to "light up" parts of the earth. It would be catastrophic not just for astronomers, but for...any people or creatures who thrive at night. Have comments? The American Astronomical Society would love to hear from you.

Inside you are two wolves, five sled dogs, eight Norwegian research scientists, Bennings, Norris, Palmer, Windows, Fuchs, Nauls, Blair, Garry, and Doc Copper.

I really dislike how science has started calling almost any fancy computational technique AI. 🧪 The framing of this entire article makes it sound like a benevolent AI independently made these drugs. That is *pure fantasy*. Instead: a team of scientists made a machine learning model for a study.

Everything from U Toronto Press (@uoftpress.bsky.social), including my book, is 50% in their summer sale! Code is SUMMERSALE50. utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....

Fellow Tucsonans! Watershed Management Group is doing a virtual education and advocacy event tomorrow (7/30) about the proposed, and potentially devastating to our water supply, Project Blue (an Amazon front). Please share! watershedmg.org/event/virtua...

I'm a grown adult and you cannot stop me from buying this www.lego.com/en-us/aboutu...

Someone commented that I haven’t posted much wildlife lately. Truth is the camera battery died as I’ve been away. Enjoy these javelina being chaotic a week ago.

Very much appreciate the shout-out, Senator. I would also like to note that UofA’s Imaging Technology Laboratory was responsible for manufacturing almost half of the sensors for Rubin’s science camera. astro.arizona.edu/news/tiny-se...

If you want an actual newsletter option that isn't evil: I use Buttondown and love it

Water boatcrew were one of my favorite aquatic insects to watch zipping around my pond when growing up. These articulated models are so f'ing cool. I want one.

Worth a watch: Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.

Briefly wandered over to The Other Place to gauge the response to the NASA budget devastation to encounter a bunch of gleeful 'we spend too much money, so this is great.' TO BE, ONCE AGAIN, PERFECTLY CLEAR, THE BUDGET REQUEST MOVES ALL THIS MONEY TO DEFENSE. IT SPENDS IT. NO MONEY IS SAVED.

This is so fucking good

Was just talking about this exact thing the other day.

"Coming to a country where human rights are appreciated, the whole world thinks about the U.S. in such a prestigious way, but what’s happened is obviously against the law ... This for me was racist, more than anything.” 📝 by @jwashing.bsky.social azluminaria.org/2025/04/29/u... #academicsky

Say it louder for the folks in the back. NASA’s annual call for grant proposals is now 68 days late.

Great explanation as to another problem with the biosignature claim. So, I count three strikes: 1. Very difficult to understand the data and know wiggles are real 2. Even if data is reliable, the model comparisons to claim detection are in doubt 3. Even if it’s a real detections, can be abiotic

"We had the Constitution to protect us in 1942. It didn't because the will of the people [wasn't] behind it." —Gordon Hirabayshi

So happy to welcome Brittany to the faculty! Excited to continue working together on endeavors related to IR instrumentation (and otherwise!).

Want to learn how JWST images are processed using a unique blend of science & art? Just saw there is a webinar tomorrow (Tuesday) on YT!

Ok, I'm doing a version of this thread for 🧪 who are new to political conditions where info security is a safety issue: 1. Don't make public lists of people who are engaging in acts of resistance 2. Be weary of calls to advertise acts of subversion 3. Don't live post resistance meetings

I am sad to let everyone in the astronomy community know that Glenn Schneider passed away yesterday. I've worked together with him closely in the past decade and learned a lot from him. He had a long career, culminating in various HST related projects. He was a lead scientist of the NICMOS project,

Now would be a great time for our octopus overlords to rise from the deep. Just saying.

Apologies to my followers. The dam broke...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH