NAM2026 is here! 🎉🚀 Welcome everybody to the @unibirmingham.bsky.social for this year's National Astronomy Meeting, the largest astronomy conference of its kind in the UK. 💫🪐🔭 We've got a jam-packed week of talks – see the programme of what's on and where via the link in the comments. 🔗👇

Pleased and grateful to have been interviewed by Wildsam about my darkness research, my world travels in search of the night sky and my new book, NIGHTFARING. www.wildsam.com/stories/nigh...

I'm now 6 press releases into prep for the National Astronomy Meeting next week & I can tell you we've got some cool stories coming: stuff on the Sun, space weather, mysterious cosmic explosions, galactic gymnastics, alien signals. DM if you're a journalist & want to report on these next week!

If England get into the final, I'm going to need to find somewhere decent and not too insane to watch in Birmingham. Any suggestions are welcome.

I've just received my first-ever travel writing brief asking me to appeal to a Gen Z audience and to use pop culture references like Percy Jackson, Dune (the new one obvs) and Assassins Creed to describe ancient historical sights.

I'm very grateful to Wanderlust Magazine for putting NIGHTFARING on their list of the best travel books of 2026! www.wanderlustmagazine.com/inspiration/...

I really wanted to write about pretty space things in this newsletter, but once again, I had to rant! www.theastroholic.co.uk/craven-decis...

I think it was such a cravenly approval by the FCC because the report says that it disagrees with the risks put forward, but, at the same time, it also states that evaluating the risks is beyond the scope of the FCC. So who should be assessing these risks? 🔭🧪 www.iflscience.com/fcc-approves...

Anyone interested in the astronomy (and particle and nuclear physics) funding crisis should watch this. I'm delighted at the work that @chionwurah.bsky.social and the SIT Committee did this morning. She's quite right that it won't assuage the deep concerns of researchers, and no hint it'll be fixed.

London is sunny, quiet and clearly hungover this morning 😂

England playing at the Azteca has created reams of my pet peeve: people using the word 'altitude' when they mean 'elevation'. Altitude is height *in the air above ground*. Elevation is height of a spot *on the ground* relative to sea level. Aircraft in flight have an altitude. Cities have elevation.

Hi UK astronomy folks: are you running any special events for the solar eclipse in August, or know someone/somewhere that is? I want to hear about them! Please reply or DM, ta! #solareclipse

A quick crowdsourcing exercise. @royalastrosoc.bsky.social is looking for copyright free images we can use for promoting the eclipse on 12 August (a deep partial in the UK) to the press and public. Can anyone help? Diagrams and photos of past events all good. We'll obviously credit contributors.

🚨Last chance!🚨 Today is the deadline for registrations for the 2026 National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Birmingham. 🔭 🪐 💫 Want to join us either online or in person? Register via the link below! uobevents-national-astronomy-meeting-2026.eventsairsite.com/registration

Hi UK astronomy folks: are you running any special events for the solar eclipse in August, or know someone/somewhere that is? I want to hear about them! Please reply or DM, ta! #solareclipse

Time for the 2026 edition of @royalastrosoc.bsky.social National Astronomy Meeting astro-jargon band names. (about halfway thru reading the abstracts): Cataclysmic Variables Host Halo FLARES Radio Lobe Progenitor Brightness The Evershed Effect The Sub-Neptunes Radius Valley Redshift Range

My Google search history is always, let's say...unpredictable...but around this time of year, when I'm reading all the research abstracts for the National Astronomy Meeting to find potential news stories to curate for the press, the history bar gets really fun. 😂

Four stars for Nightfaring by Megan Eaves-Egenes. @megoizzy @grandcentralpub

My new album is out. It's called "Solo Blast" because, well... I wrote and played everything and all that. A loner's way of making a record. Please, head over to my Bandcamp page. Pay what you want. I'm happy if you take it for free. Click this link. Thanks johnegenes.bandcamp.com/album/solo-b...

Today on Substack, I'm musing about heatwaves, summer, the uncertain possibility of romance, and why June is the hardest month. nightfallandelsewhere.substack.com/p/elsewhere-...

Today on Substack, I'm musing about heatwaves, summer, the uncertain possibility of romance, and why June is the hardest month. nightfallandelsewhere.substack.com/p/elsewhere-...

Hard to believe that I’m once again drinking a beer from the brewery where I took Bourdain. 2026 is wild, man.

If religion is the opiate of the masses, then politics is the methamphetamine of the masses.

I am on deadline this week and the editors definitely won't be getting my piec in any kind of timely manner or any kind of coherent condition.

30-35C all week. I hate it here. Hate it. I will NEVER understand why people like heat/summer. Be serious. WHO likes sweating? Bring back non-chaffing season. Soft comfy materials & layers season. Cosy book season. Hot drink season. Sunrise at a reasonable hour season. Down with Summer Solstice! 😂

Just sent my draft proposal for Book 2 to my literary agent. HOLY SHIT.

Time for some more reaction from Monday's Westminster event... Here's Dr Harry Cliff explaining that some of the cuts have already been made, including the "devastating impact" of axing funds to upgrade the LHCb experiment – a huge particle detector buried 100 metres underground at CERN.

Got a fab haircut and then found £5 on the ground so today is a good day!

The Best Scenic Night Trains for Stargazing Across the USA: my latest work for Outside Magazine, combining two of my favorite subjects – trains and the night sky! 🚂🌌✨🛤 www.outsideonline.com/adventure-tr...

Is 19:06 too early to go to bed? Asking for me, a woman that slept 9 hours last night for the first time since perimenopause hit.

I'm on the lastest episode of NPR's @outsideinradio.bsky.social this week talking about darkness and light pollution. 🌌✨ outsideinradio.org/shows/in-def...

I told myself today would be a day off after 3 weeks of work travel. It's Sunday after all. Instead what am I doing? Emailing potential sources for a story. Someone tell me to put the laptop down and go get an ice cream.

The temptation is extremely strong right now to depart from my existing life & go spend several weeks at a Korean templestay. I am absolutely sick of my own mind at the moment. Maybe 108 prostrations a day would sort it out. (Yes I've done it before. Yes I'm currently writing about this experience)

I'm so pleased to have an excerpt from my book NIGHTFARING published today by Imagine5 @imagine5.bsky.social imagine5.com/essay/nightf...

Blurry and an oncoming car but I took a picture at the Tropic of Cancer tonight.

Oyster shucking at an oyster farm on an unnamed beach in Western Sahara. Freshest oysters I ever had.

The Venus and Jupiter kiss from Western Sahara

Anyone interested in a trip to West Cork for a 3-day #TravelWriting workshop? I'll be running one next month as part of West Cork LitFest. The workshop is on an island in Bantry Bay, so there will be an actual sea voyage (a very short one) involved each day! www.westcorkmusic.ie/events/2026/...

LMAO top signage Gatwick North

Arrived home from Uzbekistan at 6:30pm (via Gatwick). Repacked for Western Sahara by 9pm. Will be back at Gatwick by 1pm tomorrow for my Morocco flight. For now, sitting outside cooling off in my chosen home city, thanking myself for choosing this amazing life.

Good morning to everyone except the individuals responsible for dismantling the organization on my hat.

Good morning from the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis.

Maybe there really is nothing more than this. And when you miss someone, you miss them everywhere.

Travelling in a coach across Istanbul listening to Photograph by Def Leppard because I like having one-of-a-kind experiences.

With how much and often I do it, sometimes I can get a bit cavalier with my travel packing. Was quite glad to find I had, in fact, packed a decent first aid kit with eye drops bc the wind/dust/allergies in Yerevan have been hardcore today...

We've sent the June issue of Nightscape to print. It's themed on bats & light pollution! 🦇Did you know bats are the only pollinators of agave? Without them no tequila. Interviewed cool ppl from @batconservation.bsky.social @batcon.org! To get it join @darkskyintl.bsky.social darksky.org/nightscape

We've sent the June issue of Nightscape to print. It's themed on bats & light pollution! 🦇Did you know bats are the only pollinators of agave? Without them no tequila. Interviewed cool ppl from @batconservation.bsky.social @batcon.org! To get it join @darkskyintl.bsky.social darksky.org/nightscape

With just 5 days to go, I finally received all my travel confirmations (plane ticket, hotel confirmation, rail tickets) for my Uz trip from the local organisers. The last-minute thing used to stress me out but I've been working in Central Asia now too long to care anymore. 😂 See you soon Samarkand!

Scenes from an early stroll through Yerevan