A beautiful full (wolf) moon over Notre Dame. I also enjoyed the contrasting colours with an orange street light. 🔭👩‍🔬

A frosty sunrise for 2026.

Sunset on the last day of 2025.

It's been a while since I've created new art, although I've got a couple of things I'm preparing. In the meantime, why not start your 2026 by following a bunch of cool artists who like to paint space? 🐡🔭 go.bsky.app/T9Xcq1M

The moon and a ruined castle.

”Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind?” Auld Lang Syne, poem by Robert Burns (1788) sung at #Hogmanay #ScottishDiaspora #OTD A Highland Dance, by Scottish artist David Allan, c. 1780; watercolour on paper. National Galleries of Scotland

We are trapped forever ♾️ in the Don’t Create the Torment Nexus, I created the Torment Nexus continuum.

Fully funded opportunity for bachelors and masters students to come work at MPIA in summer 2026!

Bullying undermines productive workplaces, and can damage the reputations of both the bully and the organisation. tcnv.link/dKi21UI

It really obviously looks like Lord Rosse’s drawing of the whirlpool Galaxy to me. 🔭👩‍🔬

After the 150-year-old Sycamore Gap tree was criminally felled in 2023, the National Trust grew 49 saplings from its seeds, one for each foot of the tree’s original height. Now those “trees of hope” are being rooted in places shaped by hardship and resilience.

A classic!

The 'kin' of ‘napkin’ means "little." ‘Nap’ comes from ‘nape,' which means “tablecloth.” So a napkin is a little tablecloth. 10/10, no notes.

A barred ring galaxy, observed with the Apache Point 2.5m Telescope in the SDSS survey. It is at redshift 0.028 (lookback time 397.0 million years) with coordinates (142.77815, 49.07976). 37 volunteers classified this galaxy in Galaxy Zoo 2.

Orion was looking very pretty last night. And smart phone cameras are impressive at night shots these days. 🔭👩‍🔬⭐

Make a Bond movie academic Tomorrow Never Hires

Mary Somerville was born #OTD in 1780. She was a scientist, writer, and artist; the first woman (with Caroline Herschel) to belong to the Royal Astronomical Society; and the first signature on Mill’s 1868 Women’s Suffrage petition. (1/n) 🧪 👩‍🔬 🔭 Image: self portrait (Somerville College, Oxford)

Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name. "These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."

Extremely funny to call the pope “holier-than-thou”

Seeing the Skyline this morning reminds me of the often under-appreciated magic women hold, especially at this time of year. The weight of the loads we silently carry. When I came across this work I saw "Santa" as a woman for the first time. She's beautiful & so are you.

Merry Christmas! I seem to have woken up in a Christmas card this morning. ☃️🎄❄️

Northern Cardinal, fanciful ...

He much later, when he was relatively elderly, moved and rebuilt it at the GBO (where you can still see it today) AND made a replica of Jansky's antenna for the observatory (also still up). I think he must have been a fun chap...

Flying through #Dulles Airport this week? Don't forget to check out the new James Webb Space Telescope exhibit in the corridor between the Metro station and the main terminal. If you missed it, you can still read about it: https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-403 🔭

Grades now in for one of my two classes.... I'm nearly there for this semester (which is starting to feel like it might never end, but it will!).

Very interesting climate-music crossover story

Happy Solstice, whichever side of the planet you happen to be on. 🎨1. 'Treasure Ship and Rising Sun' - unknown artist, ca. 1920s. 2. 'Miyajima in the Snow' - Tsuchiya Koitsu, 1937. #JapaneseArt #solstice

Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was born in Maryland. She has a valid U.S. birth certificate, medical and immunization records, and sworn affidavits. Yet, ICE claims her documents are “not authentic” and has held her in immigration detention for days.

This is a really amazing opportunity for astronomy students! 🔭☄️ It's always also very oversubscribed, so make sure to apply to a few things if you want to do a summer research internship

9.03 am marks the UK winter solstice tomorrow morning. So the days are growing longer from here on. Embrace the light in every way and happy solstice to you all

Had our 5 year old neighbour over for a bit today and wow I’m tired. Thinking about it - my youngest kid is 10 years older than her, and somehow I’d forgotten just how different it is!

Ever wondered how many bins to choose when making a histogram of data? The answer is that you shouldn't choose a number of bins yourself! ☄️ #astrocode Here's a little notebook explaining how to make less biased histograms:

I've mostly been talking about the Trump regime's plan to dismantle NCAR, but you might be asking yourself, wtf is NCAR and why should I care? @drshepherd2013.bsky.social has got you covered here. www.forbes.com/sites/marsha...

“Interesting” morning. Heavy rain outside. And it is very dark still, now almost 5 mins after the time of sunrise. 🌧️

The US Administration has banned Americans from *adopting babies* from much of the African continent. Adopting. Babies. What trait do those babies have that, when they grow up as fully American adults, would make them a threat to our country in any form?

Back with our final session of Haverford Physics & Astronomy talks by our seniors on their thesis work. We started with Grant DeVries talking about work with Vijay Singh on perception of brightness and how distance impacts that. 🧪🎢

Nice article on the outside impact Haverford has had in the field of astronomy over the years: www.haverford.edu/marketing-an... 🔭

It's the second day of Haverford Physics & Astronomy senior thesis talks, and today you get the "proud supervisor" version from me, as 5 students I have been mentoring are presenting (among others). 🔭👩‍🔬🧪🎢

It's time for our senior "Fall talks" about the background of the senior thesis work they are doing. I always enjoy this as it's impressive to see the range and depth of research our undergraduates are engaged in at Haverford Physics & Astronomy. 🔭👩‍🔬🧪🎢

This entire weekend

Snow time! Excellent day for staying indoors and baking holiday treats. 🎄❄️☃️

The beauty you see in me is a reflection of you. ~Rumi 🪶 🕉️ Have a beautiful #StunDay! 🤘😶‍🌫️ #BirdLovers #EastCoastKin #ImageAndVerse #BlueSkyArtShow #FavoriteThings #Photography #Reflections

Interesting to me how much certain words turn me off anything I'm reading. I realised "utilize" did that a long time ago - today "conceptulize" is added to the list. To me they sound like words added just for the goal of "sounding smart"...

In 1993, Trump signed mortgages for 2 homes in Florida, claiming each as his principal residence. He does not appear to have ever lived in either, let alone used them as a principal residence. They were investment properties & rented out. Yet he accuses others of fraud? #USDemocracy #Voices4Victory

Side benefit of child in college in the UK - British Christmas treats came home with her.

Last day of classes, and down to less than 20 letters of rec left to upload before Dec 15th. We're are getting there. 🎢

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. 🔭

Glad there’s an article about this with clear data on why the switch saves lives. I’ve been hearing the talking points about why people hate it for a while (from family in Wales).

An evening at the Franklin Institute for the Committee of Sciences and Arts. Always impressive to walk by this statue. 🔭🧪🎢