Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans
@astroroyalscot.bsky.social
He was the absolute best wasn't he - just the kindest gentleman and always your greatest supporter. Whenever I'm doubting myself, I often think "what would Jasper do right now?" 🤗
🤩I need this hat for winter!!!! 😍
My recommendation: if you're not going to be awake for another reason, don't worry about setting the alarm clock (the weather forecast for the UK is poor too).
Instead add a diary entry for 19:00 Feb 28th 2025. All 7 planets in a arc across the sky at a civilised hour to appreciate them 😊 🔭🧪
Expectation management for the 4am Planetary Parade:
Saturn & Mars clear to your eye 🥳
Neptune & Uranus needs a🔭
Good luck for Jupiter & Mercury in the glare of the rising sun.
“I’m not going to lie,” Dr Bloomer said. “I’m probably going to be asleep.” 👍🧪
www.theguardian.com/science/arti...
Six planets to appear in alignment next week in rare celestial parade
Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus will be visible but viewers may need some equipment to see them clearly
www.theguardian.com
If you want to hear Jasper Wall talking about how his work helped resolve the Big Bang vs Steady State controversy, here is a fab recording of him in 2011
📺: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJx7...
🔭
There is also a complete obituary for Jasper telescoper.blog/2024/06/01/r...
🙏 @telescoper.bsky.social
Sad news: Prof. Jasper Wall, titan and pioneer of radio astronomy, passed away on the 28th March 2024. He created the 1st large-scale radio surveys to catalogue black hole quasars across the Universe and showed how to statistically analyse them to infer the cosmological model of our Universe. 🔭🧵
I met Jasper in his “retirement” as a researcher in Oxford, probing the large scale structure of the Universe with his radio surveys. We both moved to Vancouver and Jasper effectively adopted me, becoming surrogate grandad to my firstborn. He was much loved and will be sorely missed. 🔭
As the last Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Jasper fought to stop its closure in the 1998 UKGov’s cost-cutting exercise. Prevented from speaking to the media, Jasper said he could write a whole book about this sad period in UK astronomy. 🔭
www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
A closed subject?
Is the sky about to fall in on the Royal Greenwich Observatory? Cuts and overcapacity in astronomy suggest it might. By Charles Arthur
www.independent.co.ukAs Director of the Isaac Newton Group Observatory in La Palma 1986-1990, he oversaw the first light of the William Herschel Telescope, the then 3rd largest optical telescope in the world. 🔭
His favourite story was of the time he helped NASA talk to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on their moonwalk. If you’ve seen the movie “The Dish”, Jasper was the real-life version of the nerdy young physicist at the Parkes Radio Telescope. 🔭
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Sad news: Prof. Jasper Wall, titan and pioneer of radio astronomy, passed away on the 28th March 2024. He created the 1st large-scale radio surveys to catalogue black hole quasars across the Universe and showed how to statistically analyse them to infer the cosmological model of our Universe. 🔭🧵
PS Unrelated Dan - I’ve been working my way back through all your booklab podcasts and they are absolutely fantastic 🙏
Here is the link for others: booklabpodcast.com
Have been invited to join a radio show to discuss it, and not sure how to frame it. Yay wake up at 340am to see two planets - and trust me the rest are there? Maybe the Sun will have flared again by then though giving us reason to chat Aurora instead 🤞
🏴Scotland's Shetland Islands: remote rugged scenery peppered with windswept Shetland ponies? Yes! But also so much more👇
In Dec23, SaxaVord on Unst became the 1st licensed vertical launch spaceport in UK and Western Europe. Check out last week's 1st hot fire test 🛰️ 🔭🧪🥳
ℹ️: youtu.be/Jw80qBV7LBc
RFA starts hot fire campaign of its first stage
First fire! We have successfully kicked off the hot fire campaign for our first stage at SaxaVord Spaceport. We hot-fired a total of four Helix engines, igniting one by one at four second interval. All engines ran simultaneously for 8 seconds with a total hot-fire duration of 20 seconds. The test ran flawlessly through start-up, steady-state and shutdown. With this hot fire, we were able to demonstrate that we can nominally operate and control our first stage and all its systems, as well as a cluster of Helix engines. RFA and our incredible team are marching steadfastly on towards our first test flight, not only in Scotland but also in Augsburg, Portugal and Sweden. Special thanks to our partners at SaxaVord Spaceport for their support at all levels.
youtu.be
But then I'd miss out on all the Microsoft Word alternative theories on light and gravity....
Edit -> select all -> delete 🥳
But how have you missed that wonderful arc Brian's celebrity story Genevieve? Cox is the one on the far left, playing it cool in shades, black vest and a Dell Boy golden chain - used to play keyboards 🤘
The UK starts the day ear-wormed by the 90's classic dance anthem from Physics Celebrity Brian Cox's boy band. Felt momentarily sorry for the PM as the water dripped down his back, and then thought 'nah.... 🤣 #GeneralElection
www.theguardian.com/politics/art...
Things can only get wetter: D:Ream song drowns out Sunak’s damp election announcement
PM makes announcement to sound of song synonymous with Labour’s 1997 election landslide
www.theguardian.comCongratulations Dr Foley 🥳
For 22yrs I've been dreaming about this Guinness World Record beating 3200MP camera for the Rubin Observatory. Beyond excited to see it reaching its new Chilean home,
the summit on Cerro Pachón @vrubinobs.bsky.social 🧪🔭
ℹ️ rubinobservatory.org/news/camera-...
📺 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwyj...
LSST Camera Arrives at Rubin Observatory
This video documents the journey of the LSST Camera from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California to Rubin Observatory on the summit of Cerro Pachó...
www.youtube.com
👇The state of play here: 40% of English Universities forecast to be in the red this year. Domestic fees (which I disagree with) have hardly increased since 2012 and there are only so many high-fee paying foreign students who can make up the shortfall.
www.theguardian.com/education/ar....
Next government must make hard university funding decisions, fast
Labour sees no electoral gain in flagging sector’s funding crisis – but losses cannot be sustained much longer
www.theguardian.comI'm going to talk to the very passionate and active Dundee Astronomical Society group this week, and then to the Council to hopefully get a better idea of what is feasible 🤞
Thanks for completing the survey Vivienne. We all knew the Council's stay of execution was temporary but it was thought there would be at least a year for groups to come together to form an alternative plan for Mills. It's such a wonderful asset, we'll not lose it without a fight! ✊
There is a public consultation running: if you are in Scotland, please take some time to tell the Council what the closure of Mills would mean to you:
www.dundeecity.gov.uk/consultation...
Sad news: the stay of execution for Dundee's Mills Observatory didn't last long. The council want to save the £40k yearly running costs. What a loss for Scotland's Youth 💔. Will a community collective form to take on this historic public observatory? 🤞 🔭🧪🏴
ℹ️: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Ah - an excellent question! They've "proofread" 100's of the cells - i.e manually inspected them across each slice with their own eyes - to check the AI got it all right in those instances. Reading the paper it sounds like "so far so good" with those checks.
😮 A cubic mm segment of a still living human brain, neurons coloured by size. Some neurons made up to 50 connections with each other! Not my field, but what a great example of AI doing good (used to line-up the 5000 brain slice images together to form the 3D map).🧪
ℹ️: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Cubic millimetre of brain mapped in spectacular detail
Google scientists have modelled a fragment of the human brain at nanoscale resolution, revealing cells with previously undiscovered features. Google scientists have modelled a fragment of the human br...
www.nature.comA very powerful talk by Prof. Wyn Evans about bullying and harassment over the history of astronomy. The 21 group exist to support victims of bullying and discrimination in UK academia: ℹ️: 21percent.org 🧪🔭
21percent.org 21percent.org -
The 21 Group was founded at the University of Cambridge in 2023 in order to provide a network and support group for staff experiencing bullying, harassment and discrimination in their academic careers...
21percent.org
Is bullying and harassment a problem unique to astronomy? I think not but don't know for sure. We’re unusual as a community in that we have asked the questions and a collected answers from a significant sample of UK astronomers, evidencing this ubiquitous issue. 🧪🔭
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A bullying problem reveals an astronomy and geophysics community in crisis - Nature Astronomy
A survey of astronomy and geophysics professionals has revealed prevalent bullying and harassment within the sector, with women and marginalized groups most likely to suffer. It is time for the commun...
www.nature.com
"The results presented in this report are bleak; they form a powerful case for change." Prof. Emma Bunce
The RAS report has a must-read well thought through list of recommendations for Individuals, Organisations and Managers and Leaders. 🔭
PDF Download: ras.ac.uk/sites/defaul...
"These graphics show that gay, lesbian and bi people experienced more bullying and harassment than straight people, while BAME respondents also suffered more of this unwanted behaviour than their White peers." 🧪🔭👩🔬
ℹ️: ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...
"Urgent action is needed to address an insidious and systemic bullying problem within the world of astronomy and geophysics" 🧪🔭👩🔬
"Senior staff at not aware of the impact of their actions"
👇From the Royal Astronomical Society report on bullying and harassment
ℹ️: ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...
At 11am (UK) today, the Royal Astronomical Society releases their long-awaited report on bullying and harassment in the field.
It's going to be a hard read with the headline
"44% of the 661 survey respondents reported suffering [bullying and/or harassment] in the workplace" 🔭👩🔬
👇Join Online👇
This Friday the Royal Astronomical Society is launching its report on Bullying and Harassment in Astronomy. You can sign up to attend in person or via the live stream here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/royal-astr...
Favourite typo this marking morning:
"nothing in the University is faster than light"
My understanding of the research on unconscious bias is that it impacts all genders equally - but I'm no expert in that field. Either way though, we mark everything anonymously to mitigate our own unconscious biases!
No "I agree with her" yet, but still another 183 scripts to mark, so you never know, I might be surprised!!
Exam marking season fury-o'clock:
Q: "Using all the information provided explain whether you agree or disagree with the astronomer’s conclusions."
So many answers: "I agree with him"
No-one said the astronomer was a dude 😡👩🔬🔭
🥳 Question 1 for all 271 students all marked!
Now onto the next question 😭 (I loathe this time of year, probably as much as my students loathe it).
The sky is finally dark here in Edinburgh but disappointingly the red alert (aurora likely) has downgraded to orange (aurora possible) .... wishing any aurora-possible spotters out there tonight good luck and clear skies!
Takes a while to load, but it's a good one www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aur...
When it's dark enough to see some stars, it's dark enough to head out to see what you can see. Keep an eye on the Aurora forecast too - I'm hopeful the storm will keep on running (red alerts) but it could stop at any time!
aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk
Fingers crossed - head somewhere as far away from the streetlights as you possibly can Pete!
The AuroraWatch UK alert level has been red (aurora likely) for 24 hrs - will this massive solar storm continue into the UK night🤞? The weather Gods aren't playing ball though, looking pretty cloudy for Scotland.... 🔭🧪
ℹ️ www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/maps...
ℹ️ aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk
Those are so awesome Duncan! 🤗
My 17yo daughter has woken up: these from her phone of our #Aurora spectacular trip out! I'm still buzzing from the shear awesomeness of it all. 🔭🧪
Short exposures on a smartphone in Portobello Edinburgh 🏴. For a brief peak in the solar storm, it even looked like this to the unaided eye 🤯
