Matt Williamson

I'm looking forward to Inside Maths again! Maths enrichment day, 9 Feb 2026, for year 5 and their teachers, at the Ri, London. Featuring @robeastaway.bsky.social and Fran Watson, hands-on activity and puzzles. Feedback from last year: insidemaths.co.uk/feedback
Book here: insidemaths.co.uk/booking

Screengrab of weather map, showing clear spots from north of York up the east coast as far as Aberdeen. Also a gap just north of Blackpool.

It's the last day of 100hours.online ! If you have clear skies, pop outside or peek out a window and see if you can complete any challenges to add to our stargazing map. Best region looks like the North East and up to Aberdeenshire but there are gaps in the clouds in other places too.

Research Impact means different things to different people, but if what you are trying to do is influence the world outside of academia, then you and your teams are going to need to be able to talk to people.

Invest in those skills.

Yes, and the bright white LED lighting. Headache central.

Screengrab of weather forecast for the UK and Ireland this evening, showing patchy areas of clear skies across Ireland, a big clear area around the Scottish borders, and in Aberdeenshire

Do you know anyone in the areas forecast to be clear tonight? Let's see if we can get more pins on our stargazing map! 100hours.online

I love it that everyone loves a #supermoon. Tonight is the night so #DoLookUp!

Fine print: this astronomical event comes with a expectation-management disclaimer:
*The Supermoon is only 15% brighter than a normal full moon and I personally can not tell the difference 🤔
*Every moon is SUPER🔭🥳

🔊Calling #Dundee! Mills, the UK's 1st public observatory, is about to turn 90! This time last year looming budget cuts threatened its closure forever, but overwhelming public support saved it🥳. Do join us for the 90th🎂birthday celebrations on the 27th Oct! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🔭

🎟️: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/professor-...

Advert with the 100 Hours logo, url, and strapline "Look up!". The image is a photo of a woman looking up from a suburban environment. She's holding a takeaway coffee cup. It's a great photo that sums up what we want, which is for people to enjoy the sky from wherever they happen to be. Thanks to Mission Astro for letting us use it.

Look up tonight! Some of us will be lucky and have little gaps in the clouds. Will you be able to complete any of the 100 Hours challenges? 100hours.online

I would need to sell a couple of hundred pins this month to fully fund everything I've been aiming to put out pre-christmas. Doesn't seem hugely likely that I'll get all the way there but every little helps!

Yesterday's style provided by @hanaayoob.co.uk ✏️

Today marks the start of '100 Hours of Astronomy'! 🔭🪐💫

Want to take part in the global stargazing event? Join in any time from now until Sunday by completing four simple challenges to find star patterns and a planet in the night sky.

Find out more at: 100hours.online

Love over hate: Newcastle unites at Grey’s Monument "We don’t need to be reminded of where we live, that’s what a football strip is for"

North East Bylines have just published their 5000th article!! 🎉🎉🎉

Congratulations NEB! A very apt way to celebrate too:

Love over hate: Newcastle unites at Grey’s Monument
"We don’t need to be reminded of where we live, that’s what a football strip is for"

northeastbylines.co.uk/news/politic...

Catherine having a laugh at the Aberdeen science centre with three girls playing with a powerful fan.

Catherine chatting to an interested girl in front of an arch they've just built.

Catherine and two kids looking earnestly at some marshmallows in a glass jar that is about to become a vacuum.

Catherine looking through a giant lens. She has a mask on.

The fantastic UK network of science and discovery centres needs your help to survive and thrive! Sign this letter urging the UKGov to stop excluding science from the financial support that is available for other museums, art galleries & theatres 🙏🧪🔭👩‍🔬🎢

👉✉️: www.sciencecentres.org.uk/openletter20...

A comic panel depicting Hawkman entering a punch card into a computer and saying that his Star-puter causes stars to appear from different viewpoints, like a Zeiss projector.

The cover of Hawkman #11 featuring Hawkman fighting the Shrike.

This weekend, I went to the British Association of Planetaria conference, and one of the highlights was definitely telling representatives of Zeiss that they'd been name-dropped in Hawkman #11 way back in 1965.

Picture of Duncan on a train in a green check shirt

Vitae conf 2025 here we come!

Who's gonna be there?

Like most scicommers ‘of a certain age,’ I crossed paths - if not swords - with Kenward on a few occasions. He was a character, and he got stuff done. Both of which I find admirable. The sector owes him more than many today will know.

The black inflatable dome of the portable planetarium, set up under the wooden rafters of the church hall in Biggar, Scotland.

The aurora borealis, or northern lights above some foreground buildings. This aurora show is a mixture of green and reddish purple colours with faint stripes, almost resembling the classic effect called the "shimmering curtain".

Had an absolutely fab day Saturday. Took the planetarium to Biggar Science Festival. Some lovely shows for young & old, including folks who braved the rain to reach me! Some tried to make it round all the venues throughout the town. Great chats about dark skies, meteorites & aurorae. Cheers Biggar!

‘Ministers also advise to only buy “winning” lottery tickets from now on’

Opinion poll!

Is it a...

Britney mic?
Sabrina Carpenter mic?
Madonna mic?

#Academia #PHDChat #Research #Presentations

A clip from Star Wars showing Chewbacca (a walking carpet of Wookie) and Han Solo (the handsome young Harrison Ford). Both have guns, ready to save the Galaxy.

Abernethy Scouts have sent me a list of space questions for "Ask the Astronomer Royal Anything". I've covered aliens, killer asteroids & living on Mars, but am now really struggling to answer their last Q: "who is your favourite Star Wars character?" Is it Chewie or Han - a tough tough decision.

UK-peeps: Sunday's #LunarEclipse is going to be tricky as the horizon is mostly in the way 😬
If you're keen not to miss it, try a dress rehearsal: spot the moonrise today/tomorrow & you'll know where to look on Sunday 🤓🔭🧪
Location-specific moonrise 🕰️: www.timeanddate.com/moon/uk/edin...
📷 S. Harvey

📢 We’re delighted to announce Professor Maria Fusco as the next Director of SGSAH

An award-winning writer & interdisciplinary leader @dundee.ac.uk, she joins us in January 2026

👉 More in our press release: www.sgsah.ac.uk/about/news/h...

#ArtsandHumanities #PhDTraining @uofgartshums.bsky.social

Crop of a sparkling scene of star birth captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This view is dominated by fiery dust and gas clouds in varying shades of orange, yellow, and brown. An ethereal white cloud stretches vertically. The background is blue and filed with stars.

Crop of a sparkling scene of star birth captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This view is dominated by a blue background sparkled with stars.

Crop of a sparkling scene of star birth captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This view is dominated by fiery dust and gas clouds in varying shades of orange, yellow, and brown, with soaring spires stretching to the right. Behind the spires, an ethereal white cloud stretches vertically. The background is blue and filed with stars.

Crop of a sparkling scene of star birth captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This view is dominated by a blue background sparkled with stars. On the lower right side dark orange clouds of gas and dust are visible.

😲 Every patch of this image is a showstopper.

🤩 Every crop a beauty in and of itself.

ICYMI, the NASA/ESA/CSA James #Webb Space Telescope captured this glittering glimpse of starbirth in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula. 🔭 🧪

In what appears as a celestial dreamscape, a blue and black sky filled with brilliant stars covers about two thirds of the image. The stars are different sizes and shades of white, beige, yellow, and light orange. Across the bottom third of the scene is a craggy, mountain-like vista with spire-like peaks and deep, seemingly misty valleys. These so-called mountains appear in varying shades of orange, yellow, and brown. The soaring spires are going up, up, up, where a wispy, ethereal white cloud stretches horizontally across the scene. Steam appears to rise from the mountaintops and join with this cloud. At the top, right corner of the image, a swath of orange and brown structure cuts diagonally across the sky.

NEW JWST IMAGE AND IT’S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PICTURE I’VE EVER SEEN OH MY GOD THE UNIVERSE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!

Screen grab of a document showing the workshops and the groups they are aimed at. Full PDF linked in comments

NEW WORKSHOPS!

Over the summer, Matt and I have totally rebuilt our workshop offer. Link in comments

It was a chaotic process, involving many cups of tea and sticky notes!

Get in touch if you want to chat about brining us to your institution to join the fight against shit academic presenting!

We've made it to Bluesky! Give us a follow for updates from our network of science centres, museums, and outreach organisations across the UK. We'll be posting about events, campaigns, and nationwide projects.

Any suggestions for who we should follow? Let us know! 🔽

Please add your name to our open letter urging Ministers to act now lnkd.in/ejJ2nrva 3/3

They’re excluded from Government support that's available for other museums, art galleries and theatres.

The Association of Science and Discovery Centres is calling on the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to safeguard these vital institutions for the next generation… 2/3

For over 25 years, science and discovery centres have been at the heart of inspiring millions of people to explore, question, and be part of UK science and technology.

But they're seriously under threat… 1/3

Police misinformation warning over girl's weapons arrest in Dundee Footage of the alleged incident in Dundee has been circulating on social media.

Elon Musk involved in spreading misinformation about an incident in Dundee, Scotland