Ole Streicher

An era is coming to an end (at least for me). I had my first contact with the internet in 1992, namely with #usenet. I have remained (more or less) loyal to it to this day. Now the most respected #nntp server has announced that will shut down:
😢
news.individual.net

#Belarus The regime must reveal information about Mikalai Statkevich. Where is he? How is his health? Why was he released and was later driven away? This is unacceptable and very worrying that the regime is hiding him. Is he alive?

bsky.app/search?q=thi...

Leute, es ist eine Meme! 🙃
bsky.app/search?q=thi...

Welcome to the official 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) Bluesky account! Stay tuned for our first-light events coming very soon, and updates on all of the amazing science we will be completing over the years to come!

📷: Y. Beletsky/ESO

#4most #ESO #telescope #astronomy

#Belarus Excruciating. This is reportedly opposition leader Mikalai Statkevich in the neutral zone between Belarus and Lithuania. Freed after over five years in prison, he is protesting his de facto deportation. The regime must stop expelling Belarusian citizens from their own country!

1/Heute vor fünf Jahren, am 7.9.2020, wurde die belarussische Freiheitskämpferin Maria Kolesnikowa von der belarussischen Diktatur festgenommen. Sie ist bis heute eingesperrt, war 600 Tage in Einzelhaft. Mit ihr schmachten weit mehr als 1150 Menschen aus politischen Gründen

1/Die SED-Diktatur war mehr als Stasi und ein paar durchgeknallte SED-Funktionäre. Diktatur funktioniert, weil viele, ganz viele, sehr viele auf allen Ebenen mitmachen – die meisten wollen davon nichts mehr hören und wissen. Kommunistische Diktatur heißt, Gesellschaft töten,

This is a top-down image of the front of a new instrument for ESO’s telescopes. At its outer edges is a ring of metal, within which sits a hexagonal structure made of thousands of fibres that are standing upright. From this angle, each one looks like a single point, and some of the fibres have been moved closer together so that they form a pattern within the hexagon. For this image, the pattern is the shape of a large number four.

Spot a logo that gives off superhero vibes? 😉

Meet "Fantastic 4MOST", which will soon join our league of extraordinary instruments.

@4most-eu.bsky.social comes packed with superpowers. Discover them: www.eso.org/public/image...

📷 ESO/4MOST/Steffen Frey

🔭 🧪 #instrumentation

Heute wurde am AIP im Rahmen des #PrideMonth die #vielfalt gefeiert! 🏳️‍🌈✨ Mit einen Rainbow-Food-Contest, einem Büchertausch und einem inspirierenden Talk über LGBT+ Inklusivität in der Wissenschaft wurde der #Pride Day zelebriert. 💬📚🧁

Deutsches Backup schützt Wissenschaftsplattform arXiv vor US-Politik Eine deutsche Wissenschaftsbibliothel sichert die Wissenschaftsplattform arXiv mit 2,4 Millionen Fachartikeln. Ein Gespräch über die Bedeutung dieser Sicherungsmaßnahme.

Neu bei @riffreporter.bsky.social „Asyl für #arXiv: Deutsche Bibliothek schützt Wissenschaftsplattform vor Trumps Angriffen“. Interview mit Lambert Heller, warum sein Team ein Backup des wichtigsten Preprintservers angelegt hat. www.riffreporter.de/de/wissen/ar... #wisskomm

YouTube video by Urknall, Weltall und das Leben Spektrograph für das ELT • ANDES: Entwicklung & Aufbau | Michael Weber

Hochwertige Ausrüstung 🛠️ für ein Riesenteleskop 🔭: der hochauflösende Spektrograph ANDES für das #ELT. Dr. Michael Weber stellt in seinem Vortrag der virtuellen #BabelsbergerSternennächte ✨ das Instrument und einige seiner wissenschaftlichen Ziele vor. youtu.be/xoo5NO4XvZc

It depends on what you mean with "standard astronomical software". Most Open Source software is portable. IRAF is there, DS9 is, most Python packages (Astropy&Co) are, … ESO-MIDAS could work but may need complilation; same for SourceExtractor. TOPCAT should just work as well as other Java packages.

Sechs Jahre Kinderfußball. Sechs Jahre die 2014er. Was für eine Reise! Danke für alles: Die tollen Erinnerungen, die Begeisterung, den Mut, das Vertrauen und das Miteinander! 🥰

Is the original available in web.archive.org ? Then I would adjust the link to there.

Ich werde nichts verraten 🤫

Jüngst wurde mir geraten, in meinen Vorlesungen doch Hoffnung & Perspektive zu vermitteln. Gerade künftige Absolventen würden ja mal gebraucht. Aber ich kann das nicht sagen. Nicht mehr. Meine ehrlichsten drei Minuten dazu gab's voriges Semester. Da nun lange Videos gehen, poste ich es hier nochmal.

Screenshot of "Software blends selection" screen during Debian 13 "Trixie" installation. It offers (among others) to select "Debian Astro" to install software for professional and hobby astronomers.

With the upcoming #DebianTrixie release, you can install the standard software for astronomy just with one click during the installation! Test the first release candidate of the installer: www.debian.org/devel/debian...
#AstronomySoftware #Debian

IRAF 2.18 Installation Instructions IRAF maintained by the community

On (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint…) Linux systems, it is just an "sudo apt install iraf", and on Macs there is an installer. As I am just about to prepare a new version: Could you tell more about the challenges you had? Maybe things can be fixed?

After a long break, the Babelsberg Starry Night finally took place live at the AIP again yesterday 🌟

Today there was also a new release of this package, provided by @attipaci.bsky.social. We will see it in the next Debian release, stay tuned!

github.com/nom-tam-fits...

2025 Astropy Community Survey This survey should take less than 15 minutes to complete. Your responses are voluntary and will remain anonymous and confidential. The aggregated, anonymized data will be used to determine developmen...

The Astropy Project is made by our community, for our community. But who are we, exactly?

We want *your* input in the first astropy user survey:

forms.gle/KX2cNuFsQYgV...

Share how you use astropy, how to improve it, and how we can support you and your work! 🧪🔭

Random Debian Astro package of the week is python3-astropy. The astropy package contains core functionality and some common tools needed for performing astronomy and astrophysics research with Python. It can be extended by a number of "affiliated packages" that are intended to work with the
1/2⤵

Happening now: Potsdam bekennt Farbe. The Neuer Markt is full of people protesting against the extreme right and their enablers.

Die 25% Dissidenden kommen mir auch eigenartig vor; vielleicht weil es sich um eine retrosprektive Selbsteinschätzung handelt? Wenn Staatsnähe wie dort beschrieben definiert wird (SED, Massenorg etc.), scheinen aber 19% doch realistisch, oder?

Der exzellente britische Historiker Norman Davies 1995 in der New York Review of Books, Nachdruck Freibeuter 1996/66.

IRAF 2.18 IRAF maintained by the community

Finally, IRAF is an artefact of cultural heritage in astronomy that can't be overestimated. Keeping it working (and using it) helps to keep the accumulated knowledge.

Disclaimer: I am maintaining community IRAF, so I have a biased view on this.

Another reason is that there are many data processing pipelines, specifically for older instruments, that rely on IRAF.

Then there are "elderly" astronomers who grew up with IRAF and hesitate to change, even requiring its use from the students. You will sometimes find it even as university courses.

One of the main reasons is that IRAF comes with a HUGE amount of algorithms, carefully prepared for astrophysical needs and proven to work in long term. Not all of thems have proper replacements yet. Even if, they are often still the reference, specifically when comparing with older data.