Das Baskill

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A few photos from the Lewes Bonfire night last Wednesday evening!

Initial conditions:
m1=11.2 m2=134.6 m3=6.8 (solar masses)
v1x=2.913 v1y=-3.732 v2x=-0.556 v2y=-5.034 v3x=-3.586 v3y=-0.75 (km/s)
x1=-3.0 y1=17.0 x2=30.0 y2=-29.0 x3=18.0 y3=18.0 (AU from center)
Music: Adagio for Strings – Barber

Initial conditions:
m1=99.8 m2=102.0 m3=69.1 (solar masses)
v1x=-2.668 v1y=-2.286 v2x=1.754 v2y=-1.251 v3x=2.368 v3y=1.79 (km/s)
x1=17.0 y1=-27.0 x2=20.0 y2=25.0 x3=-9.0 y3=-7.0 (AU from center)
Music: Liebestraum – Liszt

A nice sunset over Brighton on Thursday evening...

Nice one Dr Linn! 😀

Actuellement deux comètes présentes dans notre système solaire semblent se tirer la bourre. Leur nom de code : C/2025 K1 ATLAS (à gauche) et C/2025 R2 SWAN (à droite). En réalité leurs trajectoires respectives sont très différentes.
Reunion Island - 20 septembre 2025.

Yikes. Many thanks for replying to my thinking out aloud - I learn something new every day!

Many thanks for replying to my thinking out aloud! The numbers are somewhere between interesting and worrying...

Ah, good point. I'd never thought of that before. Thanks for the wisdom!

That makes me wonder how many trees are needed to offset an average person's carbon emissions... a mature tree takes in ~20kg/yr, humans produce an average of ~5 tonnes per year, so ~200-250 mature trees are needed per person. There are ~twice that many trees on Earth, but most are not mature... 🤔

A stunning eruption of filament plasma from the Sun this morning! This size of event can cause strong aurora activity if directed towards Earth, but alas – this one was not. #spaceweather

Future Secured for The Observatory Science Centre

Congratulations to everyone at Science Projects & the Observatory Science Centre (especially Abbie!) for getting a new 10-year lease agreed!

This means that the Observatory will stay open to the public for another decade at least.

science-projects.org/future-secur...

I did a bit of astrophotography on Saturday night. Not ideal conditions due to the humidity and Moon getting in the way, but it's always good to see some old favourites!

Photos are of the Andromeda galaxy and the Lagoon & Triffid Nebulae, with a BA flight to Jaddah photobombing the view!

A Perseid meteor over Brighton, caught at around 1am on Thursday night / Friday morning (14/15th August). The bright star at the lower right is Capella.

I'm the opening speaker at this year's Herstmonceux Astronomy Festival, where I'll be talking about "Brilliant Binaries"!

Full details at: www.the-observatory.org/events/astro...

The Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight, the 12 of August!

You maybe able to see a shooting star ever minute or 2!
But the Moon rises to spoil the view over the UK at 9.35pm tonight, so look as soon as it goes dark.

Photo: Perseid meteor over me & Brighton at 4am on the 14th August, back in 2022.

These are always lovely but this one is something special

Initial conditions:
m1=46.6 m2=34.3 m3=132.3 (solar masses)
v1x=6.53 v1y=-1.538 v2x=4.982 v2y=1.112 v3x=3.082 v3y=0.135 (km/s)
x1=-28.0 y1=9.0 x2=-14.0 y2=22.0 x3=10.0 y3=4.0 (AU from center)
Music: The Shape of Things To Come (BSG) – McCreary

Views from my commute to work in Falmer, East Sussex, on Sunday.

A time-lapse movie of our @eucliduk.bsky.social stand at the @goodwoodrrc.bsky.social Festival of Speed Future Lab last weekend!

Visitors were zooming into data from ESA's Euclid Space Telescope, and using their body to make a gravitational lens to learn how astronomers search for dark matter.

A massive thank-you to the couple who leant me a electric pump at the end of last weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed! Thanks to their help, I was able to cycle back to Chichester and get the train home with only a slight delay!

Some of the Euclid team at the Euclid exhibit. Five people are standing together smiling for the camera. One person is knelt in front of them, also smiling for the camera. Behind them in the background is a spiral galaxy, one of Euclid’s images displayed on a huge screen.

It’s Day 3 at the the @goodwoodrrc.bsky.social #FestivalofSpeed Future Lab.

Our #HumansOfEuclid have had an early start, back and ready to share the mysteries of the dark Universe all over again! 🌌🕸️

Our evening shift Euclid team, 6 of us, smiling for the camera in front of a large LED screen showing a Euclid image.

And that’s a wrap for another day…see you tomorrow #FestivalOfSpeed!

UH to decommission third Maunakea telescope - Hawaii Tribune-Herald UH to decommission third Maunakea telescope - Hawaii News | Hawaii Tribune-Herald

UKIRT 🔭, RIP.

www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2025/06/27/h...

June & July is the best time of the year to see glow worms in the UK!

These are my old photos of glowworms in Brighton.

Numbers of these nocturnal beetles are falling in south-east England by 3.5% each year, due to light pollution making it increasingly difficult for males to find females.

Initial conditions:
m1=32.1 m2=42.6 m3=24.6 (solar masses)
v1x=-5.436 v1y=-2.297 v2x=1.376 v2y=-5.835 v3x=-0.614 v3y=0.951 (km/s)
x1=34.0 y1=-24.0 x2=2.0 y2=-30.0 x3=22.0 y3=15.0 (AU from center)
Music: Lost (The Expanse) – Shorter

Accidental find in planetarium show could shift scientists’ understanding of our solar system | CNN An accidental discovery in an astronomy show offers researchers a new clue about the mysterious Oort Cloud, a large expanse of icy bodies revolving around the sun.

Accidental find in planetarium show could shift scientists’ understanding of our solar system edition.cnn.com/2025/06/10/s... - Fun to hear about this result at a workshop I recently attended

The earliest sunrise and sunset occur a few days before & after the solstice due to the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis, and the effect is exaggerated by the Earth's elliptical (not circular) orbit around the Sun.

Happy Solstice all!

On 17th June 2025, we had the earliest sunrise of the year in Brighton, with sunrise at 04:45 BST.

The longest day is on the 21st, lasting 16 hours and 32 minutes in Brighton.

But the latest sunset is not until the 25th June, when the Sun sets at 21:18 BST over Brighton.