David Blanchflower BSc

Amazing!

Tasty!

Rare 'hair ice' formations found in Gloucestershire and Somerset The candy floss-like ice only forms on rotting wood in below zero temperatures.

Rare 'hair ice' formations discovered in woodlands. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I'm at the pictures to see "Sisu: Road to Revenge." Really looking forward to this. Big fan of the first film.

Happy Birthday Adie. Don't look a day older than me😉

Jupiter appears as a bright star in a night sky colored purple with auroral light. The planet is rising over a dark ridge, its light reflected in the waters of a lake in the foreground. Woodruff Narrows Reservoir, Wyoming. Photo: Bill Dunford.

Jupiter, itself home to massive auroras, rising through auroras and clouds on Nov. 11.

First Quarter Moon is 0658UT 28 November 2025. 🔭 🧪

A nearly half-lit moon featuring craters and lava flows

Thanksgiving Eve’s waxing crescent moon as seen thru my scope 🔭

Could be a prehistoric one left by time travellers!

Endangered giraffe calf born at Whipsnade after death of father The calf was born at Whipsnade Zoo months after the death of her father, Netflix star Bashu.

Mum Luna welcomes baby giraffe during meteor shower. 🔭 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Currently 13°C here.

Very warm this morning.

Just back from the opticians. Had my annual eye test/exam. No problems just my usual prescription required.

Watch live: #CM25 Press Conference by the Hosting Minister, Chair and the ESA Director General, today on #ESAWebTV from 12.00 GMT/13.00 CET.

👉 📺 watch.esa.int

Huge Neolithic structure found in Stonehenge landscape A study has confirmed 16 pits were dug close to the Stonehenge more than 4,000 years ago.

Massive prehistoric structure found near Stonehenge. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'Extraordinary discovery' at Orkney's Ness of Brodgar Neolithic site Archaeologists are to resume digging at the site after 3D radar technology uncovered a mystery find.

'Extraordinary discovery' at Orkney Neolithic site. So extraordinary they don't know what it is. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Not good.

Hmm...

Ringed planet Saturn at centre on a dark background.

Just a random picture of Saturn I took back in 2021. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour

Downsizing warranted.

Looked outside to check the sky WAS clear as forecast & saw the space station overhead. Rushed inside, changed lens and attempted hand held in extremely cold conditions. 12.83 seconds isn't TOO bad as the ISS zooms between the bushes.

6pm and still clear, a few stars visible but still a bit too light for trails. At least I've got the tripod pointing in the right direction because Polaris lives right above my chimney. A bush and a couple of late roses in the bottom right corner.

Clear skies promised but promise not kept. 1440 15 second exposures blended together in clever OM1 mark 2. Polaris above TV aerial on my chimney. I think a plane's red light running from top left to centre bottom. Odd colours ? because of cloud. Red roses bottom right. Exposure ran from 10pm to 4 am

251125 OM1ii out for the first time in months! Astro playtime, the only astro I can do and that's because of the clever #OMSystems computer that calls itself a camera @sjbastro.bsky.social @salopchris.bsky.social @davidbflower.bsky.social

Spacesuit designed in Bristol could help astronauts on the Moon New spacesuit created by Bristol University researcher could help astronauts move more freely.

New spacesuit 'could help astronauts' mobility.' 🔭 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Did a bit of extra processing.

Capture of a computer screen with star cluster the Pleiades above centre. Many other star dots. Application thumbnails on left and on bottom taskbar.

Got a new starry background on my computer. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour

STFC | Postgraduate research | University of Leicester STFC Studentships in Physics and Astronomy. University of Leicester

🔭🧪🎢 PhD Project focus: AGN variability: hidden signals in the noise

We're advertising this project with Prof Simon Vaughan, analysing AGN with methods that go beyond traditional models and assumptions

For details of all our PhD projects look here: le.ac.uk/study/resear... 🔭🧪🎢

From my first trip to Lofoten and the first time I ever got to see the aurora.

Canon EOS 1200D, Canon EF 75-300 lens, Vixen Polare Star Tracker. 68x30s exposures at F/5.6, ISO 800. Stacked and processed using Sequator and FastStone.

It’s a hell of a day for seeing cool things apparently!

A reminder that this gif and a similar one for the transit method are on Wikimedia Commons for anyone to use.

I'm actually putting together a teaching dossier at the moment and I'd love to hear from people if you've used any of my gifs for teaching, outreach, or science stuff!

Links to gifs below:

Watch: Moment researcher finds rare flower after 13-year search Researcher Septian Andriki collapsed in tears upon discovering the rare Rafflesia hasseltii plant in Indonesia.

Moment researcher finds rare flower after 13-year search. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...