More Stressed Chameleon
@mark-nicol.bsky.social
Working on being a calmer chameleon - but it comes and goes. East Lothian dad and software engineer - working at the UK ATC (Likes dad jokes, old computers and space. Would like to write better docs but never seem to have the time)
Thanks to all for huge support 🙏. Many petitions, change dot org, parliamentary, MEN etc. A few misconceptions about: - Lovell Telescope/e-MERLIN is old tech: NOT TRUE! Continually upgraded. - Cut is not to Lovell Telescope/Jodrell: NOT TRUE! e-MERLIN funding essential to operate all our telescopes.
Long and lovely thread about the history and context of Jodrell Bank by @jonagar.bsky.social Well worth a read all the way through.
Jon Agar@jonagar.bsky.social · last wk.As a historian of Jodrell Bank, I agree! And the reason it is important is that it has been made to mean different things to different people at different times. Who's up for a mega thread on how and why? (I'm off for lunch now, but I'll do it after. I'll need the energy...)
‘Great Inventions, 1961’ Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope Artist: Robert Ayton
Sadly it's not just #JodrellBank losing funding, with deep cuts across the board for UK astronomy. One example is the HiPERCAM project whose funding has been entirely cut to save £50K/yr - peanut-levels of £s. Spectacular fast transient science lost, for what? 🔭😡 www.zmescience.com/science/astr...
One of Astronomy’s Fastest Cameras May Stop Operating Over a $67,000 Funding Gap
The camera that checked JWST’s clock is losing its funding.
zmescience.com
My Monday inbox includes email from the Royal Astronomical Society highlighting that Jodrell Banks is at risk of closure. This is both a historic site and a super important research facility. This is one of the few facilities capable of both radio astronomy and radar measurements of space objects.
I wouldn’t be a professional astronomer today if not for a school trip to Jodrell Bank as a kid. It’s hard to overstate how much inspiration this place gives future scientists. Devastating news. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands
Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.
bbc.co.uk
I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands
Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.
bbc.co.uk
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 3w ago“What will the Lovell Telescope discover/enable 20 yrs from now? I can’t tell you, and that’s the point. It will either be something extraordinary that none of us can yet predict, or we will defund it and leave Cheshire with a rusting monument to unfulfilled potential and discoveries never made.” 🔭🧪
This w/end's little snippet from my new book is from Chpt1 where we're asking "What is light?" Dear 🇺🇸US friends hoping you have a good chuckle at me attempting an American accent, rather than being affronted! #BookSky 🔭 📖: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/how-to-de... 📽️: www.youtube.com/shorts/-RIPE...
Chapter 1: Light Available to Preorder now!
YouTube video by Astronomer Royal Scotland Prof Catherine Heymans
youtube.com
🔊Calling #Edinburgh: 5th Aug, Dynamic Earth, @astronomyedinburgh.bsky.social and I will be joining forces for a day of free activities to get you ready for the 90% partial solar eclipse 6pm-8pm 12th August! 👩🔬🔭🧪 Big thanks to @iop.org for funding the event 🥳 ℹ️: dynamicearth.org.uk/event/get-re...
Astronomical Society of Edinburgh@astronomyedinburgh.bsky.social · 2w agowww.astronomyedinburgh.org/event/partia... We'll be holding an event on Calton Hill to view the partial solar eclipse on 12th August. We'll have some solar telescopes with us and lots of eclipse glasses so that people can view the eclipse safely. Remember THE SUN IS DANGEROUS TO OBSERVE.
🔊Calling families in #Edinburgh: it's Space week at National Museums Scotland 🚀. I'll be in the Earth in Space gallery on Mon/Fri morn for "Ask the Astronomer Royal Anything"! Excited to meet the curious young people in your lives. 🔭🏴👩🔬 🗓️ Free drop-in 20/24 Jul www.nms.ac.uk/events/summe...
Summer Family Fun | National Museums Scotland
Join us on Mondays and Fridays for a range of exciting, drop-in activities for the whole family. Each week, we’ll explore a new theme – from Scottish stori
nms.ac.uk
'A senior member of one of STFC’s advisory bodies told RPN that the..exercise represents “a major crisis for the UK"...all of the outcomes modelled are “shocking”....the government would be “committing an act of national self-harm by imposing these cuts”.' 🙏 @francesjones.bsky.social
Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · last mo.Exclusive: STFC evaluation lays bare ‘huge damage’ if cuts go ahead. Advisers warn of “major crisis” for UK research as impact assessment is sent to ministers. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
Stars of physics are in Westminster right now to call on the Government to halt funding cuts to astronomy and particle physics research. Professor Brian Cox called them "inexplicable", urging the Government to instead "trust, inspire and continue to invest in the next generation of scientists".
The last time the two Astronomer Royals were at loggerheads was back in the 1990s. The Royal Greenwich & Royal Edinburgh Observatories were pitted against each other in a battle where only one would survive. 🔭 Read all about it in Ian Robson's Observatory Wars: 📖: www.obsmag.org/issues/publi...
Hahahahahahahahaha. Just for once, a thing for which it is worth giving the Faily Heil a few clicks.
Otto English@ottoenglish.bsky.social · 4mo agoMail is running a poll on whether the UK should rejoin the EU. Takes seconds to vote and it's going hilariously well... www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...
Top #Equinox fact: Today is the day that the Sun rises due East and sets due West. At the December solstice the sun rises in the South East. At the June solstice it rises in the North East. As the days pass between the two, the sunrise position slowly changes passing due East each equinox.🤩 🔭🧪
EarthSky@earthskyscience.bsky.social · 5mo agoWe know the #equinox sun rises due east and sets due west. But what happens at Earth’s poles? Turns out the North Pole sun is above the horizon all day long. And it looks exactly the same at the South Pole! Read more at: buff.ly/pH1OWSa 📸 ESA.
Astronomers: Get more robust data! A new version of the Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive is now live: https://bit.ly/4pKxQs3
From “AI can’t do your job. It can help you do your job, but that does not mean it is going to save anyone money.” to “AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok.” a refreshing take by Cory Doctorow
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 7mo agoAI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow
One of those fascinating wee corners of history via Substack Weekender . Why the FSA great depression photo archives contain these photos with a missing black circle. substack.com/redirect/196...
Hole-Punched History
In the FSA archives, photos of The Great Depression are marred by an empty black void, forever obscured by the perfunctory click of a hole-punch.
substack.com
🔊Calling #Edinburgh! One of the world's largest telescopes twinned with the world's biggest camera is about to embark on a 10yr mission to survey the Universe! Join us in Dynamic Earth's Planetarium as we unveil the 1st Rubin images🥳🔭🏴 🗓️: 23rd Jun@15:30-17:00 £5🎟️ dynamicearth.org.uk/event/rubin-...
NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory@vrubinobs.bsky.social · last yr.We are T–10 days from NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's First Look! 🚨 This reveal of Rubin's first images is just a preview of what's to come as Rubin prepares to #CaptureTheCosmos for the next ten years! 🔭🧪 Here are 6 things you need to know before the big day🎬 🧵
The amazingly talented photographer @tomduffinphotos.bsky.social and I turned my #StrawberryMoon skeet-thread into a piece for the 🏴 #Edinburgh Reporter. Check out Tom's many superb photos and don't forget, #DoLookUp tonight! 🔭 🗞️: theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2025/06/look...
Look up tonight! Lunar Standstill
The full moon in every month of the year has an American nickname. In November it’s called the Beaver Moon, in March the Worm Moon, and in June we have the Strawberry Moon. Most of the time these nic...
theedinburghreporter.co.uk
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last yr.It's #StrawberryMoon day! And before you scoff "but the full moon happens every month Catherine", this is the once-every-18.6-yr lunar standstill. In the Northern hemisphere the moon will rise just above the horizon (look S) before it dips back down again 1/🧵🧪🔭 ⏰ www.timeanddate.com/moon/uk/edin...
What if we containerised the teams rather than the software? New portacabin arrives on site.
🥳 This is proper EXCITING people!! Mark June 23rd in your diary for the world wide release of the first images from the wonderful and amazing Vera Rubin Observatory. 🔭🧪 Join the celebration at a Rubin Watch party near you! 👉: rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-f...
NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory@vrubinobs.bsky.social · last yr.🚨 SAVE THE DATE: The world's First Look at images from NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory is coming June 23, 2025! 🔭🧪 Get ready for a preview of how Rubin will soon #CaptureTheCosmos in its decade-long survey 🌌 More details soon—stay up to date at rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-first-look
Thanks coffee, I couldn't have summed up my work mood any better.
A long read and a rewarding one. How the Business Idiot culture has messed up everything about work and life in pursuit of sound bites and vibes.
Ed Zitron@edzitron.com · last yr.Newsletter: We are in the era of the Business Idiot, where middle management has seized power, breeding out true meritocracy and value-creation in favor of symbolic growth and superficial intelligence. This piece ties together everything I've ever written. www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-t...
Fresh breakfast muffins made by my lovely wife - loves x What a lovely way to start the weekend.
This run of nice weather really is lovely. Hope it lasts through the weekend. Whatever you are doing today as George says "it is going to take patience and time to do it right" 😀
It’s the time of year when you might find a baby bird and want to help. Most often (and slightly counterintuitively) it’s best to do nothing. Here’s a useful guide.
Achievement of the day. I've been limited to one dad joke per team meeting. If I'd known I wouldn't have wasted it on a crack about quantum computing working and not working at the same time.
