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Stuart Jones

@owenthesignal.bsky.social

Trains, boats and planes. And music. And wildlife, geology, genealogy, astronomy... All the right things, just not necessarily in the right order Flickr: owenthesignal (rail & transport) wildspaces (photography)

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Stuart Jones@owenthesignal.bsky.social · 3d ago

Footnote on p34 in @jonnelledge.bsky.social’s excellent ‘Compendium of Everything’: ‘This [naming of Pluto and story of the googol], makes me wonder why nobody has investigated the key role young relatives have played in the progress of science.’ Exhibit 3: Margaret Hamilton’s daughter Lauren

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 3d ago

Fab story from Margaret Hamilton, RIP, showing why Science-Mums are brilliant scientists! When innovating at the cutting edge of technology, it's so important to bring together a wide range of lived experiences. Sad that only ~20% comp-scientists are female 👩‍🔬🧪 ℹ️: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Right: A woman looking very cool in a 70's dress standing next to a massive pile of very thick books Left text: Did your life as a software engineer and a mother ever collide? Often in the evening or at weekends I would bring my young daughter, Lauren, into work with me. One day, she was with me when I was doing a simulation of a mission to the moon. She liked to imitate me – playing astronaut. She started hitting keys and all of a sudden, the simulation started. Then she pressed other keys and the simulation crashed. She had selected a program which was supposed to be run prior to launch – when she was already “on the way” to the moon. The computer had so little space, it had wiped the navigation data taking her to the moon. I thought: my God – this could inadvertently happen in a real mission. I suggested a program change to prevent a prelaunch program being selected during flight. But the higher-ups at MIT and Nasa said the astronauts were too well trained to make such a mistake. Midcourse on the very next mission – Apollo 8 – one of the astronauts on board accidentally did exactly what Lauren had done. The Lauren bug! It created much havoc and required the mission to be reconfigured. After that, they let me put the program change in, all right.
Paul Voosen@voosen.me · 2w ago

New Horizons is now *three days away* from shutting off its two heliophysics instruments, simply because NASA has not provided the $2M in funding it had promised to the mission last year or this year. There is no science basis for shutting these off. Our earlier coverage:

NASA’s New Horizons mission may shut down two instruments over lack of funding

Decision risks “incalculable loss” of data from the edge of the Sun’s influence, scientists say

science.org

Jenny Shipway@jennyshipway.bsky.social · 2w ago

FIVE days to go! People across the world will be looking up at the starry skies 1-4 October for '100 Hours of Astronomy'. Take a short break, step outside, and join us at 100hours.online to complete four simple stargazing challenges and put a marker on your town or city of our UK/Ireland map.

100 Hours poster, with an image of a young woman holding coffee and gazing up at the stars. She's stood by a public lawn area with houses behind. There's also a picture of a mobile phone showing the app with the four challenge badges, and a UK/Ireland map with pins in it - "Join beginner stargazers across the UK and Ireland. Find the Stars and put a pin in our map"
Merchant Adventurers’ Hall@merchantshallyork.org · 3w ago

We are a very old building. We have lots of keys. We have lots of keys that don’t open anything. Join us for a one off installment of, “Keys of the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall that are pretty but completely useless”. 🔑 🧵

We are looking at two pewter plates with an assortment of large brass and iron keys in various shapes and sizes.
Butser Ancient Farm@butserancientfarm.co.uk · 4w ago

A closer look at this year’s Viking boat… 👀 The finishing touches are being made, and this year's boat is looking rather resplendent. Any guesses to what this year's theme might be? 🧐 Not long now until you can see it for yourselves at Equinox. Get your tickets and join us this Saturday. 🔥

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John Bull@garius.bsky.social · 4w ago

Around 10am on 17 June 1940, a small plane landed on the island of Jersey, in need of fuel. Strapped to it with rope were four suitcases, whose contents included 100,000 francs of French government money. Inside were two passengers. Sir Edward Spears, British liason to France and Charles de Gaulle

Stuart Jones@owenthesignal.bsky.social · 4w ago

Perfect follow up to this evening’s Gresham College talk by Chris Lintott - a recent xkcd post with the bingo card for @lsstuk.bsky.social discoveries. Watch this space… xkcd.com/3278

Vera Rubin Observatory

xkcd.com

Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 4w ago

I'm at @greshamcollege.bsky.social tonight (in London and online) at 7pm talking about @vrubinobs.bsky.social and @lsstuk.bsky.social - tickets still available here: www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/sky.... 🔭