I tried my best, but Ember is clearly not interested in eclipse eye safety.

For anyone wanting to get into the eclipse spirit, I’ve compiled a 3.5-hour Spotify playlist full of songs about the Sun, Moon, or shadows! Available here: open.spotify.com/playlist/5T6...

Any guesses as to where I’m heading to tomorrow? (With a few exciting stops along the way!)

NEW SOLAR FLARE RESEARCH: Supra-arcade Downflows (SADs) are bizzare tendril-like plasma flows that we see above solar flares, but their origins are still uncertain. (1/4)

Trestan@flare.observer · last wk.

My first first-author paper, "SADCat: A Catalog of Supra-Arcade Downflow Events in Solar Flares", is now published in Solar Physics! Dr. Ryan French (@ryanjfrench.bsky.social) and I present a catalog of 178 solar flares with visible SADs as a resource for the broader solar flare community. ☀️ 1/4

Is it safe to use a welding mask to look at the Sun during an eclipse? I break it down in a short YouTube video here: youtu.be/y28g8C3InHE?...

Can you use a Welding Mask to Watch a Solar Eclipse?

YouTube video by Dr. Ryan French | Solar Astrophysicist

youtu.be

Just got out from watching The Odyssey in IMAX (opening night). A phenomenal film, Christopher Nolan has done it again! Probably an immediate top 5 of all time for me.

🚀 New Episode Klaxxon! 🚀 Today we are joined by @ryanjfrench.bsky.social to chat about the hazards in space that affect us today. Starting with the Sun doing sunny things, the problems with the stuff we put up there and how we could clean things up. Join us! 📺 youtu.be/oJJvetgdjh0 🎧 pod.fo/e/44bd5d

Two decent-sized filaments (channels of plasma suspended in the Sun’s atmosphere) erupted from the Sun’s western edge yesterday. Although eruptions from this location on the Sun rarely create enhanced aurora at Earth, they are (in my opinion) the most visually-spectacular events to watch on the Sun!

Spotted at the vet’s office. Thinking it through, these things are actually pretty decent models of how magnetic fields and particles work in the Sun’s atmosphere! (See random example scientific diagrams I found for comparison)

I am very happy to share that my newest book, “Little Book of Eclipses”, is now available worldwide! The book is a comprehensive guide to solar and lunar eclipses, including everything you need to know for the three upcoming European solar eclipses in 2026/2027/2028!

Last night the Sun produced a huge eruption of filament plasma. The eruption is not heading towards Earth, but certainly beautiful to watch!

Here’s a closer look at the July 4th X-class solar flare! A beautiful off-limb event, complete with coronal rain and supra-arcade downflows.

The Sun produced some Fourth of July fireworks this evening, with an X-class solar flare on the Sun’s eastern edge. This region on the Sun will rotate to face Earth in the coming days!

The Sun has really woken up over the past 48 hours, producing multiple solar flares (including an “X-class” event), across 4 different regions. Further large flares are likely in the coming days!

Early yesterday the Sun produced multiple large eruptions of filament plasma from opposite sides of the Sun. My research investigates solar flares, but I’ll readily admit that filament eruptions like this are the most beautiful show the Sun provides!

I’ve started sharing my best solar flare movies on YouTube. My most recent video just posted! youtu.be/Lv5--UYPcvw?...

Is the Sun firing blanks? In my most recent “Sunny Sci’d Up” Substack post, I discuss why it’s so hard to predict the arrival time of Earth-directed eruptions on the Sun! Link here: ryanjfrench.substack.com/p/is-the-sun...

Is the Sun firing blanks?

Sunny Sci'd Up: A monthly update on what the Sun's been up to in May/June.

ryanjfrench.substack.com

A beautiful filament of plasma erupted from near the Sun’s north pole today! Beautiful stuff.

‘B is for Bird’, spotted in Boulder Colorado!

Yesterday the Sun did this, and today we have the world’s largest solar telescope (the 4m diameter ‘Inouye Solar Telescope’) pointing at the same region for a few hours – as part of our solar flare observing proposal! Fingers crossed that the Sun’s fireworks continue today.

For those who hadn’t seen already, there are currently three coronal mass ejections en route to the Earth (launched by solar flares on the Sun yesterday). We are expecting these eruptions to merge together, reaching Earth and triggering a strong geomagnetic storm tonight!

The Sun has really woken up today, with some beautiful edge-on filament eruptions addition to the Earth-directed solar flares we just experienced. Our local star is certainly beautiful!

The Sun just produced a large Earth-facing solar flare, almost surpassing the threshold for the ‘strongest solar flare’ category. However, it appears this flare produced no notable eruption, meaning the event is now over with (probably) nothing currently heading our way.

My new book releases next month!! ‘Little Book of Eclipses’, co-authored with the brilliant Tom Kerss, explores the science, history and culture of both solar and lunar eclipses, alongside over a decade of eclipse maps for upcoming eclipses.

For anybody interested, I am starting (in ~1 hour) a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” in r/sun. If you have any question about the Sun, space weather, eclipses, etc – stick them in over there! www.reddit.com/r/sun/s/Eh8N...

This eruptive solar flare (from March 2025) is one of my favourite solar events in recent years. I’ve been revisiting this flare recently, as I’ve been analysing some exciting data (not pictured here) of the event! I’ll share those observations later this year.

Today I (alongside 54k other runners) ran Bolder Boulder : “America’s All-Time Best 10K”. Today’s race marks a year since my first run beyond 5k, having since progressed to running a marathon earlier this month. I’m still not quick by any means, but thrilled with my progress!

My new book releases next month!! ‘Little Book of Eclipses’, co-authored with the brilliant Tom Kerss, explores the science, history and culture of both solar and lunar eclipses, alongside over a decade of eclipse maps for upcoming eclipses.

Here is a unique view of a solar flare, captured by the NASA IRIS space telescope last month. We’re used to seeing ‘saturated’ images of flares, but this movie shows an unsaturated view of solar flare heating and plasma motions in the lower solar atmosphere!

Bones is helping me with work this morning!