brunthal

markmccaughrean, 8 days ago to photography

#ReturnToGermany Day 4

Slugs “R” us 😬✌️

(It has been quite rainy & damp today, perfect weather for our slimy garden friends 🤷‍♂️)

#Photography
#BackGardenLimacology

brunthal, 24 days ago to Bloomscrolling

One year ago, we converted a small piece of boring grass in front of our institute into a wildflower meadow. Now it's blooming for the second time, attracting many insects, and improving the biodiversity and the micro climate around our institute.

#Bloomscrolling #biodiversity

brunthal, 30 days ago to random

I started the next step to reduce my carbon emissions and signed a contract for an electric car. I should get it later this month, and then I never have to buy gasoline again (except maybe for a rental car somewhere).

There is still a long way to go. But it's one step in the right direction.

(And yes, I also started to use my bike again after a really really long time).

#Energiewende

vicgrinberg, 30 days ago (edited 30 days ago) to random

Wanted to try the too good to go from the Polish place for ages. Very fun (one of the donuts is missing, I ate it on the way)! There is definitely some truly weird stuff in here, not sure what to do with the fish in the glass 😳

#AboutToday

markmccaughrean, 1 month ago to random

Good grief.

Our Dutch moving company just called to tell us they have to pull our move to Heidelberg a few days forward, because guess what?

May 30 is Corpus Christi / Fronleichnam & public holiday in the southern Catholic states of Germany.

Trucks are not allowed to drive on Sundays & public holidays.

So they need to be unpacked & back in Nordrhein-Westfalen by midnight that day 🙄

I've always hated May in Germany – so many batty religious holidays getting in the way of secular life 😬

franco_vazza, 1 month ago to Futurology

Things you can find for dinner in Florence after a talk about the cosmic web and the human #brain
: fried brain 🧠 (of veal).

I am vegetarian so no chance, but you think my neurosurgeon colleague took?

franco_vazza, 1 month ago to Astronomy

Some picture of this cool event in Florence:
https://mastodon.social/

the first official opening to the public of the ancient villa on the hills of Florence where Galileo Galilei spent his latest years while being home imprisoned by damm Santo Uffizio, and where he wrote his latest works.
Some walls and bricks and trees might stille be the same that were around while he was 🥺

#astronomy #astrodon

image/jpeg
image/jpeg
image/jpeg

vicgrinberg, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

Ich möchte mich am Freitag morgen in #Köln Innenstadt irgendwo für 2 Stunden mit einem Buch (gerne auch einem Kaffee, muss aber nicht sein) hinsetzen. Also so was wie eine Bibliothek, nette Cafes, Uni-Gebäude mit Sitzmöglichkeiten [edir: eher drinnen!] ... Ideen?

Bitte Orte, die ihr selbst kennt, nichts ergoogeltes (ich habe online schon die Stadtbibliothek gefunden, will aber echte Erfahrungen oder Alternativen).

Gerne boost :)

knud, 1 month ago to worldwithoutus

261 authors from 152 institutions in 22 countries on 6 continents. And that is a small part-of-the NISP-instrument paper in the @ec_euclid. 🤪

To be submitted tomorrow. The main instrument paper will follow in ~2 weeks.

Will both (and more!) appear on arXiv on 24 May 🙂

And do you know what this means? It means we urgently need collaborators in #Antarctica!

#astronomy #space #cosmology #science #ESAEuclid

brunthal, 2 months ago to random

Could be worse.

#AboutToday

vicgrinberg, 2 months ago to random

It seems like Sandgebäck disappeared from most German bakeries - wtf, I used to get some so often as a kid!

Third trip to Germany and I finally got some!

#AboutToday

brunthal, 3 months ago to random

I guess many of other astronomers also constantly get emails from people who have new and ultimate theories of cosmology. I'm tempted to let chat GPT answer some of them, and then watch how it goes.

vicgrinberg, 3 months ago to random

Oh ... So I am now officially permanent-permanent with #ESA. I guess congratulations to me? If I understood the HR email correctly 😅

markmccaughrean, 3 months ago to random

Vulture club.

Six large lappet-faced vultures over at the waterhole in the Namib desert just now, with temperatures around 39ºC.

But don't go there – it's very addictive 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydYDqZQpim8

markmccaughrean, 3 months ago to random

“If you’ve ever been blown away by an image of outer space, it’s a pretty safe bet it was taken by a spacecraft.”

Not the best opening for an article on modern astronomy 🙄

Amateur & professional ground-based astronomy continues to generate spectacular imagery & scientifically, cutting-edge ground-based telescopes will play a vital role well into the future, as the construction of the wide-field Rubin Observatory & the 39-m diameter European ELT demonstrate.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/11/space-telescopes-hubble-james-webb-nasa-astronomy

msm, 3 months ago to random German

Bin heute zum ersten Mal Blut spenden gewesen; und kann nur sagen: Wer gesund ist und bei Kräften, sollte sich die Zeit nehmen und dies tun! Blutkonserven werden immer gebraucht und können Leben retten. Leute, rafft Euch auf!

astro_jcm, 3 months ago to science

I'm tired of sitting through #science talks where all plots are properly credited but artist's impressions and photographs aren't.

As a researcher and astrophotographer who works with super talented artists, this attitude really bothers me.

You study galaxies at the dawn of time. You look for biomarkers in the atmospheres of distant planets. You can most definitely find who made that cool image you just pasted in your slides.

To those who do credit #art : you're awesome 🤗

markmccaughrean, 4 months ago to random

The Eastern Country visa application shitshow continues.

I waited until today to see if my attempt at paying the e-visa fee via PayPal had succeeded.

It had not.

I tried again using the official payment portal with my credit card.

I entered the details & pushed "go", then got this screen back. Nothing loaded over several minutes.

I checked my credit card app & the payment was there, waiting for approval.

I pressed "yes", but see no change in payment status on the visa website.

Now what?

franco_vazza, 4 months ago to Astronomy

#astronomy #astrodon
Well, folks...I think this is it. today something odd or terrible is going to happen, and the omen is that I just coded that stuff from scratch in #Julia
...and it just worked, giving me results in the right units, at the first attempt.

So, I guess, farewell? 😬

image/png
image/png

SciBry, 4 months ago to random

This is incredibly ignorant and disappointing. I hope the parents of Toronto will take the risk of letting their children outside to see this literally once-in-a-lifetime event. 😒

https://globalnews.ca/news/10264935/tdsb-cancels-class-solar-eclipse/

18+ sundogplanets, 4 months ago to random

Just a reminder that there's not a binary "we're doomed"/"we're not doomed." Every single thing you and I do to use less energy makes the future less shitty. Don't give up hope.

Don't write back to me with all the reasons to give up on the future. If you give up on making the future better, you are part of the problem.

Tell me something you're doing right now to make the future better, even if it's something small!