Merlyn

markmccaughrean, 2 months ago to Astronomy

Riding in the dark has its benefits: saw a very bright meteor streaking NW to the horizon & North Sea through gaps in the cloud.

How bright? Not sure; perhaps full Moon-ish & certainly the brightest I’ve seen in years.

If anyone in NL between The Hague & IJmuiden had a camera pointing that way at 19:38 CET, check it out.

At the end of a 67km ride, my longest of the year so far, & pushing me over 1000km finally. It has been slow going this winter.

#Meteors #Astronomy #Astrodon #Netherlands

markmccaughrean, 2 months ago to random

Good grief 😱

If you think superhero films are ridiculously fast-paced, “The Wandering Earth II” turns your mind to jelly with almost three hours of constant whiplash 🥺

Batshit frenetic, absurd plotting, leaden dialogue, & shockingly bad acting, drowned in a miasma of coruscating CGI pixels, beyond bombastic music, & a heavy dose of CCP propaganda 😬

Despite being a fan of Liu Cixin’s writing, this adaptation is a shocker. Part I wasn’t much better – you think I’d learn 🤷‍♂️

A CGI picture of the Earth part silhouetted against the Sun. There is a ring of blue lights around the equator of Earth and many more in the northern hemisphere. The text underneath is in Chinese, with the English translation “Goodbye, Solar System”.

markmccaughrean, 2 months ago to Astronomy

One last gig in Delhi before heading back to Europe tomorrow: recording with Aryaan & Amira Arora for their Under The Tree podcast on spirituality. Their mum also hijacked the show & spent half an hour talking to me 🤷‍♂️🙂

Indeed, perhaps not the average topic for an astronomer to talk about, especially an atheist one, but the conversation was open & interesting, so I look forward to seeing the outcome 👍

https://youtube.com/

#SpaceScience #Astronomy #Astrodon

A picture of a room with various video and lighting equipment, along with three guys dressed in black, seen from behind, ready to film a podcast.

markmccaughrean, 2 months ago to random

Comedy timing 🤪

Landed at Heathrow yesterday to a message asking me if I happened to be in London & able to come on BBC Newsnight to talk about the Odysseus moon landing.

I replied yes, by coincidence I am, but only for two hours before flying to India. 🤷‍♂️

Then arriving in Delhi this morning, I saw another message from several hours earlier asking me to come on BBC Radio 4 Today on the same topic.

By which time I just wanted to sleep 😬✌️

Anyway, #JWST talks to prepare now 🚀🛰️🔭

markmccaughrean, 3 months ago to Astronomy

#Tigger knew exactly what was going on when he saw me putting stuff in my travel bag this morning & made sure he checked that every shirt & pair of socks had been correctly packed 😼

He then plunked himself down to sleep on my bed, to await my return next week 😽🥺

Off to India today for a series of talks on #JWST 🇮🇳🚀🛰️🔭

#SpaceScience #Astronomy #Astrodon #CatsOfMastodon

markmccaughrean, 3 months ago to Netherlands

The Netherlands is famously a windy country, but it has been relentless this week 😱

A chunky 46km ride around the Vlietland this evening, with a decent sunset east of Leiden to lighten the grind 🤷‍♂️

#CyclingLife 🚴‍♂️
#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷
#CloudAppreciationSociety ☁️

markmccaughrean, 3 months ago to photography

The fog in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

#Aranjuez
#Photography
#BlackAndWhite

markmccaughrean, 4 months ago to Astronomy

Sirius: the coruscating jewel of the northern winter night sky 😍

Taken solely with my iPhone. See the following toot for details & have a go yourselves 🙂👍

#Astronomy #Astrodon #Space #SpaceScience #Photography #Astrophotography #LightPainting

markmccaughrean, 4 months ago to Netherlands

It’s all a bit meh out there. Wet paths after lots of rain, very damp air reducing the effective temperature, no sign of the Sun, & too many commuting cars 🚕🚙🚗

Still, it has to be done 🤷‍♂️

A 35km ride around the Vlietland this evening ✌️

#CyclingLife 🚴‍♂️
#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷

markmccaughrean, 4 months ago to animals

PSA:

While A. A. Milne’s OG Tigger may now be in the public domain, his namesake definitely isn’t: he’s still the undisputed ruler of his very own domain 😼

#CatsOfMastodon

markmccaughrean, 4 months ago to photography

I’ve completely lost track of the days of the week in the perineum between Christmas & New Year 😬 but even if it’s not #Caturday yet, it’s never a bad time to post a picture of #Tigger 🤷‍♂️😺

#Photography 📷
#CatsOfMastodon 🐈

stux, 4 months ago to random

It's almost the end of the year 2023 but also the end of the month again! ⏲️⚡

That also come with new server, media storage, and email bills within a few days, please think about supporting your local server admin :fediverse:

If you like to support my services and work, you can do so via:

https://paypal.me/stuxOS
https://patreon.com/mstdn
https://ko-fi.com/mstdn
https://liberapay.com/mstdn
https://opencollective.com/mstdn
https://bunq.me/stuxhost

Thank you so much for your help and support ❤️

markmccaughrean, 4 months ago to Netherlands

This afternoon’s choice 🧐

A. Hours trapped in heaving Christmas shopping crowds & traffic jams;

B. Poking my own eyes out with radioactive knitting needles;

C. A 47km cycle ride round in the Vlietland under grey clouds & against strong, gusty winds.

Not a hard decision really … 🤷‍♂️

#CyclingLife 🚴‍♂️
#BahHumbug 🎅🏻
#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷

markmccaughrean, 5 months ago to photography

The lord of the manor says that you can keep all your December 24 & 25 flummery – the only thing he’s really interested in is Boxing Day 😽

#Tigger
#Photography
#CatsOfMastodon

markmccaughrean, 5 months ago to photography

An exotic pagoda somewhere in the far east? 🧐

Nope, the new International Meeting Facility at ESA’s ESTEC, currently under construction, as seen late last night before going home.

That said, I doubt that it’ll end up being quite as gaudily coloured as this. More’s the pity 🤷‍♂️🙂

#Photography 📷
#Architecture 🏯

markmccaughrean, 5 months ago to Netherlands

Morning.

For your illumination on this grey December day, here’s another of my (highly processed) light painting images taken overlooking the Maeslantkering & Europoort on the Maas last night 🏗️⛴️

Lots of lovely detail if you zoom in – as someone who’s usually a bit obsessive when it comes to controlling image quality, I love the accidental nature of such pictures 🙂

#AbstractArt 🎨
#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷
#LightPainting 🔦

markmccaughrean, 6 months ago to random

Good grief.

Just spent the day in a country ruled & ruined by some very nasty right-wing ideologues, only to arrive home to see that many here have voted for someone arguably even worse.

Populism, nationalism, & racism: the ugly old European brew is spreading again at a time when the answers to the enormous problems we face together lie in working globally together for all, not in blaming & ostracising others.

So depressing.

GreatDismal, 6 months ago to random

Wheezy

markmccaughrean, 6 months ago to random

Just when you think it couldn’t get any stupider.

A = unelected Prime Minister, leader of a party rightly facing electoral wipeout after years of disastrous pre- & post-Brexit mismanagement.

B = ex-PM responsible for Brexit by throwing a referendum bone to the rabid right-wing of said party, thus diminishing the international relevance of the UK & precipitating a spiral of govt incompetence & corruption.

A gives B a lordship because he’s no longer an MP so A can make B foreign secretary 🙄

markmccaughrean, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to random

#OTD nine years ago: ESA’s Rosetta deploys Philae towards the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 🛰️☄️

It remains one of the greatest honours of my life to have been involved with the mission & to work with so many amazing people spanning science, engineering, operations, outreach, & communications 🙇‍♂️

Next year is the tenth anniversary.

We have plans 🖖🙂🤘

#Ambition
#SpaceFlight
#RosettaLegacy
#GoneButNotForgotten

stux, 6 months ago to random

Messing with scammers on this scale is just wonderful :blobhappy:

Make their lives such a living hell that they may think twice before scamming the elderly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsLJZyih3Ac

Daojoan, 6 months ago to random

Yeah that about sums it up for me

Daojoan, 6 months ago to random

Tonight, while walking home from dinner, two men threatened to stab me “for being a tranny” - in front of my 7 year old step son.

In 2023, this shouldn’t happen.

We should be better than this.