astro_jcm

astro_jcm, 6 months ago to random

Guess where I am

astro_jcm, 1 month ago to Astro

The Event Horizon Telescope has unveiled how Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, looks like in polarised light, which tells us a lot about the magnetic field around this monster.

The lines overlaid on the image below mark the orientation of the polarisation, from which astronomers can work out the structure of the magnetic field around the black hole.

More details: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2406/

📷 EHT Collaboration

#astrodon #astronomy #space

astro_jcm, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to chile

1/ This is the longest exposure I've ever taken: 8 months long! It shows the Sun's path on the sky between Apr 17 - Dec 11 2018, as seen from ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile.

This is part of a collaboration with Diego López Calvín, an expert in solarigraphy: https://solarigrafia.com

Diego sent me some of his hand-made #pinhole cameras, which I placed all over Paranal. So what do we see here? See thread below 👇

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #sun #photography

astro_jcm, 2 months ago to mastodon

1/ After having tested it for some time, phanpy.social ( @phanpy ) is now my one and only #Mastodon client. The interface is sleek, and you can tell there's clear intentionality behind every single design choice.

First, look at how gorgeous nested replies look! I no longer struggle trying to decipher who's replying to what. And when you reach too many nested levels, a button gives you the choice to deploy them or not, to keep things clean.

astro_jcm, 8 months ago to Astronomy

Once again the news and social media are full of stuff about an upcoming #SuperMoon .

🌕 The #Moon's orbit around the Earth is elliptical. Sometimes it's a bit closer and thus looks a tad bigger, but the difference is barely noticeable. It's not even remotely close to "super".

The Moon is always pretty, there's no need to wait for fabricated "events" to look up and enjoy it!

#astronomy #astrodon #scicomm

📷 Marcoaliaslama (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

astro_jcm, 3 months ago to opensource

Your periodic reminder that Stellarium is an amazing planetarium tool. Free, #OpenSource and very easy to use. There are desktop apps, mobile apps and a web version.

https://stellarium.org/

#astronomy #foss #science

astro_jcm, 9 months ago to physics

Fun #physics fact for #Caturday

#Cats exist in a quantum superposition of two states: "pet me" and "how dare you touch me you hairless ape". It is only by touching them that their wave function collapses to one of these states.

astro_jcm, 5 months ago to chile

We just released a HUGE mosaic of the so-called Running Chicken #Nebula: 1.5 billion pixels full of young stars and glowing hydrogen gas. The mosaic comprises data acquired with the VLT Survey #Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile

🔎 Check the zoomable version: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2320a/zoomable/

📽️ Wanna chill out while flying over this nebula? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vULwpISvwU

ℹ️ More about this image: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2320/

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #space

astro_jcm, 13 days ago to Astro

Me getting mentally ready to be super jealous of the upcoming #aurora pics from those of you living at higher latitudes.

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography

astro_jcm, 9 months ago to physics

Every. Single. Time.

#physics #math #AcademicChatter #greek

astro_jcm, 6 months ago to Cat

Alley #Cat, one of my favourite #videogames as a kid 🐈 Oh how many hours I spent chasing mice and running away from that flying broom!

astro_jcm, 7 months ago to Ravens

I think they're scheming something... 🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

Also, I always get #ravens and #crows mixed up. What #birds are these?

astro_jcm, 6 months ago to Astro

Aaaah, I've missed this so much! Working from a balcony overlooking the Chilean #Atacama desert, with ESO's Very Large #Telescope in the background under clear blue skies.

#astrodon #astronomy #chile

astro_jcm, 7 months ago to random

Dear restaurant owners.

Please.

I'm begging you.

The QR code for your menu should link to a website, not a pdf file.

astro_jcm, 11 months ago to Astronomy

Like many other scientists I often get "debate me" emails from random people with weird ideas about #astronomy. If I answer, they feel validated. Same if I don't. So I always pick the option that doesn't waste my time. Don't fall for the "debate me" trap, folks, you can't win. #scicomm

astro_jcm, 4 months ago to chess

"The board is set. The pieces are moving." 🧙‍♂️

Much like pawns on a giant #chess board, the Auxiliary Telescopes of ESO's VLT Interferometer can be moved around and arranged into different configurations.

They all point to the same target, and the light they gather is channeled into a lab where light beams interfere. This allows us to discern tiny details, as if we had a huge virtual telescope.

Here's how this works: https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/technology/interferometry/

#astrodon #astronomy #space #BlackAndWhite

astro_jcm, 8 months ago to mastodon

As someone who works in #communication , I'm baffled by some folks here on #mastodon who talk down about users of other #SocialMedia platforms in a patronising or even insulting way, only to immediately add: "I don't understand why they don't come here!"

From a goal-oriented comms point of view, this makes zero sense if your true goal is to drive people here, no matter how well justified your criticism of other platforms might be.

I really like it here, but come on folks... 😉

astro_jcm, 9 months ago to Astronomy

I hope you're all enjoying the #perseids 🙃

#astronomy #munich

astro_jcm, 9 months ago to languagelearning

What's your favourite app or online resource to learn about different topics in bite-sized chunks? These are the ones I check during my daily commute, to give you an idea what I'm looking for:

• Astronomy Picture of the Day (duh!)

• Daily Art app

I'm not looking for in-depth resources, only condensed ones for when I'm brain-dead and/or short of time.

I very much welcome non-astronomy recommendations, surprise me! (Not looking for language apps though).

#learning

astro_jcm, 1 month ago to Astro

1/ Most massive stellar #BlackHole in our galaxy found! With 33 times the mass of the Sun, this is the most massive black hole formed after the collapse of a star that we've found so far in the #MilkyWay.

ESA's Gaia mission found it via the wobble it induces on a star orbiting it, and data from ground-based telescopes helped confirm its mass and elucidate how it formed.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2408/

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space

astro_jcm, 6 months ago to cooking

Must try this #recipe !

#cooking #halloween #cartoon #comic #TomGauld

astro_jcm, 9 months ago to books

I love #reading in my balcony, but the constant display of squirrels being all cute and fluffy makes it very hard for me to concentrate on my book 😅 #wildlife #WildlifePhotography

astro_jcm, 1 month ago to chile

If you have the chance to see the upcoming solar #SolarEclipse on April 8, go for it! Even if you've seen an annular #eclipse or an almost total one, the difference between that and a fully total one is like night and day –– pun intended!

Here's a shot I snapped of the 2019 eclipse from ESO's La Silla Observatory in #Chile. I vividly remember seeing the #Moon 's shadow crawling towards us from the Pacific Ocean. Unforgettable!

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography

astro_jcm, 5 months ago to Soundtracks

Listening to the #Dune #soundtrack for the Nth time while working on a talk, and it feels as evocative, engulfing and atmospheric as the first time.

I genuinely don't get people who say Zimmer doesn't have range. If The Lion King, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean or The Dark Knight trilogy – just to name a handful of famous scores from his massive discography – all sound the same to you, you might wanna get your hearing checked...

#music #movies #cinema

astro_jcm, 4 months ago to random

This air vent has seen things...