@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social
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markmccaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social

Former Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency / JWST Science Working Group Interdisciplinary Scientist / Co-founder Space Rocks / New worlds ahead / Opinions very much own

Located in The Netherlands for now, so expect lots of cycling with wide horizons & big skies for a bit longer 🚴‍♂️

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markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
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Good grief 🫠

Up at 04:30 this morning to take my wife to the station & thence the airport for an early flight to Edinburgh, to help our daughter again in her post broken kneecap surgery recovery 🤕🩼

If you know me & my night owl habits, you’ll know how much fun that was 😬✌️

So have some pre-dawn clouds: I’m going back to bed 🤷‍♂️

🇳🇱
📷
☁️

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
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Such a lovely sunset during this evening’s 58km ride, you get three pictures, not just one 🥳

Add yesterday’s 67km ride & others earlier, and that makes for 232km this week. Which is decent, all things considered 🤷‍♂️

🚴‍♂️
🇳🇱
📷

A zoom photo of a colourful sunset with light cloud and reds, blues, and whites. Seen over the lake at Zoetermeer. There are two ducks on the water in the foreground.
A colourful sunset with light cloud and reds, blues, and whites. The sun has just set and there are some cows in the field in the foreground.

markmccaughrean,
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@IAmDannyBoling Very kind – thank you.

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
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Y’know, macro mode on the iPhone 15 is pretty decent 🤷‍♂️

Well, at least if your subject is very chilled & lets you get within a centimetre, like this brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni) just did 🙂👍

#Butterflies 🦋
#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷
#BackGardenEntomology 🪰

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
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Looking through my DSLR photos from last night, it's clear I was more interested in watching the aurora than photographing it 😬

And I thought about binning this shot for being massively out-of-focus 🙄

But y'know, it has a certain colourful charm, not least because Ursa Major is writ large in the corner, & maybe it's fine to just go with the flow 🤷‍♂️

Enjoy 🙂

#Aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #SpaceWeather #Wassenaar #Netherlands #Photography

markmccaughrean,
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@watchie None at all, but it was taken as a RAW then post-processed in LightRoom.

It was a bit underexposed (18mm zoom, 10s at f3.5, ISO400), so I've increased the brightness & I have used some Clarity, Texture, & Dehaze, but the structure & colour is all there in the original shot.

I only wish I could fix the defocus 🤪

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
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Luminosity 🙇‍♂️

Freshly-emerged soft green leaves on the beech tree in the garden, backlit by the Sun.

(Yes, the same Sun that made a violent mess of the sky last night 🤷‍♂️)


🇳🇱
📷

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
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Not bad; not bad at all 🙂

Especially for 52°N 🤷‍♂️



🇳🇱
📷
🚀☁️

markmccaughrean,
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I mean, look at this stuff overhead, & just with the phone 🤷‍♂️🤪

markmccaughrean,
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And could this curtain be any more crisp & colourful? 😻

Again, just with the iPhone, so subject to all the usual crap, but still …

markmccaughrean,
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@falcennial Thanks 🙇‍♂️ I have some DSLR photos that will need some processing & even though it’s almost 2am, I’m going out again, as the peak of the storm could arrive soon 🙂

markmccaughrean,
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@AstroMikeHudson Exactly – the magnetic North Pole is in Canada, so the auroral circle is asymmetrically displaced towards North America. On the other hand, all of the 48 contiguous states of the US lie south of all of the UK, so … 🤷‍♂️🙂

markmccaughrean,
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@synlogic Yep. Not as colourful to the naked eye, as fairly faint & just your rods get activated. But you can see some red & purple when there are brighter curtains. Cameras show the colours beautifully though 👍

markmccaughrean,
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@secretbatcave @cgbassa You may get a chance tomorrow – the storm will likely continue.

markmccaughrean,
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@Impertinenzija The aurora was very obvious to the naked eye, with lots of structure clearly visible. But it was mostly grey, because it was fairly faint, albeit red was easily seen at points when the auroral curtains brightened.

markmccaughrean,
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@falcennial This storm looks to keep delivering over the weekend – hopefully you’ll get a chance to see it too 👍

markmccaughrean,
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@interplanetarisch @synlogic Wassenaar in The Netherlands, UTC+2 at the moment.

markmccaughrean,
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@doddington Boo – that’s rubbish 😔

I was on our beach until 03:30 or so & there was still some excellent stuff going on. But it began to get a bit chilly & my DSLR lens started fogging up as some haar started to develop. So I called it a night & got to bed around 04:30.

The storm is still clearly ongoing though according the magnetic field measurements, so hopefully you’ll have a second chance tonight. Stay away from the sea though 🙂

markmccaughrean,
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@begsby @kellylepo Yep – was on the beach until 03:30 chatting about space weather & solar cycles with folks watching the light show 🙂👍

markmccaughrean,
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@doddington Im out on the bike ignoring the E thing. Not even sure my normally addicted family are watching as a matter of protest 🤷‍♂️😬

cgbassa, to random
@cgbassa@astrodon.social avatar

Northern lights are visible from the South of the Netherlands this evening!

markmccaughrean,
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@cgbassa Hmm, I should have gone out earlier after all, but there’s a lot of family momentum here & I won’t be able to get them out of the house more than once 🤷‍♂️

markmccaughrean,
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@cgbassa I’ll take my DSLR & mobile to the beach – predictions seem to have the main CME front arriving in a couple of hours. I doubt we’ve seen the last of this yet 🙂

markmccaughrean,
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@blackwolf12333 @cgbassa From the space weather folk at the University of Reading, I think: I can’t find it again now.

markmccaughrean,
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@blackwolf12333 @cgbassa Check out @mathewjowens on Twitter: he’s saying sometime between now & a couple of hours later.

markmccaughrean, to random
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It’s on, sports fans 🙂

That said, it’s a couple of hours before sunset still here in The Netherlands, but this is definitely worth keeping an eye on 👍


markmccaughrean,
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@happydisciple Oh yes; some superb views from the car park at the Lentevreugd outside Wassenaar 🙂👍

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