markmccaughrean

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@grb090423 Thanks. I can say though that it has been one of the least enjoyable experiences of my life.

Which is slightly weird, since I’ve moved eighteen times before … but never after such a long time in one place, not least all the kids’ stuff & everything else 😬

markmccaughrean, 1 day ago

@derickr My pleasure, Derek. Traversing this landscape has become a hugely significant part of who I am now & I’m so grateful for everyone making cycling so important & pleasant here. I’ll be back, I’m absolutely certain.

markmccaughrean, 3 days ago

@spacegeck I agree – although some of it is down to personal taste & the restricted Euclid filter palette, I’ve felt that the images could have been better processed for dynamic range, saturation, & colour balance. There were also many detector & optical artefacts in the first batch of EROs: I haven’t checked the new ones.

They’ve all been done by just one person who has lots of experience, but it feels as though the workload & pressure to deliver may have been excessive.

markmccaughrean, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago)

@spacegeck I hear you. It interests me though how the general public react to certain images, which I’m not sure is always about the pix themselves. After all, we live in a golden age for astroimagery, not only from professional space telescopes & missions, but also from many talented astrophotographers. The market is pretty saturated & to cut through, there’s a tendency to overstate significance in a PR and/or squawk on social media: the latter’s OMG! approach is pretty grating.

markmccaughrean, 2 days ago

@spacegeck To be clear, I’m not laying that second critique at the door of the image makers themselves; in general, they do great stuff & are almost too modest about their work 😉 But it’s the endless content pilfering accounts that scream in capitals or add false significance or portent, often without giving any credit at all, while also monetising the traffic, that drive me bananas.

Then again, a few minutes on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube reveals what a dinosaur I am 😬✌️

markmccaughrean, 2 days ago

@spacegeck Ah, Judy, you’re a superstar & your amazing work speaks volumes for itself, social media or no social media 🙇‍♂️🙂

markmccaughrean, 2 days ago

@grb090423 Yep – fifteen years, ten years longer than anywhere else I’ve lived in my life. It’s quite an emotional time, to be honest.

markmccaughrean, 2 days ago

@grb090423 Thank you – that’s kind. Yes, it does feel like a lot of changes all at once.

On top of those, there’s also dealing with being a non-EU citizen here without ESA’s “coverage”. Even though it’ll be fine, as my wife is an EU citizen, but there’s a lot of paperwork & a sense of being “second class”, which is annoying after having lived in the EU for 28 years.

And cycling is going to be much harder in Germany & Heidelberg in particular, so that’s feeling like another big “loss” 😬

markmccaughrean, 2 days ago

@grb090423 And I can’t deny that there’s a real sense of loss of identity leaving ESA, having spent a lot of time representing the missions & science to committees, media, & public, now feeling “unwanted”. It also comes at a relatively early age, when you think you still have much to offer in terms of insight & experience.

Of course, it also means being young enough to do other things, so I’m looking forward to new windows opening soon: a book to write, more science, & more Space Rocks 🖖🤘

markmccaughrean, 2 days ago

@grb090423 Oh, that’s certain – I’m not retiring in any meaningful sense, & this is a good way of staying in touch with what’s current.

It’s also full of nice people, which will help me stave off the loneliness that can often come when starting in a new place. That said, I have some old friends in Heidelberg, as I worked there back in the 1990s 🙂👍

markmccaughrean, 2 days ago

@grb090423 Just fifteen years, in fact, & with Edinburgh, Washington DC, Tucson, Heidelberg, Bonn, Potsdam, & Exeter before. But ESA was very special & some of my greatest memories come from the huge range of external things I was lucky enough to get to do during my time there. Hopefully many of the people I worked with during that time will be interested in new collaborations in the future 🙇‍♂️

markmccaughrean, 2 days ago

@doddington That will be for someone else to decide. I’m afraid that he has outgrown us & our limited electrical repair capabilities, but we can but hope that there are some more expert people in his future 😬✌️

markmccaughrean, 4 days ago

@Lizette603_23 Heidelberg – a land of narrow valleys & hills, very lovely for many reasons, but not an ideal cycling landscape. And nowhere has cycling infrastructure like The Netherlands – it’s utterly astonishing by comparison to anywhere else & yet totally quotidian & unremarkable when you’re actually here. Sure, it’s flat, but that’s a tiny part of the equation …

markmccaughrean, 3 days ago

@davespice Indeed – I have maintained my postal vote assiduously since leaving the UK in 2009 & have used it every time, albeit to little avail given the stranglehold that Tory toffs have had in East Devon & the UK’s ridiculous FPTP system. Then again, the latter could help batter them into total oblivion this time & nothing would make me happier.

As for D-ream, don’t you think the keyboard player has quite enough money & prominence already? 🤪

markmccaughrean, 4 days ago

@saarmuller @vicgrinberg @knud I thought about that too yesterday, as it’s a kind of edge case. But “by” is still correct, as the individual papers will be written & finished in the timeframe, & that “closed” aspect of the action requires “by”.

Interestingly, “until” also implies that the continuous action will not go on beyond the deadline, i.e. that it’s closed too, but only at the end of the period. Whereas “by” kind of allows for more papers being written after then 🙂

markmccaughrean, 4 days ago

@vicgrinberg @knud That’s an excellent point – perhaps that’s where the issue arises, with “by” having a wider range of meanings. And you’re probably right of course, that “by” is linked to “bei” rather than “bis”.