@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
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

And that was that 😭

Thankful that this afternoon’s storm was short & sharp, leaving a crisp clear evening for this evening’s final 37km ride ⛈️🌞👍

Thankful also to the good people of The Netherlands, their fantastic cycling infrastructure, & the often beautiful landscape it crosses 🥰

I’ve ridden >97,000km here in the past 12 years, >3,500 hours in the saddle, & it has been vital to my physical & mental health – dank jullie wel 💪🧠🙇‍♂️

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markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

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 🤷‍♂️

🚴‍♂️
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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, to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

Not bad; not bad at all 🙂

Especially for 52°N 🤷‍♂️



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🚀☁️

markmccaughrean,
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

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

markmccaughrean,
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

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

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

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

Every chance I've had to interact with satellite operators in conferences, I've asked them about their plans for dealing with solar storms (I'm particularly worried about Starlink, which requires dozens of maneuvers per day to avoid collisions. What if a large fraction shuts down for a few hours?!)

The universal response to my inquiries has been "Don't worry about that, it'll be fine!"

I guess we're going to find out very soon. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

You'll definitely see much better pictures, but this is mine 🌞🤷‍♂️🙂

The massive sunspot group AR3664, one of the largest for years, has been flaring & chucking out massive amounts of particles towards us for days 💥😬✌️

Which is why there's a severe geomagnetic storm warning for tonight & a good chance of seeing aurorae way down south in Europe 🥳🤞

🖖
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markmccaughrean, (edited ) to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

Sunday evening sounds in The Netherlands.

  1. Frogs & nightingales serenading the sunset around a dune slack between Noordwijk & Wassenaar.

From today’s rather lovely 77km ride up the Leidsevaart & back through the coastal dunes.

🔉
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markmccaughrean, (edited ) to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

Sunday evening sounds in The Netherlands.

  1. Nightingales in the dunes close to the beach at Wassenaar.

This is just a brief placeholder; I'll try to get some better nightingale audio in the next couple of weeks. There are many of them between Katwijk & Wassenaar, & I love hearing them every spring.

From today's rather lovely 77km ride up the Leidsevaart & back through the coastal dunes.

🔉
🚴‍♂️
🇳🇱


markmccaughrean, (edited ) to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

Sunday evening sounds in The Netherlands.

  1. Birdsong in the beautiful Leyduin forest nature reserve between Vogelenzang & Aerdenhout.

From today's rather lovely 77km ride up the Leidsevaart & back through the coastal dunes.

🔉
🚴‍♂️
🇳🇱


markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

It may lack the mighty rock formations of Yosemite, but you have to think that Ansel Adams would nevertheless have enjoyed photographing the wide open landscape of The Netherlands & the endlessly changing skies above it 🤷‍♂️🙂

Another picture from yesterday’s 67km ride.

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⚫️⚪️
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markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

Moo 🐮

Bonus picture from today’s 67km ride, taken on the edge of De Wilck nature reserve southeast of Leiden.

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markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

As a republican (but definitely not the capital R kind 😬), I recognise only one true monarch 😼🙇‍♂️

#Tigger 😽
#Caturday 🐈
#KingsDay 👑
#KoningsDag
#Netherlands 🇳🇱
#Photography 📷
#CatsOfMastodon 🐈‍⬛

markmccaughrean, to photography
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

“Here comes the night (hunter)⚡️”

In an early snapshot, here’s channeling his inner Ziggy Stardust in the garden just now 😼

🎤👀
📸
🐈‍⬛

eddie1perez, to random
@eddie1perez@mastodon.social avatar

As a former director for civic integrity at Twitter, I’ve been disturbed for some time about what Elon Musk is doing with his private global platform.

Today, I took the step of leaving Twitter, completely.

Why?
Here’s my last tweet:
https://mem.ai/p/e83QTrTPntGEmmZYQUEc

markmccaughrean, to SciComm
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

six years ago, our very first event at the O2 in London 🚀

Quite the cast for the inaugural event, with Tim Peake, Brian May, Beth Healey, John Mitchell, Maggie Lieu, Alastair Reynolds, Helen Keen, Dallas Campbell, & many more, with Lonely Robot, Arcane Roots, & Charlotte Hatherley providing the music 🎸

There have been other Space Rocks gigs & many Uplink livestreams since then, but it still feels as if we've only just got started 🙂👍

Watch this space 🖖🤘

A London Underground notice board handwritten in black marker pen on a whiteboard, advertising the first Space Rocks event, with a long text about the event and thoughts about space, plus various social media links. From the Allontheboard folks.
Some of the cast and crew of the first Space Rocks event backstage at the O2 in London. From left to right: Tim Peake, Alastair Reynolds, Gavin Rothery, Carl Walker, John Mitchell, Maggie Lieu, Brian May, Beth Healey, Dallas Campbell, Matt Taylor, Helen Keen, Mark McCaughrean, & Geoff Notkin.
A photo of the stage at the Indigo at the O2 during Charlotte Hatherley's set at the first Space Rocks event on 22 April 2018. The overall lighting colour is blue-purple with red spotlight beams, and a 1:4 scale model of the Rosetta spacecraft hanging above the stage. Charlotte is to the right and she has two band mates. The audience is seen in silhouette in the foreground.

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

65km of semi-successful shower dodging this evening 🌦️🌈😬✌️

And very cold, icy showers they were too, coming from the north as I rode up through the tulip fields towards Vogelenzang.

Most of the flowers are gone now, the stalks beheaded to leave the bulbs ready for harvesting later 💐💡

But there are a few left … 🙂

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markmccaughrean, to random
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

Just watched the end of The Martian after recording it on TV last night 🔴🚀🌎

Easy to pick holes in the film & especially in the martian orbit rendezvous sequence 🙄

But the final part, with all the teams cheering in the control rooms when Watney is successfully rescued & then again when Ares V is launched? 👍

Man, I’m going to miss that part of my ESA life so much 😭

Need to find another way to replace that amazing emotional rush 🖖🙂🤘

#SpaceRocks #SpaceExploration #SpaceScience

markmccaughrean, to photography
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

As the Sun slips towards the western horizon as seen from The Netherlands, it's fascinating to think that the Moon is also in this picture.

And that as seen from some points on Earth, the Moon is already partly covering the Sun, the path of totality sweeping across the Pacific towards the Mexican mainland to arrive in half an hour or so.

But our view here? Nada 🤷‍♂️

Celestial mechanics 🌞🌑

SvenGeier,
@SvenGeier@mathstodon.xyz avatar

@markmccaughrean
Basic projection onto a note pad here in Los Angeles - things are winding down...

mpi_grav, to random German
@mpi_grav@social.mpdl.mpg.de avatar

🚨 Mysterious object in the gap – Shortly after the start of the fourth observing run, the @LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaborations detected a remarkable gravitational-wave signal. 😲

It's from the merger of a neutron star with an unknown compact object, most likely an unusually light-weight black hole falling into the “lower mass gap” between the heaviest neutron stars and the lightest black holes.

ℹ️ https://www.aei.mpg.de/1138125/mysterious-object-in-the-gap

markmccaughrean, to Astro
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

The final act 🙇‍♂️

Came in to remove the remaining items from my office, less than five hours before I cease to be a ESA staff member 🥺

But I’ve left one important thing here, to remind whoever comes next of just what Europe can achieve when the brilliant talents of its scientists, engineers, communicators, administrators, & managers combine to take on ambitious goals 🚀🛰️☄️

So long & thanks for all the science 🐬

A video of the empty interior of my office at ESA’s ESTEC in Noordwijk. There are chairs, cabinets, & tables, & on one of those tables is a black 3D model of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the comet that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft rendezvoused with in 2014 & deployed the Philae lander to its surface.

markmccaughrean, to Astronomy
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

The colours of Sirius: first astrophoto outing with the new iPhone 15 Pro 🙂👍

Hand held & manually trailed from top-left to bottom-right during a 30 sec long timelapse with ProCam, using the telephoto camera deliberately defocussed, 1/30 sec individual exposure time ⭐️📷

markmccaughrean, to Astronomy
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

End of an era 🕰️

After 15 years, yesterday was my last at as an ESA staff member*, & as is my longstanding habit, it ended with me cycling home late at night 🌖🚴‍♂️

Well, I am an astronomer, after all 🔭🤷‍♂️🙂

It has been a privilege, & there is much & there are many I will miss 🙇‍♂️

But I’m not retiring: next, a move to Germany 🇳🇱➡️🇩🇪, science with , talks & tours, writing a book, & many Space Rocks events & projects in development 🖖🤘

markmccaughrean, to CalvinAndHobbes
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

The Horrendous Space Kablooie 🚀💥😬

Another find in my ESA office as I clear it out ahead of my imminent departure: some fragments recovered from the explosion of the first Ariane 5 flight V88 / 501 on 4 June 1996, carrying the four Cluster magnetospheric satellites 🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️

The satellites were rebuilt & successfully launched on two Soyuz rockets in 2000: they are still in operation today, although their end is near now 🥺

#SpaceScience #SpaceDebris #ItIsrocketScience #CalvinAndHobbes

markmccaughrean, to Netherlands
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

Dodging the showers coming in on a cold wind off the North Sea during this evening’s 44km ride 💨🌧️

Made for some pretty clouds around sunset out in the Vlietland 🙂👍

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