That would fund the community college that I teach at for over 1000 years...

My son was born just a few days before the May 2024 aurora storm. Sitting on our deck watching it with him in my arms was amazing!

An elongated depression on the surface of the moon

Schiller!

The most snow I have ever seen in my life was at Crater Lake in Winter of 2012. I have no idea if that year was atypical or not, but it was wild.

And yet we get emails from their parents...

Mt. Rainier had a reservation system the last few summers that prevented overcrowding yet still allowed for relatively spontaneous visits. It seemed to be working well. This year, it's gone with no explanation...

A mostly black snake with light stripes running the length of its body is looking into the camera and sticking out its tongue

Spotted this garter snake on a hike this afternoon. The temperature at a nearby WA DOT weather station was 47°F. Can't remember ever seeing an active snake at a temp that low...

#photography #wildlife #washington

You may be familiar with this program already, but it is a great way to get speaking time in front of communities and audiences that don't often have access to professional astronomers:

aas.org/education/sh...

"Canvas access is down" are the four least welcome words on the eve of a new quarter...

Do you know how much of the solar system we could explore with $200 billion

A cluster of lens-shapes clouds against a blue sky is visible over a college campus. Passengers disembark a bus in the foreground.

Some nice lenticular clouds on the east slopes of the Cascades this morning:

#wawx

I run into this a lot with our dual-enrolment high school students... most often when their HS winter or spring break doesn't align with ours.

Whenever anyone asks how I became interested in geology AND astronomy, this is the photo I show them:

For comparison, this would fund the community college that I teach at for approximately 245 years.

That’s 125% of the National Science Foundation’s annual budget, for anyone keeping track.

Really appreciate your great photos and videos! Will be checking out your store more when space permits expanding my carnivore collection.

A pinkish purple wildflower emerging from a thin grass-like leaf is silhouetted against a twilight sky.

More early spring wildflowers from the Yakima Valley in Washington state:

#wildflowers #photography

Charts showing sharp increases in ICE arrests in multiple Pacific Northwest counties in 2025 following the start of President Trump's second term.

Map showing that among Washington and Oregon counties, Yakima County in 2025 saw the highest number of ICE arrests relative to its population.

ICE arrests spiked in PNW in late 2025, per new data from @uwchr.bsky.social. Yakima County had most arrests per capita: 185 arrests per 100,000 people. Local advocate says surge there has been overlooked. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news... (w/ @vizscience.bsky.social @ayoonhendricks.bsky.social)

For comparison's sake, the entire National Park Service costs $3 billion - a year.

Thanks! I'll look into both of those.

Geology folks: any cool spots you would recommend visiting in Scotland? (Besides the obvious Siccar Point...) ⚒️

Several clusters of bright pink wildflowers are back lit by the sun setting behind a ridge.

Wildflower season is in full swing! Great sunset light this weekend, but 20+ mph winds made it tough to get anything in focus!

#washington #landscapephotography #wildflowers

A photo of the nearly full moon rising over Yakima Ridge. The moon is a pleasant yellowish pink color and the background sky a warm pinkish orange. A few houses are visible on the barren hills in the foreground.

Little does it know that in a few short hours...

Honestly, I want permanent standard time just so I can stop talking about this in astronomy class...

Bringing this skeet back up because the THREE $90M each ($270M total) F-15s shot down today by friendly fire in Kuwait could pay for FOUR Chandra X-ray Observatories at full operations. Let's remember that when the 2027 president's budget request comes out soon. 🔭

A gray blue sheet of clouds visible over a college campus.

Same here but our clouds are a bit more stratus-y than yours!

I teach mostly hybrid classes and the relationship between online activity score and exam score used to be darn near linear. The last year or so it looks more like random points on a scatter plot!

That it so cool!

A bird of prey stands on a branch in a tree bathed in warm orange-pink light.

Our front yard resident hawk enjoying golden hour light earlier this evening:

I don't mind the camera angles, but the buzzing of the drones is very audible on most feeds and is driving me absolutely insane.