Good news! 🎉
The deadline for NAM2026 abstract submissions has been extended until Thursday 16 April.
To submit one for a session, see the programme here: uobevents-national-astronomy-meeting-2026.eventsair.site/programme
@bot.astronomy.blue signup
An aerial view of the University of Birmingham campus, with a semicircle of redbrick buildings dominated by the iconic clock tower.
www.sr.bham.ac.uk/nam2026/sess...
Session proposals are now open for the 2026 UK National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Birmingham, with a 19th December deadline. #astronomy #heliophysics #uknam2026
A row of 36 inexpensive, colourful fountain pens lying on a wooden desk.
Happy Fountain Pen Day!🖋️
Very nice to see ngGONG move forward! GONG is a decades-old global instrument on which the Sun never sets, to observe the Sun around the clock. It provides very important continuous monitoring of space weather and allows us to image the interior of the star itself. ☀️
Solar Cycle Update:
Solar Cycle 25 is still on the downtrend, but July saw a nice uptick in sunspot number. The yellow lines are daily sunspots, blue are monthly, and the red is the smoothed number.
#heliophysics
Although active sunspot region 3964 is stealing the spotlight today, AR 3961 located in the southeast quadrant continues to expand and is quietly becoming a behemoth. This region could eventually become a flare producer as its magnetic complexity continues to evolve.
It's a chilly day out there today! ❄️🌨️
But not to worry, tomorrow we'll be bringing the heat when we host two Specialist Discussion Meetings 😎
With the Sun approaching the maximum of Solar Cycle 25, one will look at when the cycle will peak and how active the Sun will be ☀️
As well as the #RASAwards2025, there will also be two Specialist Discussion Meetings taking place on Friday.
They are titled 'Dynamos, Dynamics, and the Solar Cycle at Cycle 25 Maximum' and 'Gravitational Wave Analysis in the Era of Machine Learning'.
Find out more at: https://buff.ly/4hmNPsn
A partial screenshot from a Windows 11 Settings screen. It reads, "Windows Update Last ticked: 3 days ago"
I think the UK localization in my Windows 11 24H2 has gone ever so slightly awry!
Last day for abstracts for this one-day meeting on 10th January 2025! Join us at the RAS to discuss the solar cycle and dynamo.☀️ #heliophysics
www.ras.ac.uk/events-and-m...
If you study #heliophysics then you might want to see this.☀️
I've been running a solar flux/sunspot number reporting bot at @jj1bdx.bsky.social. This bot collects and sends the report every three hours. 🧪
What's happening with these clouds? While it may seem that these long and thin clouds are pointing toward the top of a hill, and that maybe a world-famous observatory is located there, only part of that is true. In terms of clouds, the formation is a chance superposition of impressively periodic undulating air currents in Earth's lower atmosphere. Undulatus, a type of Asperitas cloud, form at the peaks where the air is cool enough to cause the condensation of opaque water droplets. The wide-angle nature of the panorama creates the illusion that the clouds converge over the hill. In terms of land, there really is a world-famous observatory at the top of that peak: the Carnegie Science's Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert of Chile. The two telescope domes visible are the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes. The featured coincidental vista was a surprise but was captured by the phone of a quick-thinking photographer in late September. Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995)
🔭 Undulatus Clouds over Las Campanas Observatory - ©Yuri Beletsky
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap24111...
Please add me? I don't post very often, but I would like to share my solar posts more widely.
Pic of a section of the solar surface, yellow, with a series of dark sunspots. The granulation of the surface can be seen.
Some of today’s #sunspots. The pic covers about 1/8th of the #solar surface facing us. 🔭 🧪
Celebrating 10M users. #2,301,50. @ellarien.bsky.social Joined Dec 2, 2023
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #2,301,501! (After a few months on the waitlist, and not long before the invite system was dropped.) Stilll enjoying Bluesky nearly ten months later.
That's interesting! In the UK 'galoshes' used to be rubber overshoes worn to protect normal shoes, but I haven't seen or heard of those for about fifty years. (My father had a pair in the 60s.)
Sunspots
Solar Cycle 26
As we head towards solar max, there are signs that Cycle 26 imminent. A recent study out of the University of Birmingham shows that key signs, known as solar torsional oscillations may already be underway. Here’s our post on the study for @universetoday - www.universetoday.com/167835/the-n...
The huge active region 3780 seems to have grown and intensified a bit since I snapped its photo yesterday. #Astronomy #Astrophotography
Beyond the aurorae: How solar flares spill out across the Solar System. 🔭 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...
I’ve been reading that a very large sunspot should appear on the Sun’s eastern limb early next week which sounds intriguing . Apparently it’s large enough to affect the way the Sun vibrates. See here ➡️ www.spaceweather.com 🔭
A cascade of pale purple wisteria blossom, with a background of fresh green foliage to the lower left and blue-grey sky to the upper right.
Can you believe this is in the centre of a city?
Google Solar Cycle xkcd.com/2930
That's a handsome looking case.
Three white wood anemone flowers on a green plant, with dead brown leaves in the background.
Wood anemone season.
