Dark Skies and Dark Energy Converge at a West Texas Star Party

A nice read from @katrinamillerphd.bsky.social about HETDEX (a program aimed at understanding dark energy) and the beauty and dark skies of west Texas, where the observations are taking place (at @texasscience.bsky.social’s McDonald Observatoy)

"Silverado" - great cast that somehow randomly includes John Cleese?
In the scene below, he's chasing the heroes out of town and has just had his hat shot off his head and says the great line (in his dry English accent) "Today my jurisdiction ends here"

So shines a good deed in a weary world 💚

An onion will do well for such a shift

I have a colleague named Stella who is a professor of Astronomy 🤩

Three good mains! Welcome home Artemis II!! 💫

Lunar Flyby - NASA

Oh this is great: there’s now an #Artemis II Lunar Flyby Gallery on the NASA images site: www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna... (thx @dpmanchee.bsky.social for pointing it out)

Screenshot: Key lunar flyby times, milestones All times Eastern, subject to change based on real-time operations 1 p.m. NASA+ coverage of lunar flyby begins 1:56 p.m. Crew passes distance from Earth record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 2:45 p.m. Lunar flyby begins 7:02 p.m. Orion closest approach to the Moon (4,070 miles) 7:07 p.m. Orion reaches maximum distance from Earth (252,760 miles) 8:35 p.m. Orion enters solar eclipse

NASA #Artemis II flyby coverage schedule; all times in Eastern. You can follow along live on NASA+ (plus.nasa.gov) or on the NASA YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@NASA).

It should be amazing to watch!

😍 I particularly love the image showing the capsule since it really brings home the fact that it's been 53 years since humans could look out a window and see the Earth like that

This is one of the kinds of days where I really miss old Space Twitter 🚀🌕

Love it!

Austin Meme™

Comic. Planets and Bright Stars Identification Chart. [Bright glowing dots over black background with labels underneath: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Sirius, Procyon, Antares, Altair, Betelgeuse, Vega, Polaris]

Planets and Bright Stars

xkcd.com/3219/

CAESAR
The ides of March are come.

SOOTHSAYER
Ay, Caesar; but not gone.

Is not tomorrow, boy, the ides of March?

🔥Behold, SXSW 2026 BINGO🔥

Enjoy irresponsibly/spread far and wide

A reminder to those of you visiting Austin that, yes, the weather is fucking amazing. It is like this one month in the spring and one month in the fall. The other ten months are a whole thing.

Our six seasons are:
SXSW
Spring
Summer
Brown Furnace
2nd Spring
Cold Brown

4 Screenshots from the movie "Men in Black" (1997): First, two men walk down a sleek, futuristic hallway; one in a red jacket, the other in a black suit. The subtitle reads, "Back in the mid-1950s, the government started a little underfunded agency." Second, the same men continue walking, with the subtitle, "with the simple and laughable purpose of establishing contact with a race not of this planet." Third, they proceed down the corridor as the man in the red jacket examines a document. The subtitle says, "Everybody thought the agency was a joke except the aliens." Fourth, the man in red looks at the document while the subtitle reads, "who made contact March 2, 1961, outside New York."

Mar 2nd 1961 - Aliens first made contact with the agency that would become known as the Men in Black.

📽️📅 Men in Black (1997)

1 Screenshot from the movie "Miracle" (2004): First, a young hockey player with long, damp hair and an intense expression is captured mid-celebration. He is wearing a white jersey with blue and red accents, his arms raised triumphantly, and his mouth open in an emotional roar. The blurred background shows a cheering crowd.

Feb 22nd 1980 - Team USA beat USSR in the medal round at the Winter Olympics.

📽️📅 Depicted in Miracle (2004)

sudden death | noun | extra play to break a tie in a sports contest in which the first to score or gain the lead wins

My gentle Puck, come hither.

Lots and lots of cross stitch. And rewatching comfort TV/movies...

Exeunt, leading Katherine.

❤️

Thundersleet?!?

Weather Warnings here in Central Texas just hit different.

3 Screenshots from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968): First, a close-up of a man in a spacesuit helmet with a red background, looking intently to the side. The caption reads, "I am a HAL 9000 computer." Second, a close-up of the same man as the red light intensifies, with the caption "I became operational...". Third, a set of illuminated rectangular data modules with numerical labels against a red background, with the caption continuing, "...on the 12th of January, 1992."

Jan 12th 1992 - "I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you"

📽️📅 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The number 1 movie when you were ten years old will define your 2026.
Hmmmm....