In #Goerlitz, Germany, a complex #sundial - perfect for the host city of the #ag2025goerlitz astronomy convention all week.

At the opening reception of the #ag2025goerlitz astronomy conference in #Goerlitz I spotted this poster about the benefits of the #Fediverse for #ScienceCommunication - great arguments but ... what about longterm stability? Will important and maybe even influential #Mastodon posts be still around in 5, 10, 50 years? On much-despised X - or FB - those from 10+ years ago are still around (if you know the URLs).

Good morning from #Goerlitz, Germany! The clock tower of the Town Hall - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Hall_of_G%C3%B6rlitz - with an #AstronomicalClock showing Moon phases above the regular one and the opening of the #ag2025goerlitz astronomy conference ... in the synagogue.

The winner of the 2025 #KarlSchwarzschild Medal - https://www.astronomische-gesellschaft.de/en/News/research-awards-of-the-german-astronomical-society-2025 - Paola Caselli crediting her interest in astronomy to reading at age 13 The Black Cloud by #FredHoyle ... who has been the winner of the very same medal (the highest award by the German astronomy community) 33 years ago. #ag2025goerlitz

Another fun slide at the #ag2025goerlitz awards ceremonies by Frank Grupp of LMU who is honored - https://www.physik.lmu.de/de/aktuelles/newsuebersicht/news/frank-grupp-erhaelt-preis-fuer-instrumentenentwicklung-2025.html - by the @GermanAstroSoc for a major contribution to the #Euclid space observatory. Here he shows a star #spectrograph he built as a school project in the 1980s.

The PhD Prize at the #ag2025goerlitz meeting went to Jonah Wagenveld and a current cosmology mystery - described in ample detail in the paper Wideband continuum catalogues and a measurement of the cosmic radio dipole: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2024/10/aa50291-24/aa50291-24.html

A. Quirrenbach reporting at #ag2025goerlitz about the status of the #HabitableWorldsObservatory, the next next thing for NASA after Roman: a 10% contribution by ESA (as for HST and JWST) is likely - and Germany could deliver something important, like a separate #StarShade spacecraft for stellar coronography on steroids. Something to dream about for the 2040s ...

One ESA #exoplanet observing spacecraft (CHEOPS) is still in full swing and optimistic about a 2nd mission extension into the 2030s while with #PLATO the next one will launch in 2026 and is promising a lot: slides from three #ag2025goerlitz talks this afternoon.

The setting of the #ag2025goerlitz astronomy conference (here during the general assembly): a former synagogue, now a Görlitz cultural center.

Welcome back to #ag2025goerlitz - here's the agenda for the morning(s): https://ag2025.astronomische-gesellschaft.de/program/plenary.php

The first multi-messenger GW event since 2017? The GW signal last month isn't that convincing, though. #ag2025goerlitz

The future of #GravitationalWave astronomy is bright and loud, with the #EinsteinTelescope in Europe the next (but far from last) big thing: concluding slides from Samaya Nissanke's exciting #ag2025goerlitz talk.

In the next #ag2025goerlitz talk the Co-PI of the #DST2000 radio survey telescope array to be built in #Nevada - https://www.deepsynoptic.org - starting next year introduced the current plan with 1650 6.15-meter telescopes, to be operational in 2029. A German antenna maker is involved - https://schauenburg-international.com/mtex-antenna-technology-entwirft-prototypen-des-dsa-2000-projekts-der-caltech/ - as are German astronomers. The DST-2000 will be the radio counterpart to SPHEREx, Rubin and eROSITA.

Astropolitics now at #ag2025goerlitz: Jörn Wilms about the next #Denkschrift for German #astronomy to be published in early 2026 - and for the first time in English because international collaboration is more important than ever.

Strong words at #ag2025goerlitz as the war against science by the current White House is also affecting German astronomy big time: in space as shown here as well as on the ground with dramatic cuts to the NSF.

At #ag2025goerlitz now what's probably the last public discussion of the #Denkschrift for German astronomy - the text of which is mostly written already but prioritizing and adaptation to current developments has yet to occur.

Tomorrow all morning of #ag2025goerlitz will be devoted to #ExpandingHorizons - https://next.eso.org - but now the #ESO DG is introducing this vision beyond the ELT.

The #ExpandingHorizons timeline - FIRST the science case has to be defined with the landscape of the 2040s in mind, THEN technology becomes important. And the DG emphasizes that #ESO has no favorite. #ag2025goerlitz

Before any #ExpandingHorizons project would go ahead, the #ELT has to be finished, of course - here is the current timeline as shown by Barcons at #ag2025goerlitz today.

Another poster from #ag2025goerlitz in which the #DZA - https://www.deutscheszentrumastrophysik.de/en - builds a radio telescope in the vicinity, the #Lusatia Radio Array to test technology for the above-mentioned DSA-2000 in Nevada.

At the #ag2025goerlitz splinter session "Public #Outreach in der Astronomie" - the two pictures on the right show the talk "A hands-on peek into the #Fediverse" by @sonjaschuh01

In the #ag2025goerlitz Outreach session Ludwig Scheibe presenting the #exoplanet #outreach website https://outreach.spp1992-exoplanetdiversity.de/

Observing neutral hydrogen in the Milky Way with a simple #RadioTelescope, a successful outreach project by tbe #DZA - an #ag2025goerlitz presentation.

Amateur Milky Way observation in neutral hydrogen on steroids, with a 2.6 meter dish and superresolution: a poster at #ag2025goerlitz with detailled explanations in http://radioastronomie-leicht-gemacht.de

Walking towards the #ag2025goerlitz conference dinner: a #buoy with an interesting history at the shore of the #BerzdorferSee.

Sunset party at the #BerzdorferSee by the #astronomers from the #ag2025goerlitz - some views in the next post.

The #sunset today at the #BerzdorferSee just ahead of the #ag2025goerlitz conference dinner.

It's #ExpandingHorizons - https://next.eso.org - day at #ag2025goerlitz! Here is F. Eisenhauer describing the #KilometersBaselineInterferometer concept: 10 micro arcsec resolution, countless opportunities ...

More slides from the #ag2025goerlitz #ExpandingHorizons #KilometersBaselineInterferometer presentation: two precursor projects connecting Cerro Paranal with neighboring peaks could prove the feasibility of the big thing.

The next #ExpandingHorizons pitch at the #ag2025goerlitz townhall is about #ALMA2040: see https://www.euroalma2040.com for details!

Now at the #ag2025goerlitz #ExpandingHorizons townhall the #WidefieldSpectroscopicTelescope - https://wstelescope.com - is presented: many spectra fast, to deal with a flood of discoveries of interesting objects expected in the 2030s.

Next #ag2025goerlitz #ExpandingHorizons presentation: #AtLAST, the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope - more at https://www.atlast.uio.no

Finally at the #ag2025goerlitz #ExpandingHorizons townhall a pitch for the #TimeDomainTelescope, consisting of one hundred 2-meter telescopes with spectrographs.

The #ag2025goerlitz townhall about the #ExpandingHorizons initiative by #ESO concludes with a panel discussion featuring the five presenters.

Meeting of the Bildungsausschuss at #ag2025goerlitz - much debate about what authenticity (of observed data) means in astronomy education.

Public evening lecture of #ag2025goerlitz about extreme variable stars - house packed and even a TV crew showed up.