K2

@Krosen_nw@mindly.social
1.9K Followers
3.1K Following
34.8K Posts

🌍🌎🌏 👋 “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” – Chief Seattle, Duwamish

Acknowledging that I live on the land of the #Atfalati tribe of the #Kalapuya people who inhabited this land before colonial settlers arrived

#PNW #Cascadia #knitting #crochet #gardening #BloomScrolling #SilentSunday #LichenSubscribe

Pixelfedhttps://pixey.org/K2
K212h ago
Rob McMinn12h ago

Codename Hirondelle — Chapter 1 (audio feed)

To celebrate publication day (27 June 2025), here's chapter 1 of Codename Hirondelle, my latest novel.

http://robmcminn.uk/2025/06/26/codename-hirondelle-chapter-1-audio-feed/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

K216h ago
Brian Jopek17h ago
When Stephen “Goebbels” Miller continues to spew his bullshit and gets it lobbed back in his general direction.
K216h ago
Natasha Jay1d ago

So the UK Met Office is inviting people to suggest up to 5 names for storms. And apparently lots of people have been suggesting "Storm Bigoil", along with BP, Equinor, Exxon & Shell... This is obviously appalling & definitely not to be emulated via this link:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/forms/name-our-storms-call-for-names

K216h ago
McNadoMD17h ago

SCOTUS has just allowed Medicaid to refuse to pay for services from a provider based on politics. In this instance, Planned Parenthood can be pulled as a Medicaid provider.

For the record folks, people with Medicaid have a hell of a time finding primary care services right now. Getting rid of a huge provider because some religious nuts don’t like women’s healthcare is going to be terrible for a lot of people, and on balance will probably kill people.

K216h ago
internetarchive17h ago

For Louis Brizuela, leading the microfiche digitization team for Democracy's Library is more than a job—“I feel like I’m making a difference,” he says.

From Supreme Court docs to Canadian archives, he’s preserving history—live on stream. Meet Louis & tune in: ➡️ https://blog.archive.org/2025/06/26/digitizing-democracy-louis-brizuela-takes-viewers-behind-microfiche-scanning-livestream/

K216h ago
Phil Plait18h ago

Something lost a bit in the amazing images released earlier: Vera Rubin Observatory is a steely-eyed asteroid hunter! It's already found thousands of new ones in just a few nights, and is predicted to find *3.7 MILLION* more.

THREE POINT SEVEN MILLION

https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/vera-rubin-observatory-will-find-millions-of-asteroids-millions-513f

Vera Rubin Observatory will find millions of asteroids. Millions.

That’s a lot of space rocks.

Bad Astronomy Newsletter
K216h ago
Show threadHumToTable16h ago
@MsMerope @W6KME @ai6yr Yes, yes, and hell yes.
Chaps my hide that we long ago gave up Reduce, Reuse, Recycle because it was so important that we do so IN THAT ORDER.
K216h ago
AI6YR Ben17h ago

In more "recycling is just shipping your plastic overseas where it actually doesn't get recycled"

LA Times: Malaysia will stop accepting U.S. plastic waste, creating a dilemma for California

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-06-26/malaysia-bans-us-plastic-waste-what-will-california-do

#plastic #environment #ReduceRepairReuseRecycle

Malaysia will stop taking U.S. plastic waste. What will California do?

Malaysia emerged as a major destination for U.S. waste after China banned U.S. waste imports in 2018.

Los Angeles Times
K217h ago
Joris Meys1d ago

Brace for impact. The #ECMWF #weather #model promises scorching temperatures over #Europe the coming week. Anomalies of up to 15-20 C higher than normal are expected.

This weather is brought to you by climate change (for those who claim it's been hot before: weather is what happens, climate is the probability it happens. And this has become significantly more probable because greenhouse gases and physics.)

#wx #Climate

K217h ago
ESO19h ago

New instance, new #introduction !

Hi #fediverse ! We’re the European Southern Observatory, and we design, build and operate ground-based telescopes.

One of them is our Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in #Chile. It will have a 39 m mirror, and its rotating enclosure will weigh 6100 tonnes, or about 700 mastodons!

We’re looking forward to chatting with all of you about #astronomy

And many thanks to @sebinthestars for running our former instance!

📷 ESO/G. Vecchia

×
ESO19h ago

New instance, new #introduction !

Hi #fediverse ! We’re the European Southern Observatory, and we design, build and operate ground-based telescopes.

One of them is our Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in #Chile. It will have a 39 m mirror, and its rotating enclosure will weigh 6100 tonnes, or about 700 mastodons!

We’re looking forward to chatting with all of you about #astronomy

And many thanks to @sebinthestars for running our former instance!

📷 ESO/G. Vecchia

Show threadAnthony Horton19h ago

@esoastronomy Welcome, again!

You weren't able to migrate your followers to the new instance? I've never moved myself but I was under the impression that while you can't take your old posts with you, you could take your follows and followers.

Show threadESO19h ago
@spacelizard Hi Anthony! They show up on our end: 3.4k followers, very close to what we had in astrodon, probably a few remain to be moved. Maybe this information takes a bit to be replicated in other servers.
Show threadOne-and-only Allen Versfeld19h ago
@esoastronomy @spacelizard Small instance owner here: Some of those followers might be homed on instances that are no longer active.
Show threadAnthony Horton19h ago

@esoastronomy That's good.

When I view your profile it only looks like you have 33 followers, and I didn't appear to be following you at the new instance so manually re-followed. Glad to hear that you haven't lost 99% of your followers!

Show threadAnthony Horton19h ago
@esoastronomy Ah, looks like I'm only seeing your followers that are on the same instance as me. Maybe just a delay in the propagation of information between servers, like you said.
Show threadPetra van Cronenburg18h ago
@spacelizard @esoastronomy Usually it takes some days until you can see all followers.
Show threadDemallien11h ago
@spacelizard @esoastronomy as someone that follows you both, I can confirm I am now following in the new instance
Show threadBetaRays19h ago
@esoastronomy @spacelizard The migration worked from my end at least.
Show threadWuMing218h ago
@esoastronomy welcome. On my end it appears you have 1.2k followers. Out of curiosity what was the rationale for switching to one of the most crowded instances?
Show threadPetra van Cronenburg18h ago

@WuMing2 I am also curious, as we have many scientific instances.

@esoastronomy

Show threadWuMing218h ago
@NatureMC I can answer that. Astrodon is shutting down: https://astrodon.social/@sebinthestars/114595973387772639
Seb Potter (@sebinthestars@astrodon.social)

After two and a half years of building this community, I've made the decision that it's time to shut down Astrodon.social. Since 2022, around 4,000 users have registered on astrodon.social. However, fewer than 10% of those users are active each month, and fewer than 1% post regularly. Because of the way Mastodon works, the data for every one of the those users, even the inactive ones, has to be kept forever and keeps on growing. There's no way to remove posts or archive them out of the database, and running a large database gets very expensive. Running Astrodon costs more than €300/month, which means that the costs of running the server are primarily going toward servicing fewer than 50 active users, the most active of whom are organisations. Even with donations, Astrodon has now cost me more than €5000 to run. While I’ve considered the option of turning Astrodon into a commercial service or creating a nonprofit, I’m reluctant to go down that route. Managing a business comes with a host of overhead tasks like tax reporting and navigating different tax regimes due to our global user base, which is something I want to avoid. My goal has always been to create a free and open space, but the reality is that the free part isn't sustainable. I'm not shutting down Astrodon immediately. I want to give everyone ample time—likely over the next two to three months—to find alternative service providers and transition smoothly. This isn't a decision I'm making lightly, and I appreciate your understanding and support as we navigate this transition. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me directly through DMs.

Astrodon - The Astro Community
Show threadPetra van Cronenburg18h ago
@WuMing2 Thank you!
Show threadESO17h ago
@NatureMC @WuMing2 Indeed, and Seb has done a fantastic job running that instance!
Show threadPetra van Cronenburg17h ago

@esoastronomy Thanks!

@WuMing2

Show threadDD19h ago
@esoastronomy @sebinthestars can't wait to see what this big girl can do.
Show threadMastodon Migration18h ago

@esoastronomy @sebinthestars

Welcome to Public Social Media

Show threadLisa18h ago
@esoastronomy welcome!
Show threadSolomon18h ago
@esoastronomy "[…] or about 700 mastodons!"👀 What do you mean? African or European mastodons❓
@sebinthestars
Show threadESO17h ago
@ojelabii @sebinthestars We assumed 8 - 9 tonnes, so kind of average 🙂
Show threadSolomon16h ago
@esoastronomy 👍
@sebinthestars
Show threadslampoud18h ago
@esoastronomy @sebinthestars welcome! I write schedulers for robotic telescope networks (Las Cumbres) and satellite constellations (Capella).
Show threadESO17h ago
@slampoud @sebinthestars Both ground-based and space facilities, exciting job!
Show threadslampoud16h ago

@esoastronomy @sebinthestars I did LCO's scheduler as a postdoc 10 years ago. Capella was an industry job, from which I've recently departed.

The optimization math is the same, integer linear programming.

Now on the job hunt, looking for the next complex instrument that needs that kind of thing to reach its potential :)

Show threadGuill.Jones, Honorary Canadian17h ago
@esoastronomy
Welcome to this new instance and mad propz for providing your telescope mirror's weight in mastodons!
Show threadKevin Russell17h ago

@esoastronomy @sebinthestars

Whoooo hoooop

Show threadBelzebu 17h ago

@esoastronomy @odd @sebinthestars

Hope you share new public domain images captured with this new telescope.

Show threadESO17h ago
@almino @odd @sebinthestars Yes, we can't wait to share with all of you the wonders the ELT will see! In the meantime, enjoy our archive, full of images taken with our other telescopes: https://www.eso.org/public/images/
Images

Images

Show threadMBybee17h ago

@esoastronomy @sebinthestars "Very Large Array" "Extremely Large Telescope" "Large Hadron Collider"

I love the scientific talent for understatement - may I propose for the next enormous structure "Inconveniently large telescope" ?

Show threadESO16h ago
@mbybee @sebinthestars We're just working our way down this list 🙂 https://xkcd.com/1294/
Telescope Names

xkcd
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘9h ago
@mbybee @esoastronomy @sebinthestars Humungous has to be there somewhere.
Show threadLarge Format Projectionist16h ago

@esoastronomy @sebinthestars
A 39 METER mirror.

I'm so old, I remember when the transport of the Mt. Palomar's Hale Telescope's 1.2m mirror was one of the wonders of technology. It's transport up the mountain had photos in most newspapers.

This project is far more than 32.5x more amazing!!!!!

Show threadESO15h ago
@Benhm3 We feel you! Our first telescope at La Silla Observatory had a 1 m mirror. The ELT will have 798 hexagonal segments, each 1.5 m wide, working together as a huge single mirror.
Show threadLarge Format Projectionist15h ago

@esoastronomy

Do the mirrors move in absolute synchrony (to remove the twinkle) or is each mirror moving itself to put whatever wavelength in-phase at the instrument?

Or some other thing I know nothing about...not an astronomer.

Show threadESO32m ago
@Benhm3 Atmospheric turbulence will be corrected with two other mirrors: the M4, which is a flexible mirror that can deform 1000 times per second, and the M5, a flat mirror that will tip & tilt to stabilise the image (also against vibrations due to wind or the telescope itself). You can find more details here: https://elt.eso.org/telescope/adaptiveoptics/
Adaptive Optics | ELT | ESO

The Extremely Large Telescope: The World's Biggest Eye On The Sky

Show threadRichard Hendricks14h ago
@esoastronomy @sebinthestars So excited to watch this facility come together!!
Show threadKim Possible 14h ago
@esoastronomy @sebinthestars You folks sound like really cool cats!
Show threadESO30m ago
@kimlockhartga We are! Our telescopes even have lasers to play with cats on other planets 🐱
Show threadWordmark11h ago
@esoastronomy @sebinthestars will it be 100% solar powered? If not call me XD
Show threadSharlatan9h ago
@esoastronomy @sebinthestars Hi, will operation software for data processing pipeline be open source? if yes, please share the link 
Show threadESO5m ago
@sharlatan @sebinthestars Yes, they'll be public. Here you can find the pipelines for our current instruments: https://www.eso.org/sci/software/pipe_aem_main.html
ESO - Instrument Pipelines Page

ESO is the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere. It operates the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile and has its headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany.

Show threadChris Barrus5h ago
@esoastronomy Hello from a tech at the Mt. Wilson Observatory!
Show threadESO5m ago
@quartzcity Hi there!
Show threadWolf_Baginski3h ago

@esoastronomy @sebinthestars

I was confused, earlier this week, about which new telescope in Chile had just reached #FirstLight

You will have a lot of things to look at.

Show threadWolf_Baginski23m ago

@esoastronomy @sebinthestars

I have been checking, and this, the existing ESO telescopes, and the Vera Rubin, are at roughly the same altitude. The altitude would be worth including in Alt texts, from some angles this isn't as obvious a summit as some are.

Show threadESO4m ago
@Wolf_Baginski Yes! We're really excited to follow-up sources found by @VRubinObs
Show threadtootbrute3h ago

@esoastronomy @sebinthestars space + alt text. You will be most welcome here.

Excited to hear more about this project!