Semi-personal commentary:

The NSF's terms were quite perverse – even ignoring the clear ethical fuckery they demanded.

"Promoting a diverse and international Python community" is written into our IRS-registered mission. Accepting the NSF's terms would have meant using funds in a fashion contrary to the mission that gives us a non-profit status in the US, and explaining that to the IRS in four years time would have been a heck of a time.

https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-funding-statement.html

A new telescope facility is born 🌟, 4MOST captured its first starlight 💫

Under the leadership of the @AIP and in collaboration with over 700 researchers worldwide, the scientific run of the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope is now starting its scientific journey. An impressive example of international cooperation.

4MOST can analyse the light from 2,400 objects simultaneously in 18,000 colours – a view into the chemical heart of the universe.

https://www.aip.de/news/4most-first-light/

@esoastronomy

1/2 Thousands of eyes on the sky: 4MOST sees first light 🎉

Installed on our VISTA telescope in #Chile, 4MOST has completed the first test observations over the weekend.

It is the largest facility of its kind to survey the southern skies. It can capture the light of thousands of cosmic objects simultaneously, using more than 2400 thin optical fibres, each about the width of a human hair.

📷 AIP/A. Saviauk

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science