Prof. Sam Lawler

@sundogplanets
17.1K Followers
1.4K Following
13.3K Posts

Professor of astronomy, farmer of goats. Asteroid (42910). She/her.

Living and learning on the land and under the skies of Treaty 4 (Saskatchewan, Canada). Currently on sabbatical and based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, yelling about satellite pollution in many locations around Aotearoa New Zealand.

websitehttps://uregina.ca/~slb861/about.html
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler17m ago
@Mikal Yes, it is completely appropriate! (And this is probably obvious, but while I heartily encourage swearing as needed in social media posts, I think swear words will make your comment less likely to be read)
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler5h ago
@PapyrusBrigade "Small... far away.... small... far away..."
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler5h ago

I managed to proofread and comment on the entire 6 page American Astronomical Society draft response to Reflect Orbital's reply and also write my own draft response and not throw my laptop out the window with rage over Reflect Orbital's absolutely fucking terrible plans. Please clap.

Do I think this will actually help? No, not really, the FCC is evil and blinded by $$$. Do I still have to do this? Yes. Yes I do.

Prof. Sam Lawler6h ago
Everything is terrible, but I'm getting close enough to going back home from the #ProfSamLectureTour that I just added a couple of books to my library queue so maybe they'll be at my home branch waiting for me when I get back to Saskatchewan!
Prof. Sam Lawler6h ago
Qicheng Zhang7h ago
In one week, Kreutz sungrazer C/2026 A1 (MAPS) will reach perihelion just 0.23 solar radii above the Sun's surface. Whether anything of it still exists by then remains to be seen. However, even if its nucleus fully disintegrates right now, the remnant will still rapidly brighten in the final hours before perihelion as intense solar heating turns the dust into a trail of glowing gas likely peaking in integrated brightness at around magnitude −2 about 10 hours before perihelion (Apr 4 ~04 UT). Solar coronagraphs will provide a near-realtime view either way; here's a diagram of the trajectory through the SOHO/LASCO and GOES-19/CCOR-1 fields.
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler6h ago
@MichaelMcWilliams I LOVE this video!
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler6h ago
@MichaelMcWilliams I totally agree with you! But it's a scam that is going to cause real people and real ecosystems (and astronomy!) measurable harm so I am fighting it as hard as I can.
Prof. Sam Lawler6h ago
Show threadW6KME9h ago

@sundogplanets Note again to my fellow #HamRadio operators...they require a CORES account to make it nearly impossible to comment. And to get a ham radio license, you also got a CORES account. It's up to us to speak for the hundreds of millions they are preventing from speaking.

Go make a comment.

Show threadProf. Sam Lawler6h ago
@DaveMWilburn Huh. That's a scary idea.
Show threadProf. Sam Lawler9h ago

Following up to say... the whole idea is so fucking ignorant that it's all shocking. I'm just focusing on the eye damage issue because it's something they readily admit will cause harm, and it's a concrete calculation (even if I think they did it in a bullshit way that ignores a lot of things that actually make it MORE likely to cause eye damage)

Ecological damage has me far more worried, and losing so much of the night sky for some techbro fuckweasel's pipe dream is just devastating.