| ORCID | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5535-2850 |
| Work Page | https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/peter-coles |
| Blog (Personal) | https://telescoper.blog/about |
| Pronouns | He/him/his |
Sport and Politics
I have found this a very disappointing weekend in many respects for sports. Two Irish rugby teams (Ulster and Leinster) both lost their cup finals against French opposition (Montpellier and Bordeaux in the Challenge Cup and Champions Cup, respectively. Glamorgan's cricketers lost their first two Twenty20 games of the season (both narrowly). And today's last round of matches in the Premier League saw Newcastle lose, an outcome made worse by the factβ¦
Weekly Update from the Open Journal of Astrophysics β 23/05/2026
Since the last update we have published a further six papers, bringing the number in Volume 9 (2026) to 110 and the total so far published by OJAp up to 558.
http://telescoper.blog/2026/05/23/weekly-update-from-the-open-journal-of-astrophysics-23-05-2026/
Advice to young people: try to find a job that you enjoy as much as Errol Garner enjoyed playing piano...
On My Knees
It has taken a bit longer that I expected to get this far but I have now completed the grading of one of my modules. It wasn't the written examination that took all the time, but the marking of the computational physics projects. This is always a slow job but for some reason it took even longer this year. Anyway, all components of the assessment for that module are now done and dusted and everything uploaded.
We are delighted to announce that Professor Elena Pierpaoli of the University of Southern California has joined our Editorial Board.
Cat Crainn
Although undeniably cute, with their chocolate-coloured coat and creamy yellow bib, pine martens are wild animals and will bite if you give them cause. The word for "bite" in Irish is greim.
Marching across our lawn today - Eurasian Magpie
#nature #birds #Wildlife #photography #NaturePhotography #BirdPhotography #BirdsOfMastodon #UK #BirdScrolling
I am staggered by the sheer hugeness of this.
The #WelshGovernment has a policy of bilingualism. All meetings include translators, so that speakers of English or Welsh can participate equally. But every member of the Welsh Cabinet is a native speaker of #Cymraeg, so the Cabinet meetings will be held in their native lsnguage.
Imposing the #EnglishLanguage was a key component of the imperial project of Britishness. But the tide has turned. π π΄σ §σ ’σ ·σ ¬σ ³σ Ώ
Nottingham University is hoping to achieve a student-staff ratio in the range 18:1 to 22:1 across the board, which will send it plummeting down the league tables. But Nottingham still won't reach the depths plumbed by Maynooth, where the ratio is 26:1 and growing...
Yesterday I replied to a toot someone posted. Their toot was boggling at how trans women were excluded from the challenging physical sport that is darts. My reply pointed out that chess is also gender segregated, at least at lower levels.
Lots of people replied to me asking why. And the reply is simple.
Men don't like being beaten by a girl. Chess is gender segregated to protect fragile men.
Open Journal of Astrophysics
Jim Howard-Birt π¦πΈ: Photos
Claire McNab
Quixoticgeek