Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Jacob Gillette

Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · Sep 25

I need help getting this CRAZY censorship story out!

Last week, admins in Leander ISD emailed teachers telling them to “pause” use of 40 books relating to “DEI” that had previously been curriculum or choice reading activities.

Included on the list? To Kill a Mockingbird. #bookbans #booksky

Email to 6th-grade teachers in Leander ISD that reads:

Dear 6th Grade ELA Team,
I want to share an Important update regarding some of the texts in our book club and
whole-class reading collections. In response to new legislation outlined in Senate Bill 12 (89th
Legislature), we have conducted a review of titles currently used in secondary ELA instruction.
Because SB 12 prohibits specific types of content, several of our resources now require
additional review.
Effective immediately, please pause the use of the identified texts (linked below) in
instruction and assignments until further notice. This step is necessary to ensure our
curriculum remains in full compliance with the law.
I want to emphasize that these books are not being permanently removed. They are simply on
hold while we seek additional guidance from TASB and TEA regarding the implications of SB 12
for instructional resources. Once we receive that guidance, we will provide clear updates about
next steps. Additionally, if these books are included in your own personal classroom library, we
request that you remove them since personal classroom libraries are considered instructional
resources.
I know this timing is far from ideal and may present challenges, especially given the thoughtful
preparation you have invested in building engaging reading experiences for students. Please
know that our commitment to offering students a wide range of meaningful opportunities for
choice reading and discussion remains unchanged.
Thank you for your flexibility, professionalism, and continued dedication to our students as we
navigate this process together.
6th grade ELAR Resources
With appreciation,

List of 40 books removed from classes. Includes To Kill a Mockingbird, The House on Mango Street, The Fire Next Time, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and, weirdly, Les Miserables.

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Aug 10

So much going on in this picture! A brand new supernova in the galaxy NGC7331, 12 total galaxies between about 40-404 million light years away, and with the inclusion of Stephan’s quintet…even a touch of Christmas. #astrophotography #astronomy #supernova #galaxies #itsawonderfullife

The full shot! Data collected over two nights, with 42 5min subs for a total of 3.5 hours of stacked data.

The largest galaxy you can see, in the upper right, is NGC7331. It is located about 45 million light years away and the light from a supernova there just arrived in our skies a couple weeks ago.

To the lower right is Stephan’s Quintet, a group of interacting galaxies, mostly located about 300 million light years away. This group is famous as the conversing angels in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

Overall I count 12 separate galaxies in this picture, meaning there is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-5 trillion stars. The furthest galaxy away is listed as about 404 million light years away.

Galaxy NGC7331. The red arrow points at supernova 2025rbs. This supernova first appeared on July 14th, 2025 and it is the brightest one currently visible in the Earth’s sky. It is a Type 1A supernova, which occur when a white dwarf consumes material from a companion red giant, until it reaches a critical mass and explodes. As these only occur at very specific masses, they are always the same luminosity (brightness), and function as “standard candles” in astronomy, meaning they can be used to accurately measure distances in the universe.

What’s neat is that every other star in the whole picture is from the Milky Way. This supernova is in fact the only discrete object we can see that is from outside our galaxy…and it’s so bright that it outshines the core of its own galaxy. Super cool.

Several other galaxies are also circled. They are all about 300 million light years away, except the littlest one to the right, which is about 404 million light years away, making it the furthest object I’ve caught to date (that I know of anyway. I love when I go to capture an image and unexpected galaxies show up in the background.

And here is Stephan’s quintet! I am definitely going to try to get a better close up of this when it reaches its peak in a couple months. Pretty fun though. The galaxies are actively pulling each other apart and you can see this in the spinning of the two merging at the top and the faint drawn out tail of the one below it to the left. There is also a sixth galaxy, to the lower left of the image that we see top down.

And a final side by side of the shot from “It’s a Wonderful Life” and Webb’s impressive image. At least I beat out the 1946 photo by a bit!

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Reposted by Jacob Gillette

Eloise Powers @elnopower.bsky.social · Jul 31

Hmmm 🤔

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jun 6

About 1700 light years away lies the North America nebula (NGC 7000). My photo is of the Cygnus Wall section, an ~20 light year across area of strong star formation. This is an emission nebula, where light from forming stars ionizes the surrounding gas causing it to glow #astronomy #astrophotography

The North America nebula (NGC 7000). Observed in the constellation Cygnus, about 1500 light years from Earth, this photo is of a what is called the Cygnus Wall, an area of particularly strong star formation. This nebula is an emission nebula, where light from forming stars ionizes the surrounding gas causing it to glow. The entire nebula is about 100 light years across, with the Cygnus Wall being about 20 light years long.

My scope will only cover a small portion of the full nebula in a single frame. I’m pretty happy with this photo though Sky conditions were actually pretty poor on Monday night with the Canadian wildfires, but I avoided the worst of it by about a day thankfully. This photo is composed of 28x500 sec exposures, for a total integration time of approx 3.8 hours. My camera is a cooled Astro camera (ASI 2600MC AIR) with a telescope focal length of 1960mm @ F7.8

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Mar 19

Great shot Kevin!

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Mar 17

@dylanodonnell.bsky.social I thought you might appreciate my outie meme self-burn! Simplest pic I’ve taken in three years and this lunar eclipse shot might be one of my best/favorites.

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Mar 15

Total Lunar Eclipse best single shot! Zero edits! Straight from our DSLR. I had the advantage of 1960mm of focal length, but very low atmospheric turbulence sure helped! More to come later, but I’m pretty happy with this single half-second exposure. #astronomy #lunareclipse #astrophotography

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Mar 10

Beautiful Timelapse Christian!

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Feb 27

Wonderful shot Roland. Nicely done!

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Feb 26

Thank you for this Dylan O!

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Feb 1

Awesome! Thanks for the info. Yeah I think it will be tough. I only have a filter drawer, but I may still give it a try. Don’t think I can get 180s subs but I may try shorter just for kicks.

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Feb 1

Wonderful shot Dodi! I’m still trying to get both time and clear skies myself before we’re too far past opposition. This will be my first time using a mono camera w/RGB filters. No filter wheel so I’m a little worried about the change over time. You shot video yes? How long for each filter?

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Reposted by Jacob Gillette

The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · Jan 17

Can a headline alone be eligible for a Pulitzer?

I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 17

Wonderful shot!! That pic is amazing! I’m still waiting for decent weather in our area to try to get a decent opposition shot. 🤞

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 10

Wow, you take some awesome pics man! Did you take that eclipse on your profile as well as the deep space stuff I see? My photography is still pretty amateur. I just got a 2600MC air which is a big step up from using my wife’s DLSR. Your pics are great!

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 10

Thanks! Yeah, we almost headed to NH. We were going to try to watch it in Rochester, NY, but the weather was terrible. We ended up driving to Burlington VT that morning and it was perfect. This was our second eclipse. We also went down see the last total eclipse in South Carolina.

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 9

Wonderful shot man! Amazing.

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 9

Geez…. I hope it survives.

Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 9

Cool pic Dan, especially considering the conditions. I didn’t know Stellarium would show a planet’s current face. Cool!

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 9

Thanks, same! Yeah, not great. I don’t live in a city but the small town near us is the home town of baseball (Cooperstown, NY). There are some massive little league parks (for tens of thousands of kids) and the light pollution during the summer is pretty insane. I need to get a good LP filter.

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 9

My new camera is an ASI 2600MC Air. It’s super fun and easy to use but I’m still kind of unsure of where things like ‘well depth’ and gain should be set for different types of photos. I’ll get it figured out eventually. It’s just quite a bit different than the dslr.

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 9

Thanks! No, not yet! Up until this point I’ve only had an unmodded DLSR, which does pretty poorly with Ha. I collected an hour of data on the Soul Nebula last week but I was pretty disappointed about how faint it ended up. I’m guessing I just need more time, but I’m also unsure camera settings

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 9

Great! Thanks Dan!

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 8

Beautiful shot Kevin! Great detail!

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Jacob Gillette @ekobaseobservatory.bsky.social · Jan 8

Wonderful! Thanks! I had heard of the “V” but had never tracked it down. You’ve added another fun to do item to my list next time I get the conditions! Thanks Dan!

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