WIRoadTripper
@jsgjames.bsky.social
Retired 30-year IT guy (at two large public universities). Living my best life with two cats, family, and friends. Yes, I took these eclipse photos.
#Wisconsin #Astronomy #Cosmology #Hiking #Music #Opera #Cats #LiberalAF #Photography
#Wisconsin #Astronomy #Cosmology #Hiking #Music #Opera #Cats #LiberalAF #Photography
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
What's from Chicago, hates Illinois Nazis, and is holy as fuck?
It's the Pope in 1982.
It's the Pope in 1982.
November 13, 2025 at 1:37 AM
What's from Chicago, hates Illinois Nazis, and is holy as fuck?
It's the Pope in 1982.
It's the Pope in 1982.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
Happy exploding whale day for all who celebrate.
50 years ago, today, a whale exploded on an Oregon beach. 20 years later, before social media or video sharing sights or smartphones, it would become the first viral Internet video.
We sent it to each other in the mail.
The History of Exploding Whales Is the History of the Internet Itself
We sent it to each other in the mail.
The History of Exploding Whales Is the History of the Internet Itself
The History of Exploding Whales Is the History of the Internet Itself
My first whale video came in the form of a VHS tape mailed to me by a stranger from the internet.
www.vice.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Happy exploding whale day for all who celebrate.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
A little less than a year ago, a large team of cosmologists reported evidence that dark energy (which drives the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe) evolves over time. This made a huge splash but has also been viewed with healthy skepticism. Today they report that evidence has weakened. 🧪
The Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program: A Reanalysis Of Cosmology Results And Evidence For Evolving Dark Energy With An Updated Type Ia Supernova Calibration
We present improved cosmological constraints from a re-analysis of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) 5-year sample of Type Ia supernovae (DES-SN5YR). This re-analysis includes an improved photometric cross...
arxiv.org
November 12, 2025 at 12:00 PM
A little less than a year ago, a large team of cosmologists reported evidence that dark energy (which drives the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe) evolves over time. This made a huge splash but has also been viewed with healthy skepticism. Today they report that evidence has weakened. 🧪
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
OMG!
Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.
Lowell Observatory slashes research funding in the midst of financial struggle
Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.
buff.ly
November 12, 2025 at 12:21 PM
OMG!
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
Professional space scientist here--I have a different opinion about space being our business and I will confirm it could 100% kill us all if it wanted, but the kicker is that no matter what we do space won't ever even notice we exist, which is a much, much more terrifying proposition.
November 12, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Professional space scientist here--I have a different opinion about space being our business and I will confirm it could 100% kill us all if it wanted, but the kicker is that no matter what we do space won't ever even notice we exist, which is a much, much more terrifying proposition.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
This makes perfect sense if you grew up watching "Night of the Comet" 50 times like I did. And if you watched both episodes of "Pluribus" while buzzed on an airplane yesterday. Space is none of our business and it probably wants to kill us all.
bsky.app/profile/doct...
bsky.app/profile/doct...
I know it isn't dangerous but there is that small voice in my head that finds how easily and often we're seeing the aurora borealis terrifying.
November 12, 2025 at 12:47 PM
This makes perfect sense if you grew up watching "Night of the Comet" 50 times like I did. And if you watched both episodes of "Pluribus" while buzzed on an airplane yesterday. Space is none of our business and it probably wants to kill us all.
bsky.app/profile/doct...
bsky.app/profile/doct...
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
What an epic night of aurora across the world — and right here in New England!
And it’s not over — there may be another CME is on the way, possibly bigger than the first two.
Here are a few incredible shots from our members, reporting in from Arizona, Long Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
And it’s not over — there may be another CME is on the way, possibly bigger than the first two.
Here are a few incredible shots from our members, reporting in from Arizona, Long Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
November 12, 2025 at 1:02 PM
What an epic night of aurora across the world — and right here in New England!
And it’s not over — there may be another CME is on the way, possibly bigger than the first two.
Here are a few incredible shots from our members, reporting in from Arizona, Long Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
And it’s not over — there may be another CME is on the way, possibly bigger than the first two.
Here are a few incredible shots from our members, reporting in from Arizona, Long Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
Instead of using one large mirror, #ESAPlato uses 26 cameras that combine their observations. This design reminds of insects’ compound eyes.
Each camera acquires 81.4-megapixel images resulting in two-billion-pixel images for the overall spacecraft – the most ever for a space mission.
3/ #CM25 🔭
Each camera acquires 81.4-megapixel images resulting in two-billion-pixel images for the overall spacecraft – the most ever for a space mission.
3/ #CM25 🔭
November 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
A #CosmicVision mission, #ESAPlato will use its 26 cameras to study terrestrial exoplanets in orbits up to the habitable zone of Sun-like stars.
Plato will revolutionise our understanding of how planets form, how planetary systems evolve & the potential habitability of these worlds.
1/ #CM25 🔭
Plato will revolutionise our understanding of how planets form, how planetary systems evolve & the potential habitability of these worlds.
1/ #CM25 🔭
November 12, 2025 at 1:03 PM
A #CosmicVision mission, #ESAPlato will use its 26 cameras to study terrestrial exoplanets in orbits up to the habitable zone of Sun-like stars.
Plato will revolutionise our understanding of how planets form, how planetary systems evolve & the potential habitability of these worlds.
1/ #CM25 🔭
Plato will revolutionise our understanding of how planets form, how planetary systems evolve & the potential habitability of these worlds.
1/ #CM25 🔭
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
Today we’re leaving the #MilkyWay behind and heading into the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Our destination? A binary system that seems like a lone blue star, but actually also hosts an invisible black hole, weighing at least 9 times the mass of our Sun.
More: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2210/ 🔭
Our destination? A binary system that seems like a lone blue star, but actually also hosts an invisible black hole, weighing at least 9 times the mass of our Sun.
More: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2210/ 🔭
November 12, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Today we’re leaving the #MilkyWay behind and heading into the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Our destination? A binary system that seems like a lone blue star, but actually also hosts an invisible black hole, weighing at least 9 times the mass of our Sun.
More: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2210/ 🔭
Our destination? A binary system that seems like a lone blue star, but actually also hosts an invisible black hole, weighing at least 9 times the mass of our Sun.
More: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2210/ 🔭
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
I did go drive out to Bortle 2 skies with my family and it was INCREDIBLE (thanks for encouragement, fediverse).
The only light coming from stars, totally silent except for coyotes, owls, and I think maybe whooping cranes (!!) flying over. Barely any auroras […]
[Original post on mastodon.social]
The only light coming from stars, totally silent except for coyotes, owls, and I think maybe whooping cranes (!!) flying over. Barely any auroras […]
[Original post on mastodon.social]
November 11, 2025 at 3:10 PM
I did go drive out to Bortle 2 skies with my family and it was INCREDIBLE (thanks for encouragement, fediverse).
The only light coming from stars, totally silent except for coyotes, owls, and I think maybe whooping cranes (!!) flying over. Barely any auroras […]
[Original post on mastodon.social]
The only light coming from stars, totally silent except for coyotes, owls, and I think maybe whooping cranes (!!) flying over. Barely any auroras […]
[Original post on mastodon.social]
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
So much red!!
November 12, 2025 at 3:33 AM
So much red!!
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
We want to break free~🎸 A new cat cam has joined the spy family!
#CasperCat ate quite well last night, although didn’t clean the plates. His favourite was apparently not served 😐 He also ate during the day for the first time! So food is now considered if I’m absent or unconscious 😅 I’ll take it.
#CasperCat ate quite well last night, although didn’t clean the plates. His favourite was apparently not served 😐 He also ate during the day for the first time! So food is now considered if I’m absent or unconscious 😅 I’ll take it.
November 12, 2025 at 1:55 PM
We want to break free~🎸 A new cat cam has joined the spy family!
#CasperCat ate quite well last night, although didn’t clean the plates. His favourite was apparently not served 😐 He also ate during the day for the first time! So food is now considered if I’m absent or unconscious 😅 I’ll take it.
#CasperCat ate quite well last night, although didn’t clean the plates. His favourite was apparently not served 😐 He also ate during the day for the first time! So food is now considered if I’m absent or unconscious 😅 I’ll take it.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
A moment was had. It did not last, as #NorahNeko got bored after a few minutes and left 🤦🏼♀️
November 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM
A moment was had. It did not last, as #NorahNeko got bored after a few minutes and left 🤦🏼♀️
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
Good evening. We have eaten absolutely nothing all day because you were looking far too confident this morning 😐
November 11, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Good evening. We have eaten absolutely nothing all day because you were looking far too confident this morning 😐
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
Admittedly frozen like a weeping angel because he spotted me, but #CasperCat said a good morning to #NorahNeko too. (Who admittedly was mainly there for his cat grass.)
November 11, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Admittedly frozen like a weeping angel because he spotted me, but #CasperCat said a good morning to #NorahNeko too. (Who admittedly was mainly there for his cat grass.)
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
After not eating all day yesterday and making me fear a trip to the vet yet again… #CasperCat cleaned the plates overnight! As well as making a hole in his dry food bowl and drinking some cat milk 🎉
No lie, this is one hell of a relief.
No lie, this is one hell of a relief.
November 11, 2025 at 12:31 AM
After not eating all day yesterday and making me fear a trip to the vet yet again… #CasperCat cleaned the plates overnight! As well as making a hole in his dry food bowl and drinking some cat milk 🎉
No lie, this is one hell of a relief.
No lie, this is one hell of a relief.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
This is the message from #CasperCat for you all today. I'm hoping this is the face of a cat that ate all the churu on his plate. I suspect... it's a face that ate some of it (based on time stamps) 🤦♀️ Last night, Casper ate a treat I'd planted in a likely hiding spot. I planted another this morning.
November 10, 2025 at 6:41 AM
This is the message from #CasperCat for you all today. I'm hoping this is the face of a cat that ate all the churu on his plate. I suspect... it's a face that ate some of it (based on time stamps) 🤦♀️ Last night, Casper ate a treat I'd planted in a likely hiding spot. I planted another this morning.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
One Hundred Years of the Hot Five
Exactly one hundred years ago today, on 12th November 1925, five musicians gathered in the Okeh studios in Chicago to create musical history. The band was Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and they were about to embark on a series of recording sessions that would…
Exactly one hundred years ago today, on 12th November 1925, five musicians gathered in the Okeh studios in Chicago to create musical history. The band was Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and they were about to embark on a series of recording sessions that would…
One Hundred Years of the Hot Five
Exactly one hundred years ago today, on 12th November 1925, five musicians gathered in the Okeh studios in Chicago to create musical history. The band was Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and they were about to embark on a series of recording sessions that would result in a rich treasury of 20th century music in the form of 33 sides recorded between November 1925 and December 1927.
telescoper.blog
November 12, 2025 at 2:01 PM
One Hundred Years of the Hot Five
Exactly one hundred years ago today, on 12th November 1925, five musicians gathered in the Okeh studios in Chicago to create musical history. The band was Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and they were about to embark on a series of recording sessions that would…
Exactly one hundred years ago today, on 12th November 1925, five musicians gathered in the Okeh studios in Chicago to create musical history. The band was Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and they were about to embark on a series of recording sessions that would…
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
I’ve seen this shared several times with the header and footer not visible, so you can’t see the artists’s name.
Credit: Leo the Alien — alienyrox on redbubble and other platforms.
Credit: Leo the Alien — alienyrox on redbubble and other platforms.
November 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM
I’ve seen this shared several times with the header and footer not visible, so you can’t see the artists’s name.
Credit: Leo the Alien — alienyrox on redbubble and other platforms.
Credit: Leo the Alien — alienyrox on redbubble and other platforms.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
I live, literally, in Midtown. At 32* north. All hail light pollution laws. I could see the blush naked-eye.
November 12, 2025 at 5:06 AM
I live, literally, in Midtown. At 32* north. All hail light pollution laws. I could see the blush naked-eye.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
Y'all this is the best. I'm in rural Oklahoma and there's people stopped on a lot of the exit ramps along the highway watching the aurora. Many have likely never seen it before. One old southern dude stopped beside me asking if I see the "big orange lights" too. We're all just little curious humans.
November 12, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Y'all this is the best. I'm in rural Oklahoma and there's people stopped on a lot of the exit ramps along the highway watching the aurora. Many have likely never seen it before. One old southern dude stopped beside me asking if I see the "big orange lights" too. We're all just little curious humans.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
HOLY SHIT THE SKY IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE AAAAHHHHHH WOWWWWWWW
November 12, 2025 at 12:43 AM
HOLY SHIT THE SKY IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE AAAAHHHHHH WOWWWWWWW
Saturday at my condo. Well over an hour from every light fixture in entry, dining, kitchen, hallway, bathroom, utility room, and bedroom closet. Very surreal. You can't make it stop. Seven hours total.
November 12, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Saturday at my condo. Well over an hour from every light fixture in entry, dining, kitchen, hallway, bathroom, utility room, and bedroom closet. Very surreal. You can't make it stop. Seven hours total.
Reposted by WIRoadTripper
We could make this real fucking simple. Call it Medicare for All. Single-payer. Whatever. Insurance cos as government contractors or eliminate the sector entirely and pay direct to providers. I don’t give a shit. But access to healthcare is a basic human right and we should start acting like it.
November 11, 2025 at 4:44 AM
We could make this real fucking simple. Call it Medicare for All. Single-payer. Whatever. Insurance cos as government contractors or eliminate the sector entirely and pay direct to providers. I don’t give a shit. But access to healthcare is a basic human right and we should start acting like it.