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pbjonearth.bsky.social
pbjonearth
@pbjonearth.bsky.social
310 followers 530 following 500 posts
Heart of gold, pancreas of plastic, chemist, teacher, cook, astronomer, writer, baseball fan, hiker, eater. OK/NC. Opinions my own and subject to change. He/him.

Words: https://pbjcom.wordpress.com/
Pictures: https://www.astrobin.com/users/bunyon/
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pbjonearth.bsky.social
pbjonearth @pbjonearth.bsky.social · Oct 20
2024 has been a year of rare celestial events for me. Total solar eclipse in April, once in generation auroral outburst in May, continuing aurora through the year, and a really nice comet. I even managed five clear nights at star parties. #astronomy #astrophotography 1/n
Baily's Beads during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. In a lighter black field, the blacker silhouette of the moon is ringed at the 10 o'clock position by three beads, where sunlight is shining through lunar valleys. Around the beads, from 9 o'clock to noon, pink prominences extend from behind the moon's silhouette. Pink rays shoot from the center of the field with a few stars in the background during the auroral storm on May 10, 2024. Two prominent, quite bright, rays extend to the lower left, several fainter, stubbier rays extend up and down, and two bright, but not as bright as on the left, extend up to the right. A pink glow diffuses the field. Pink rays overlay a pink glow behind the silhouette of trees in leaf. Stars are seen in the background. A green glow hugs the horizon, behind the trees, during the aurora of May 10, 2024. An anvil storm cloud (cumulonimbus incus), bright white at top, increasingly dark and orange lower toward the horizon, sits on the horizon behind a tent, minivan, hatchback, tables and chairs, and an Obsession 15 Dobsonian telescope on a mown tall grass field. This image was made about ten minutes after sunset, so that the field is in dusk while the tall storm cloud to the east is still lit by the sun. Near Merritt Reservoir at the Nebraska Star Party in July 2024.
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Mr. McKitrick. After very careful consideration sir I've come to the conclusion that your new year sucks.
January 1, 2026 at 1:15 AM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
So, uh, pneumonia seems to be a proper illness. My goodness.
December 28, 2025 at 12:35 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
I have excellent news to report: the number of final exams in my possession equals the number of students I have! Always nice. #finals
December 12, 2025 at 6:27 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
The fall semester has been a blur and the weather has mostly sucked so I haven't taken many astrophotos. But I had a glorious week at the Staunton River Star Party with many clear nights. I got a number of nice images. I'll present one a day. Here is M78, a nebula in Orion. #astronomy 🔭🧪
Messier 78, an reflection nebula in Orion. The brightest part of the nebula is a blue cloud, with an arc of three stars lighting up the brightest area, that trails off in wisps and swirls pointed toward the bottom of the frame. Dimmer swirls of light stretches left to right across the middle third of the frame, with knots of light and twists of dark lanes where dust obscures our view of the illuminated cloud. The top third and bottom third of the frame is black starfield sprinkled with stars.
December 9, 2025 at 2:26 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
My hot Thanksgiving take: Whatever you eat or do to celebrate Thanksgiving is fine, so long as it makes you and yours happy and does not harm another. Love pie? Have two. Hate pie? Eat cake.

Just be good to each other.
November 25, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by pbjonearth
heydebigale.bsky.social
Via @matthartings.bsky.social & @rhodium103.bsky.social

I think about this one a lot
Mad men meme with the caption chemistry is the central science. Meanwhile, Draper is represented by physics, math and biology. Who says I don’t think about you at all.
November 18, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by pbjonearth
uottawanmr.bsky.social
Which one would you put on your pancakes? u-of-o-nmr-facility.blogspot.com/2016/06/nmr-... #nmr #nmrchat #chemsky
November 15, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by pbjonearth
skwinnicki.bsky.social
Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics"

guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
Basic light pollution diagram showing four different streetlight set ups ranging from more light pollution on the left to less light pollution on the right. The most pollution option, labelled "very bad" is a street lamp with a round uncovered bulb on top, making a sphere of light in the air. The next option, labelled "bad" has a tiny cap on top, that limits the upward pollution a bit. The "better" option is mostly uncovered on top, limiting pollution above the streetlight. The final option, labelled "best" has a full shroud overtop, limiting the light to only below the streetlight, where it is needed for pedestrians and vehicles.
November 13, 2025 at 10:03 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
The 2025 World Series will see more innings than any series since 1921 (Giants 5-3 win in best of 9). The only series with more innings was 1919 (Reds 5-3 win with one 10 inning game). 11 innings tomorrow gets us the longest series in history. #baseball #worldseries
November 1, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Reposted by pbjonearth
robsmith.bsky.social
There are far too many people who scoff at just having a good time for its own sake.
October 25, 2025 at 1:58 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Saturn was at opposition last night. I imaged Titan and its shadow crossing the disk the night before. Here I show that image with an image of Saturn with Titan's shadow on the disk on Sept 4. Note how much brighter the ring is on the 20th. This is the Seeliger Effect. #astrophotography 🔭🧪
Two photos of Saturn arranged above and below one another. In the top photo, Titan (a very, very small orange ball) hangs to the upper left of Saturn's disk (at about the ten o'clock position) while its shadow is a black spot just on the edge of the disk at about 11 o'clock. In the bottom photo, Titan's shadow is again on the edge of the disk at 11:30 while Titan itself is an orange/grey disk of the same size just to the lower left of the shadow. The two spots just touch one another. Saturn's disk is a ruddy orange/tan. The rings are nearly edge on and presented horizontally. The equatorial zone, just to either side of the rings is much brighter than the rest of the disk. In both images, the planet's disk is banded horizontally, though it's easier to see in the lower photo due to the seeing and scope collimation being a touch better on that night. In the bottom image, two small storms, presenting as small white spots, are visible in the southern hemisphere. The rings are much brighter, relative to the planet's disk, in the lower photo, taken the night before opposition, than in the top photo, taken 17 days before opposition. This increase in brightness of a rough, particulate surface, is known as the Seeliger effect, and can be seen in a variety of objects when the light source (here, the Sun) is directly behind the observer.
September 21, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by pbjonearth
chemjobber.bsky.social
To my H-1B friends, I am so fucking sorry. This all sucks so much.
September 19, 2025 at 11:46 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
I sometimes think it's possible that current American politics are simply the result of someone asking a genie for Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio to be as humiliated as they possibly could be but not being specific about other outcomes.
September 17, 2025 at 8:59 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
With Earth crossing Saturn's ring plane, we're being treated to some lovely moon and shadow transits. Titan is currently casting its shadow on the disk every 18 days. With gear too long unused, I managed to catch last night's transit. Color is in Vis light, Gray in IR. 🔭 🧪 #astrophotography
The planet Saturn captured in IR (wavelength 685nm - ~950nm) and, so, presented in grayscale against a black background. The planet is tilted so that the rings stretch from lower left to upper right across the disk. The rings are seen very close to edge on so that they appear to be a thin streak. Across the disk, one can just make out the shadow cast by the rings just below the razor thin rings themselves. Titan is just off the disk at about the ten o'clock position and is casting a shadow onto the disk at about the ten thirty position. The moon is a small gray disk, the shadow a completely black circle on the gray disk, which is covered in darker and lighter bands running parallel to the rings. The planet Saturn captured in visible light and, so, presented in color against a black background. Saturn's disk is a banded yellow gold. Two equatorial bands, running parallel to the rings are darker brown than the rest of the bands. The planet is tilted so that the rings stretch from lower left to upper right across the disk. The rings are seen very close to edge on so that they appear to be a thin streak. Across the disk, one can just make out the shadow cast by the rings just below the razor thin rings themselves. Titan is just off the disk at about the nine o'clock position and is casting a shadow onto the disk at about the ten o'clock position. The moon is a small orange disk, the shadow a completely black circle.
September 4, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by pbjonearth
chemjobber.bsky.social
Anyone from the University of Montreal here? Please DM.

Please RT.
September 4, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by pbjonearth
stsci.edu
Watch as the familiar pattern of the Scorpius constellation distorts into a whole new perspective.

The opening of the sequence pans up to Scorpius in the night sky. The brightest star in the constellation, Antares, is a red supergiant known as the "heart of the Scorpion." 🔭 🧪
September 2, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by pbjonearth
kentremendous.bsky.social
The #1 way to explain America working properly is by saying “comedians can make fun of he President on TV.” A good way to explain fascism is “the President forces companies to fire those comedians as a condition of allowing them to conduct business.”
July 18, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Reposted by pbjonearth
ryanlcooper.com
Matt Walsh's imaginary professor: "good morning student-comrades. today we learn how to bayonet a white Christian capitalist while taking trans hormones"

actual average professor: "folks, I am begging you, please do the reading for tomorrow this time. it is five pages"
jamellebouie.net jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Jul 16
one of the things that gets me about so many of the pundits who pontificate about "higher education" when they really mean a handful of elite private institutions is that most of them live within driving distance of either a community college or a non-selective public institution
July 16, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by pbjonearth
papapishu.bsky.social
We should be putting a gargantuan amount of money into solar and storage. War economy levels. It should be free to have a guy from the government solar your house up. Electricity should basically cost nothing.
July 14, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by pbjonearth
scavamungus.bsky.social
The problem is once you support something, even if things change for the worse, you tend to stick by your earlier statements.

This trick is known to salesmen, cult leaders, conmen, and politicians.
July 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
M27 imaged over June 22-23, two clear nights in a very cloudy month. The Dumbbell shape (L/R here) is apparent in even in small scopes. With my 15" and a dark sky, I can see the more delicate parts above and below. It's all greenish gray in the eyepiece, of course. 🔭 🧪 #astrophotography
A planentary nebula, Messier 27 fills the center tenth to an eighth of the field of view, surrounded by a dense starfield against a black background. The nebula is mostly blue-green (from the O-3 emission) but there is some pink from hydrogen emission. The famous dumbbell shape is formed left-right in the image, with the outer edges of the blue-green dumbbell (which is the brightest part of the nebula) tinged pink. An X of pink nodules crosses the bright dumbbell part. Above and below the dumbbell, filling in the missing space to make the nebula more circular, is lacy blue-greenish nebula. The bottom edge is, again, tinged pink. A very faint green and pink arc surrounds the bright nebula at center, the result of an earlier outgassing from the central star. The image was made with a Celestron 8 Schmidt Cassegrain working at f/7, a ZWO ASI2600MC camera, and an Optolong L-Quad light pollution filter from within the city limits of Winston-Salem, NC. The image is the result of a stack of 90 5 minute exposures processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop. No AI was involved, it's all real data.
July 1, 2025 at 1:07 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Man. Today is going to be a long day.
June 20, 2025 at 2:08 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
Had a guy here to replace my gas meter. Said it would be a few hours. Took 30 minutes. Now I have to go to work. Feeling cheated.
June 18, 2025 at 1:06 PM
pbjonearth.bsky.social
I have few followers and little reach. Which is fine. But I'll say this at the outset of a tense weekend and beginning of what will likely be a long, hot summer.

Know who you're fighting. And why.

Punching those you can reach simply because you want to punch someone is a bad plan.
June 12, 2025 at 10:53 PM