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Stuart Atkinson

@stuartatkinson.bsky.social

1.7K followers 230 following 470 posts

Amateur astronomer and author of science fiction and science reference books, including "A Cat's Guide to The Night Sky". Fascinated by Mars since knee high to R2D2 and owned by a very demanding rescue cat called Jess.

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · Nov 18

Hi... If you Followed me as "Mars_Stu" over on the other place I hope you'll do the same here. If you didn't, but like space (especially Mars), SF & cats I'd be delighted if you'd Follow me here! Here's an example of the image processing I do... Credit: Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/S Atkinson

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 20h

Taken earlier today on Mars - Perseverance, looking over her shoulder, back at the way she came and the rugged, cinnamon-dusted landscape behind and below her... Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, but not anything unusual. Phobos and Deimos cross Mars' sky all the time. The rovers have taken many, many images of them. Not a surprise one was in the sky at the same time Perseverance was attempting to image the comet.

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 1d

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 1d

Paging @louiestowell.bsky.social

Duncan Jones @manmademoon.bsky.social · 1d

Just looking at work from superstar @westonfront.bsky.social and found this fun Rogue one!

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 1d

I try my best.

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 1d

Forget the beyond-stupid posts saying a streak of light in Mars' sky is a cylindrical UFO (it's not, it's its moon, Phobos, FFS) here's something genuinely amazing from the Red Planet: a beautiful, sparkly, crystal-crusted rock seen by Perseverance yesterday... Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 1d

Weary of it now...

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 2d

Whaaaaaaaat?? That's gone too?

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 2d

Definitely isn't a petrified tree. I'm sure the science team are on it. It's "just" a ventifact tho, a rock sculpted and carved into strange shapes by the slow erosion of wind and temperature changes. There are lots more of them in this area...

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 3d

A wider view of that mad rock seen by Perseverance... Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 3d

...meanwhile on Mars, Perseverance has been taking a closer look at a remarkable ancient rock, that has been sculpted into this weird & wonderful ragged & torn shape by the red planet's' eroding winds for thousands of years... Zoom in and take a look! Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/S Atkinson

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 3d

Very handsome boy!

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 3d

For #Caturday here are a few pics of my gorgeous Jess, the lifeboat of sanity I cling to in these stormy, seemingly desperately cruel and stupid times...

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 3d

Mars, photographed by Perseverance yesterday.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 3d

Absolutely AWESOME work!

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 6d

Just amazing...

Daniel Machacek @danielmachacek.bsky.social · 7d

My new color photographic map of Pluto is now online.

Full resolution image version (~322Mpix) is available on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/10958...
PDF version (~73MB) is available here: drive.google.com/file/d/1EW-x...

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Small preview of color photographic map of Pluto in Mollweide oblique projection. It contains one large global map with four small hemispheric maps and basic description. Full version of this map is available for download in links in the main post.
Credit: NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI/Marc W. Buie/ESA/Daniel Machacek.

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 7d

Absolutely stunning view sent back from Mars by Perseverance yesterday... Zoom in on this and explore the rugged, rusty landscape of Barsoom... (Note: light streaks are not multiple dust devils, they're processing artefacts) Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/S Atkinson

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 8d

Loki speaks the truth...

Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 9d

This is my Lokifesto #KidsConf #UKkidlit #edusky lokibooks.com/lokifesto/

A poster of a manifesto about reading, by Loki, with 6 points on reading "bad" books, short books, comics, audioooks, webcomics and fanfic, plus not finishing bad books cos life is too short.

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 9d

Personally I think this one of the most beautiful and evocative images of Mars I've ever seen, and I've seen many, many thousands. This is what you get when one of the world's best space artists processes rover images with their heart as well as their brushes. Simply stunning.

Don Davis @ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 9d

A recent vista from Mars obtained by the Perseverance Rover on its 1635th Martian day, or 'Sol', Clouds far above the eternal dust pall are unusually well shown in this afternoon view. This is a mosaic of two wide angle color Navcam images.

This mosaic of two wide angle photos from the Perseverance rover shows the Martian surface stretching into the distance beyond two foreground hills. The rover tracks can just be seen winding into the distance. In this view clouds are unusually well defined as they float well above the tan dust that eternally colors the Martian skies.
In the original photos the area near the Sun is 'burned out' by the limitations of the camera sensor. I have addressed this by manually painting over the overexposed areas to reconstruct something of the brightness contours as they probably would have appeared to a human observer. I have also 'warped' the lower corners to fill the rectangular format. Artist's prerogative :-)

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 9d

Some nice shadows here for you :-)

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 9d

Don, that's absolutely beautiful, one of the best you've ever made, thank you SO much for bringing*my* Mars to life :-)

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 9d

03.15 and I'm out imaging Comet C/2035 A6 Lemmon with the Seestar. Another starry morning, tho the seeing isn't brilliant. Better than nothing tho, and after a new PB setting up the Seestar (4 mins!) I began imaging M42 as a test shot then moved on to the comet...looking good :-)

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 10d

Not at all. I'm in the middle of a writing thing now, with a deadline which I need to beat before going to work later (booooo!!!) but we'll definitely do that :-)

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 10d

I've already self-published quite a few SF novels (available from Amazon, Mars features prominently, you'll be amazed to hear!) but this one seemed to me to be the one most likely to be taken by a publisher. That hasn't happened, sadly, so I'll be self-publishing this one too.

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Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · 10d

You're VERY welcome, thank you for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it.