Dominic Ford
@dcf21.bsky.social
Astronomer, science communicator and software engineer. Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, developing the PLATO pipeline. Founder of https://in-the-sky.org
My dad has given me some albums of photos my Great Uncle Ernie took in 1920s. I'm messing around making high-resolution scans. On 26 Oct 1928, Ernie had just bought a shiny new Sunbeam car and took a 75-sec exposure of the "instrument panel". Original print is tiny, but stunning detail @ 2400 dpi.
May 16, 2025 at 8:00 PM
My dad has given me some albums of photos my Great Uncle Ernie took in 1920s. I'm messing around making high-resolution scans. On 26 Oct 1928, Ernie had just bought a shiny new Sunbeam car and took a 75-sec exposure of the "instrument panel". Original print is tiny, but stunning detail @ 2400 dpi.
The folks at Collins have designed beautiful covers for our books!
www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Sky-Al...
www.amazon.co.uk/2026-Guide-N...
www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Sky-Al...
www.amazon.co.uk/2026-Guide-N...
Night Sky Almanac 2026: A stargazer’s guide
Buy Night Sky Almanac 2026: A stargazer’s guide by Topalovic, Radmila, Ford, Dominic, Royal Observatory Greenwich, Collins Astronomy (ISBN: 9780008747824) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
www.amazon.co.uk
March 6, 2025 at 8:31 PM
The folks at Collins have designed beautiful covers for our books!
www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Sky-Al...
www.amazon.co.uk/2026-Guide-N...
www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Sky-Al...
www.amazon.co.uk/2026-Guide-N...
1/3 Been busy over the past six months, after agreeing to produce the star charts for the Collins Guide to the Night Sky (actually four books, as there are multiple editions). Last week, the last of 421 charts went off to the publishers. Now looking forward to seeing it in bookshops in late August
harpercollins.co.uk
February 24, 2025 at 7:46 PM
1/3 Been busy over the past six months, after agreeing to produce the star charts for the Collins Guide to the Night Sky (actually four books, as there are multiple editions). Last week, the last of 421 charts went off to the publishers. Now looking forward to seeing it in bookshops in late August
Amazon already appears to be taking pre-orders for these four books! I guess that means we need to get a move on with writing them... 😮
www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=stripboo...
www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=stripboo...
Amazon.co.uk
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www.amazon.co.uk
November 16, 2024 at 12:30 PM
Amazon already appears to be taking pre-orders for these four books! I guess that means we need to get a move on with writing them... 😮
www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=stripboo...
www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=stripboo...
Kate is a former colleague from my podcasting days, before she moved onto greater fame. She's a brilliant science communicator, who has really great ideas as well as the patience to teach people as untalented as myself. It's a real pity if the BBC doesn't want to employ somebody with her talents.
Why the BBC making one journalist redundant matters – for our media and democracy | Jane Martinson
Kate Lamble’s reporting on Grenfell was public service journalism at its best. But sweeping cuts will make it far harder to replicate, says Guardian columnist Jane Martinson
www.theguardian.com
September 11, 2024 at 12:32 PM
Kate is a former colleague from my podcasting days, before she moved onto greater fame. She's a brilliant science communicator, who has really great ideas as well as the patience to teach people as untalented as myself. It's a real pity if the BBC doesn't want to employ somebody with her talents.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a tool for creating charts of the night sky, and shared the code on GitHub. Over the summer, a client asked me to create a large number of sky charts, which means I've added lots of new features and fixed lots of issues. I've just released these as v6.0.
GitHub - dcf21/star-charter: A command-line tool for producing vector-graphics charts of the night sky in SVG, PDF and PNG formats.
A command-line tool for producing vector-graphics charts of the night sky in SVG, PDF and PNG formats. - dcf21/star-charter
github.com
September 2, 2024 at 6:54 PM
A couple of years ago, I wrote a tool for creating charts of the night sky, and shared the code on GitHub. Over the summer, a client asked me to create a large number of sky charts, which means I've added lots of new features and fixed lots of issues. I've just released these as v6.0.
Hey folks. I appear to have finally taken the plunge and decided to join you on Bluesky... Better late then never! :-)
July 15, 2024 at 4:39 PM
Hey folks. I appear to have finally taken the plunge and decided to join you on Bluesky... Better late then never! :-)