Bill Keel
@ngc3314.bsky.social
Astronomer, husband, father, staff of cats, sometime trombonist
It was easier when posters travelled in tubes.
January 5, 2026 at 12:36 AM
It was easier when posters travelled in tubes.
I'll keep an eye out (I guess preferably >2 microns?) We're driving on a 2+ week trip, to also finish some family business in Tucson; for me, it's hard not to think of this as our Arizona Farewell Tour.
December 30, 2025 at 5:21 PM
I'll keep an eye out (I guess preferably >2 microns?) We're driving on a 2+ week trip, to also finish some family business in Tucson; for me, it's hard not to think of this as our Arizona Farewell Tour.
Reposted by Bill Keel
π The January 2026 edition of The Evening Sky Map is now available for download at skymaps.com/tesm/. The PDF features a Sky Calendar and easy-to-use sky maps for the northern & southern hemispheres, and for the equatorial regions. Please share, and enjoy exploring the Universe! π
#stargazing #space
#stargazing #space
December 30, 2025 at 12:20 PM
π The January 2026 edition of The Evening Sky Map is now available for download at skymaps.com/tesm/. The PDF features a Sky Calendar and easy-to-use sky maps for the northern & southern hemispheres, and for the equatorial regions. Please share, and enjoy exploring the Universe! π
#stargazing #space
#stargazing #space
CL prompt will have to be pried from my cold dead fingers. (Watch me put IRAF-worked data from Celestron Origin as low-z comparison data for HST in upcoming AAS poster).
December 29, 2025 at 9:09 PM
CL prompt will have to be pried from my cold dead fingers. (Watch me put IRAF-worked data from Celestron Origin as low-z comparison data for HST in upcoming AAS poster).
Ah! Finally someone else noticed this pair (which I've come back to several times after seeing it on Sky Survey plate copies circa 1984). Nicer than my work using remotely-operated SARA 0.6m on the shoulder of the same mountain in Chile...
December 28, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Ah! Finally someone else noticed this pair (which I've come back to several times after seeing it on Sky Survey plate copies circa 1984). Nicer than my work using remotely-operated SARA 0.6m on the shoulder of the same mountain in Chile...
Reposted by Bill Keel
In not-very-good news, extreme winds (114 mph gusts) on the early morning of the 25th caused significant damage to the 36" Great Refractor at Lick Observatory. Half of the main shutter broke off and landed on the main building.
December 27, 2025 at 1:00 AM
In not-very-good news, extreme winds (114 mph gusts) on the early morning of the 25th caused significant damage to the 36" Great Refractor at Lick Observatory. Half of the main shutter broke off and landed on the main building.
I told my intro class that after our history lectures, they knew "astronomers going to Rome" didn't always end well, so if I wasn't back after a week, send a search party. The best part - not sure how, but that got quoted in a national Catholic newspaper.
December 27, 2025 at 3:48 PM
I told my intro class that after our history lectures, they knew "astronomers going to Rome" didn't always end well, so if I wasn't back after a week, send a search party. The best part - not sure how, but that got quoted in a national Catholic newspaper.
At one (just after Galaxy Zoo started, my personal calendar) the organizer was encouraging people to get their conference papers sent it on deadline. He showed a slide of the Inquisition in action and said, "remember, ours was the first truly global organization. Don't let this happen to you".
December 27, 2025 at 3:45 PM
At one (just after Galaxy Zoo started, my personal calendar) the organizer was encouraging people to get their conference papers sent it on deadline. He showed a slide of the Inquisition in action and said, "remember, ours was the first truly global organization. Don't let this happen to you".
A couple of us, in high school, talked one of the moms into driving us to a campus 40 miles away where Erich von Daniken
was speaking. He was utterly confident and convincing until we walked out of the room.
was speaking. He was utterly confident and convincing until we walked out of the room.
December 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
A couple of us, in high school, talked one of the moms into driving us to a campus 40 miles away where Erich von Daniken
was speaking. He was utterly confident and convincing until we walked out of the room.
was speaking. He was utterly confident and convincing until we walked out of the room.
And both are equally anchored to the Earth's orbit one way or another. (I sometimes asked students "which planet in the Solar System has an orbit which would lead to most nearly equal definitions of light-year and parsec?")
December 24, 2025 at 8:22 PM
And both are equally anchored to the Earth's orbit one way or another. (I sometimes asked students "which planet in the Solar System has an orbit which would lead to most nearly equal definitions of light-year and parsec?")
Flashback to a discussion with the referee about why I plotted distances in light-years when showing AGN light (well, OK, photoionization) echoes, because its all about the time delay. (And as y'all were just saying, neither is more fundamental, both are tied to Earth's orbit)
December 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Flashback to a discussion with the referee about why I plotted distances in light-years when showing AGN light (well, OK, photoionization) echoes, because its all about the time delay. (And as y'all were just saying, neither is more fundamental, both are tied to Earth's orbit)
Do they take forklifts to the gym?
December 22, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Do they take forklifts to the gym?
I'd like to apologize pre-emptively to all our Pasadena colleagues for all the toilet paper and detergent they'll be finding for months.
December 20, 2025 at 6:59 AM
I'd like to apologize pre-emptively to all our Pasadena colleagues for all the toilet paper and detergent they'll be finding for months.
(Astro)physicists do have a strong record of opening up new fields _where nobody else knows anything yet either_ - physics mental habits can be powerful. They have an equally strong record of doing stupid things through failure to recognize that other people do know things in established fields.
December 18, 2025 at 3:23 PM
(Astro)physicists do have a strong record of opening up new fields _where nobody else knows anything yet either_ - physics mental habits can be powerful. They have an equally strong record of doing stupid things through failure to recognize that other people do know things in established fields.
I prefer to track it as the highly desirable "longest night".
December 12, 2025 at 11:30 PM
I prefer to track it as the highly desirable "longest night".
I was kinda disappointed to read that this famous plot did not show actual data, but was a hand-drawn retcon to illustrate the point. (Which it does - just show that and no need to say survival bias or selection bias)
December 8, 2025 at 4:29 PM
I was kinda disappointed to read that this famous plot did not show actual data, but was a hand-drawn retcon to illustrate the point. (Which it does - just show that and no need to say survival bias or selection bias)
Harley Thronson had an article comparing the process to college-to-pro sports. I see a different analogy as well. There is a whole actual industry devoted to identifying high-school recruits for big-name sports, and there are still walk-ons. Our own pipeline surely misses many people with talent.
December 7, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Harley Thronson had an article comparing the process to college-to-pro sports. I see a different analogy as well. There is a whole actual industry devoted to identifying high-school recruits for big-name sports, and there are still walk-ons. Our own pipeline surely misses many people with talent.
In a parallel thought, I've experimented with turning the internal stacked TIFF files from a Celestron Origin into FITS files. One product will play a supporting role in a poster at the upcoming AAS meeting, So far I'm going through IDL+IRAF, widely viewed as a suboptimal workflow, but here we are.
December 3, 2025 at 1:49 AM
In a parallel thought, I've experimented with turning the internal stacked TIFF files from a Celestron Origin into FITS files. One product will play a supporting role in a poster at the upcoming AAS meeting, So far I'm going through IDL+IRAF, widely viewed as a suboptimal workflow, but here we are.
After seeing Wicked 2: For Good, I now anticipate seeing someone at DragonCon cosplaying Glinda cosplaying a Nazgul.
December 3, 2025 at 1:46 AM
After seeing Wicked 2: For Good, I now anticipate seeing someone at DragonCon cosplaying Glinda cosplaying a Nazgul.
When reviewing a journal submission, I might imagine that someone castigating the authors for poor use of English might take care to use only actual English words in their complaints. But maybe not.
December 2, 2025 at 5:54 PM
When reviewing a journal submission, I might imagine that someone castigating the authors for poor use of English might take care to use only actual English words in their complaints. But maybe not.
And to think I remember when the same university's administration dragged a professor all the way up to federal appeals court for saying good things about the argument from design in human anatomy during an optional lecture... words has it the "complaints" were requested. (see Bishop v Aronov)
December 2, 2025 at 3:16 PM
And to think I remember when the same university's administration dragged a professor all the way up to federal appeals court for saying good things about the argument from design in human anatomy during an optional lecture... words has it the "complaints" were requested. (see Bishop v Aronov)
So it turns out this is the timeline where everyone on the Medicare email list gets mental health advice signed by Dr. Oz.
December 2, 2025 at 4:56 AM
So it turns out this is the timeline where everyone on the Medicare email list gets mental health advice signed by Dr. Oz.
I am in no position to answer, as we plan next month's trip to empty a Tucson storage unit. Much of the content will likely be transported to an Alabama storage unit. Please applaud for my determination to rehome a 25-cm telescope whose counterweights made me pull a muscle while putting it there.
November 29, 2025 at 4:23 PM
I am in no position to answer, as we plan next month's trip to empty a Tucson storage unit. Much of the content will likely be transported to an Alabama storage unit. Please applaud for my determination to rehome a 25-cm telescope whose counterweights made me pull a muscle while putting it there.
There's no call to be quite so personal.
November 29, 2025 at 3:53 AM
There's no call to be quite so personal.
Reposted by Bill Keel
π The December 2025 edition of The Evening Sky Map is available to download at skymaps.com/tesm/. The PDF features a Sky Calendar and easy-to-use sky maps for the northern and southern hemispheres, as well as equatorial regions. Please share, and enjoy exploring the Universe! π
#stargazing #space
#stargazing #space
November 28, 2025 at 11:17 PM
π The December 2025 edition of The Evening Sky Map is available to download at skymaps.com/tesm/. The PDF features a Sky Calendar and easy-to-use sky maps for the northern and southern hemispheres, as well as equatorial regions. Please share, and enjoy exploring the Universe! π
#stargazing #space
#stargazing #space