Graham Doskoch
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astrohde.bsky.social
Graham Doskoch
@astrohde.bsky.social
820 followers 190 following 170 posts
Astronomy PhD candidate at WVU working on pulsars and gravitational wave detection with PTAs. Runner, avid reader, Astrobites alum.
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astrohde.bsky.social
It took me most of an astronomy PhD, but I finally have my own telescope! It's a Tasco 66TE-5 Cosmic II 5-mm refractor, found at a thrift store for $18. It's 59 years old and needs a tripod and more eyepieces (and proper polishing!), but it should be functional enough.
Photograph of the unassembled telescope in its case, lying on a table. It's white with black accents and is packed in styrofoam.
September 1, 2025 at 5:47 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Hello from Green Bank, West Virginia! We're halfway through the first day of the 2025 Pulsar Science Collaboratory camp. I'm super excited to teach the students about single pulse searching and the Crab. . .
Photo taken at Green Bank, with the Green Bank Telescope in the background in front of the mountains. There are pine trees on the left side and grass in the foreground.
August 3, 2025 at 5:10 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
I've had the privilege of working at JPL for the last two weeks, doing radio transient studies. Despite the current scientific climate -- or maybe *because* of it -- it's been an unforgettable experience.

Dare mighty things -- and, importantly, fund those mighty things. Fund science, not fascism.
Photograph of the sign at the entrance to JPL, reading "Jet Propulsion Laboratory" and "California Institute of Technology" with the NASA meatball logo. The sign is a black rectangle, surrounded by shrubs and trees, under a blue sky.
July 11, 2025 at 5:26 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Day 1 of #IPTA25 is in the books. So many great talks and discussions on the cool things people are doing and the awesome places the field is headed!
Photograph of the Beckman Institute at Caltech, seen from ground level. The building is a creamy white, with windows and an interior courtyard with ivy and small trees. In the foreground is a long decorative pool with blue, white and red tiles. A mostly blue sky caps off the view.
June 24, 2025 at 2:01 AM
astrohde.bsky.social
New favorite physics demo: rocket bike.

(Fire extinguisher propulsion unit not shown)
Photograph of an adult-sized tricycle in a crowded storage room. The tricycle is blue and grey and has an attachment at the rear to strap a fire extinguisher onto.
April 24, 2025 at 1:00 AM
astrohde.bsky.social
A bad joke referencing NJ's favorite son
The cover of Bruce Springsteen's album Born to Run, which features Springsteen's name and the album title in black letters, along with a black-and-white photo of Springsteen holding a guitar, wearing a leather jacket and leaning against the shoulder of an unseen second man, all with a white background.
April 14, 2025 at 10:19 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
I know this whole thing is extremely silly but we're now up to $80.55, thanks to donations for the rights to name "Mamala Kamala" and "Elvis Parsley".

(The shrimp themselves are oblivious to all of this and are doing fine now that the nitrate + ammonia concentrations have reached the right levels.)
Photograph of the right rear part of the shrimp tank, looking diagonally from the tank floor. In the foreground are plants; in the background is the tank filter, covered in greenery and with an orange shrimp near the top. In between all of this is a thin vertical stick of driftwood, with an orange and white shrimp climbing it.
March 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Since this particular case hits close to home for me, here's the full account of Hines' saga dealing with the cuts. The NIH is a major source of funding for many medical-related researchers and programs here at WVU. We're a public university without a huge endowment; opposing the cuts is critical.
Gracie Hines was preparing to accept a pharmaceutical-sciences doctoral program offer at West Virginia University when on March 3, the university rescinded her admission. The email notifying her of the withdrawal cited unforeseen budgetary challenges from proposed federal research-funding cuts. “It felt like all the work I’ve put in these last few years was worth nothing,” said Hines, 20, who is finishing her undergraduate degree at WVU in biochemistry. “I was really heartbroken and sad about it.” She has since received an offer to start a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at WVU—in a department unaffected by the federal budget cuts—or to work in the health-sciences lab until she can pursue her original plan. Without a graduate degree, she said she would be limited to lab-technician work or teaching, rather than her goal of developing vaccines or cancer medicines. WVU spokeswoman April Kaull confirmed that candidates who hadn’t yet accepted Ph.D. offers had those offers revoked. She said university leadership is working to reverse the proposed NIH cuts. Without the funding, she said, “our nation’s research universities cannot maintain research programs essential for continued national prosperity.”
March 14, 2025 at 3:27 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Timeline cleanser: Some friends and I bought a shrimp tank for our office. We decided to also raise money for an environmental charity, Conservation Fisheries, by letting people name a shrimp if they donate to the group.

$55.55 raised and counting. Meet Prawn Jovi, Obi-Prawn Kenobi, and more!
Photograph of the shrimp tank, about 20 gallons in size, with a filtration and heating system, miscellaneous plants, stone, driftwood, and substrate on the bottom. Close-up photo of one of the shrimp (Obi-Prawn Kenobi) perched on a replica of SpongeBob's pineapple inside the tank, surrounded by plants. Closeup photo of some other shrimp and a snail, between stones and a piece of driftwood.
March 9, 2025 at 9:24 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
I'm in Pittsburgh for the FRB Frontiers meeting! So excited to talk with a lot of really cool people about all things fast radio burst-related.
Photograph of city buildings at the University of Pittsburgh in the evening, taken about 40 feet off the ground and looking west. It's a bit past sunset and there are some wobbly streaks of clouds in a pale blue sky tinged with gray and red.
March 2, 2025 at 11:26 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Apropos of the destruction being wrought at NOAA, on Sunday I happened to drive by an NOAA center in Fairmont, WV. They do amazing work there involving supercomputing, and the facility has dishes that serve as a backup system for receiving data from the GOES weather satellites.
Photograph taken from the passenger seat of a car driving on a road. Two large, ~15-meter radio dishes are seen to the left and ahead, pointing to the side. In the background are hills, bare trees and a grey, cloudy sky. Photograph taken from the passenger seat of a car driving on a road, looking to the left. A large, ~15-meter radio dishes is seen to the left, pointing slightly towards the viewer. It stands on top of a grassy rise, with a barbed wire fence in front of it and another, smaller dish in the distance.
February 5, 2025 at 4:39 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Wow, the judge isn't pulling their punches. . .
And it is more than monetary harm that is at stake here. As Justice Anthony Kennedy reminds us, “Liberty is always at stake when one or more of the branches seek to transgress the separation of powers.” Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417, 449–50 (1998) (Kennedy, J. concurring)
February 1, 2025 at 12:48 AM
astrohde.bsky.social
We got news today that WVU is shuttering the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, transforming it into a new unit. Since they cite Morrisey's executive order, I'm guessing other WVU services could face similar treatment in due course (LGBTQ+ Center, Women's Resource Center, etc.).
WVU provides update regarding DEI West Virginia University has been diligently reviewing Gov. Morrisey´s Executive Order No. 3-25 while actively engaging with members of the campus community and key stakeholders and providing internal guidance and talking points to assist with initial questions or concerns. The University administration genuinely appreciates the patience being shown as this work continues. While it will take time to determine the full scope of the Executive Order, as well as the subsequent federal executive order issued by President Trump, the University is taking immediate steps to comply. This includes closing the current WVU Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. A new unit - the WVU Division of Campus Engagement and Compliance - has been established with a redefined mission. This unit will focus on ensuring the University adheres to federal and state guidance and fulfilling the needs of our campus community, including compliance with Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act which is its primary focus. This is not a rebranding, but a shift in focus that will align with the Governor´s directive. Once the University´s review is complete, administrators will have a better understanding of the impact and will provide more specific, unit-level guidance at that time. The University is committed to keeping the WVU community informed throughout this process and will continue to provide regular communication and feedback as it works to ensure it is in compliance with any and all obligations. Those with questions should contact Vice President Meshea Poore and Associate Vice President Travis Mollohan.
January 30, 2025 at 11:20 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Current air temp: frozen river.
Photograph of a bend in the Monongahela River in Morgantown. In the background are downtown and a hilly residential neighborhood. This part of the river is about 90% covered with ice and some snow. On the banks are leafless trees, with more snow on the land.
January 20, 2025 at 3:30 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Acknowledging in a paper that you used AI-generated code feels a lot like declaring illegal income from racketeering on a tax return: Sure, disclosing it is *technically* better than not disclosing, but I personally wouldn't have done the thing in the first place.
Screenshot of text from acknowledgments section of a paper: "OK and RJN thank Michigan Technological University for their support during the production of this work. ChatGPT-4 has been used to generate some of the code used in this work and was subsequently checked by the author."
January 2, 2025 at 3:05 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
The office Christmas tree is now fully decorated!
Photograph of a small artificial Christmas tree (about 3 feet high), standing on a red stool. Behind it are two blackboards. The tree is covered with blue, silver and gold ornaments, as well as computer cables and several unusual ornaments. On top, instead of a star, is a model of a single-dish radio telescope built from office supplies, a paper plate and a paper cup. Close-in photograph of one set of ornaments on the tree: an Albert Einstein action figure holding a patch roughly the size of himself, labeled "National Radio Astronomy Observatory", with a knit image of the Green Bank Telescope on it. A photograph of a model of a radio telescope on top of the tree, composed of a paper cup, a small paper plate, and some wooden coffee stirrers, all taped together. A close-up photograph of the ends of three miscellaneous computer cables, decorating the tree like strings of lights.
December 18, 2024 at 5:38 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Yesterday I went to a bookstore in Greensboro that has a collection of old books, and found a pair published around a century or so ago, written by -- well, maybe you've already heard of these authors.

(The store is Riverrun Books and Prints, right by the Mon!)
Photograph of the book "The Universe Around Us", by James Jeans. It's dark blue, with the title and author listed as "Sir James Jeans" in gold print on the cover. Photograph of the title page of the book "Popular Astronomy" by Simon Newcomb, which includes several newspaper reviews from the time.
December 15, 2024 at 3:52 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Hello from West Virginia University's physics department! Presumably someone's asking Gee, because WVU keeps using us as the poster kids for research, to justify the university retaining its R1 status.

(I ain't kidding; see this excerpt from a recent letter by the chair of Board of Governors.)
Screenshot from an email sent by Rick Pill, chair of WVU's Board of Governors: "Students and faculty are serving the land-grant mission to help the state through these research opportunities. Biochemistry major Zach Ellis is presenting his groundbreaking Huntington disease research nationwide, while our faculty are leveraging funding to pioneer trailblazing research and share a growth of knowledge in 76 countries across six continents. Shaw Prize recipients Duncan Lorimer and Maura McLaughlin contribute to that worldclass research reputation through the discoveries of fast radio bursts and the detection of gravitational waves, while assistant professor Chris Ramezan is leading a first-of-its-kind, $1.5 million center to improve the cybersecurity and cyber-resilience of businesses across the Mountain State." The part about the Shaw Prize recipients -- two professors from the physics and astronomy department -- is circled in red.
December 11, 2024 at 8:42 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
To the ~500 people who started following me last week -- hello from snowy and frigid north-central Appalachia! I'm a PhD student at WVU; I study pulsars and fast radio bursts, focusing on searches and single-pulse analyses. Right now, I'm finishing writing a couple papers, powered by hot chocolate.
Photograph looking out a window overlooking a river winding through a valley. There are hills on both sides, lightly dusted with snow, with plenty of trees and some buildings. A bridge is in the distance, by a small downtown area. The sky is cloudy and actively (but lightly snowing). The vibes are already those of mid-winter.
December 3, 2024 at 12:01 AM
astrohde.bsky.social
Some mildly interesting distributions of the CHIME VOEvents:
Three plots. One shows the distribution of dispersion measures, which looks a little like a decaying exponential. The second shows the distribution of signal-to-noise ratios, which has a peak around ~20-30 and then falls off. The third plots the coordinates of the events, which lie across the northern hemisphere of the sky.
November 8, 2024 at 2:37 AM
astrohde.bsky.social
When I went out to tend the garden yesterday, I saw a rainbow over the hills. Gonna try and think about it today.
Photograph of a rainbow in a partly cloud sky. Below and to the side are academic buildings, and in the background are hills.
November 6, 2024 at 4:39 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
I recently learned that some of the cabinets in my shared office have data taken at Parkes and Arecibo in the mid 90s -- on cassette tapes.

So there goes the rest of my week.
Photo of a drawer with boxes of small cassette tapes. Photo of several of the cassettes close up. The handwritten labels indicate that the tapes are search mode data from Parkes in 1996.
October 21, 2024 at 10:08 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Very very cool.

(It does assume there are incentives for satellite operators to use ODS, of course, but it seems like the Starlink folks are willing. . .)
Screenshot from part of the paper: "Recently, NRAO has been developing an autonomous telescope self-reporting system, the Operational Data Sharing (ODS, Nhan et al. 2024) system, to provide near real-time telescope operational information queryable by satellite operators to be incorporated into their satellite tasking algorithms, including some of the telescope avoidance schemes."
August 14, 2024 at 2:46 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
I had a ton of fun last week mentoring students at the 2024 Pulsar Science Collaboratory camp last week at the Green Bank Observatory! Their enthusiasm was infectious, and I'm so proud of how much they accomplished in just five days.

Photo credit: WVU
Photograph of a group of people standing in a line on a grassy field. Most are high schoolers and college students, with some grad students and professors sprinkled in. It's a partially cloudy day; in the distance can be seen the Green Bank Telescope, a white barn, trees, and the mountains of Pocahontas County.
August 7, 2024 at 2:57 PM
astrohde.bsky.social
Oooh, 19 new RRATs!

For distances, though . . . I feel like at some point the entry has just gotta be "Honestly, who the hell knows?"

arxiv.org/abs/2407.01285
Screenshot of table from the paper. One RRAT, J1104+14, has an estimated distance of 25000 pc . . . with a lower error of 21000 pc.
July 8, 2024 at 4:12 PM