A newly minted Open University PhD. Congratulations Dr Annie Lennox!

#PlanetParade had been overhyped, but here are Mars, Jupiter, Venus and last of all Mercury lurking at the lower edge of the band of grey cloud at tree top height. Video shot at 18:37 this evening.

#PlanetParade has been grossly overhyped by lazy journalists and colleagues keen to get on air. I caught sight of Mercury at 18:27 but Saturn was already too low. See pics. Venus is easy in the first 2, but you won’t spot Mercury except in the 3rd, magnified view. (Mars & Jupiter were lovely though)

Who else is wearing a #Churchill scarf today?

This is “Mercury confiding the infant Bacchus to the nymphs” by F Boucher, which I saw today at the Wallace Collection. Note the snakes wrapped around Mercury’s staff, which is why faculae on the planet Mercury are named after “snake” in a different language each time.

Mere twilight, or where the shadows lie.
Here’s a view of permanently shadowed Tolkien crater at Mercury’s North Pole from yesterday’s flyby by BepiColombo. Story at www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

Captain, my captain! Great to see Diarmaid MacCulloch on University Challenge after nearly 50 years, and this time with his name spelt right.

#BepiColombo MCCAM image from today’s (5th) #Mercury flyby at a range of 51000km. If you zoom into the pic you can see the whole of the Caloris basin. Its floor is covered by relatively bright lavas. The dark spot is Atget crater, exposing Low Reflectance Material. North is towards the bottom.

@geolsoc.bsky.social panel discussion: “What does it take to get involved in space missions?” live right now: Jack Wright, Philippa Mason, Richard Gail, John Bridges.

Great presentation on Mercury by the Open University’s Jack Wright to kick off @geolsoc.bsky.social Geofutures conference, with good advice to early career researchers

Mercury geological mapping at the Open University: checking agreement at quadrangle boundaries