Erica Sawczynec
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ericasawczynec.bsky.social
Erica Sawczynec
@ericasawczynec.bsky.social
1.4K followers 320 following 210 posts
University of Texas at Austin PhD candidate 🤘🏻| star & instrument (IGRINS) enthusiast ⭐️ 🔭| writer for Astrobites 🪐 | Maui, HI | she/hers

igrinscontact.github.io
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ericasawczynec.bsky.social
update: it was a terrible last night of 4.5-5 arcsecond seeing 🫩 i love feeling cold front weather but i hate observing as one rolls in
the live seeing prediction from a telescope on the neighboring mountain showing 15 mins of seeing over 4 arcseconds
November 10, 2025 at 3:32 AM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
out observing targets for my thesis (and some running survey programs) with IGRINS. Had some great weather the past few nights and hoping for more! 🔭✨
the McDonald Observatory 2.1 meter telescope dome with a beautiful sky gradient from sunset in the background the McDonald 2.7 meter telescope pointing at zenith with an open telescope dome revealing the sky it is pointing at the IGRINS slit camera viewer observer interface showing guiding on a target with two very nearby companions! the inside of the Mcdonld 2.7 meter dome at sunset, the telescope is in its stow position with IGRINS at the cassegrain focus. the telescope dome is open showing the beautiful sunset sky outside
November 9, 2025 at 12:57 AM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
a little change in hue (*´∇｀*)
smiling bathroom selfie! the change in hue is a pinky red ombré in my hair
October 29, 2025 at 11:16 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
targets with molecular hydrogen emission HATE to see me coming ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

it was truly an amazing night of observing 🔭
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*
the observations taken with IGRINS last night: the x axis is the local hour of observation and the y-axis is airmass or how high the target was in the sky when it was observed (1 is directly overhead!). the night is jam packed full of observations beginning near sunset and completing right around sunrise.
October 20, 2025 at 12:14 AM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
about to have a prolific observing night with IGRINS @ McDonald
the weather prediction for the night showing no clouds, average seeing, and low humidity for the whole night the work station for observing remote with IGRINS: four monitors for controlling the telescope computer, controlling IGRINS, monitoring the weather, and monitoring our observations
October 19, 2025 at 2:23 AM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
whatsaltareyou.com
i am sodium chloride! commonly used to defrost roads i guess.
August 5, 2025 at 9:25 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
christmas in the lab today 🥹🙂‍↕️ #instrumentation
a large pile of boxes on a mail delivery cart in the elevator optics storage cabinets with the parts all labeled on the outside of each drawer (been on my wish list for a while)
July 15, 2025 at 10:43 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
always classic
the simpson “old man yells at cloud meme” bit repurposed to say “astronomer yells at cloud” and the background behind the picture of the yelling man in newspaper now has a dust cloud behind him instead of clouds like in the normal meme
July 6, 2025 at 5:00 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
did you know that @vrubinobs.bsky.social and the nearby SOAR telescope share their unique teal accent colors? :-) 🔭 #instrumentation
the outside of the SOAR telescope, the door is painted a unique teal color just like rubin’s accent color! the inside of the SOAR telescope has many accents with the same teal! a picture i took inside rubin while it was still in construction last spring—the telescope shares the same teal accents as SOAR me smiling outside with the rubin dome! two bars that support the dome opening are the same teal as SOAR
June 23, 2025 at 5:01 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
spent the week completing my 26th lap around the sun out at Mcdonald Observatory observing with IGRINS :-) today my 27th lap starts!
a cat on a leash sits looking out a window at the HET telescope at McDonald Observatory im holding parker up by her armpits, she makes a silly not amused face, im smiling behind her small head the instrument IGRINS and its electronics rack mounted to the bottom of the 2.7m telescope at McDonald. the electronics rack has a smiley face made out of black tape on the bottom the outside of the 2.7 m dome at night, the sky is bright because of the full moon but you can see a few stars peaking through
June 11, 2025 at 5:55 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
i’m just a girl who needs a lot of screens (i’m observing, manifest good weather for me)
astronomy observing set up: two pano monitors, a laptop, and an ipad
June 7, 2025 at 8:24 AM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
they didn’t fill out the body of text on them at all—just lorem ipsum! really shows how much they care imo
a picture of a clothing tag for one of the target pride collection items. the tag has filler text in latin (lorem ipsum) instead of any real description of the clothing item
May 30, 2025 at 4:14 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
couldn’t share this at the time, but I was part of the NASA Astrophysics Mission Design school this spring! Last month I was at JPL working on some pretty cool stuff with pretty cool people—here are some pictures I can share :-) 🔭 #instrumentation
me, smiling and giving a thumbs up, in front of the TeamX banner that’s in the entryway to the building I was working in all week The JPL control room! There are several rows of desks, each as several computers that are used to monitor different missions currently in space. The two pictured desks are Voyager and Curiosity. In the background there is a screen that shows the current upload and downlink communications with various missions. In this picture the recently launched Europa Clipper is being communicated with! A model of the Mars rover Perseverance and its helicopter Ingenuity! I brought materials to make bracelets with the mission and instrument acronyms (inspired by my astronomer friend huei hehe) two are pictured on my wrist here: one for the instrument ESPI (a play on the word espy) and one for the mission SEES.
May 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
cooking up another diabolical article photo for an astrobite next week
it’s patrick from spongebob, he has a menacing look on his face with an evil little smile, he’s rubbing his hands together… menacingly
May 16, 2025 at 7:08 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
little squirrel activities as of late
an under chin shot of parker while she sits on the center console in the front seat of the cars. she’s wearing a purple harness and surveying all the land very seriously. i am also there, looking over her shoulder down at the camera wearing some pretty swaggy sunglasses a zoom in of parker curled up asleep in a sun ray. the sun is illuminating her fur making it look extra soft and fluffy. she looks like she smells like fresh warm laundry a blurry action shot of parker trying to bite the shit out of my hand parker laying in her bed mid yawn. one of her legs is out stretched out all posh like. she looks very ferocious
April 18, 2025 at 1:34 AM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
i love ordering optics
two boxes filled with snacks on a cluttered desk. one is lab snacks: quick bites from thor labs, they have a kind of scary looking green dog for a logo. the other is photon food from newport and their logo is a road runner carrying a box of newport goods with its beak.
March 26, 2025 at 10:13 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
my mission design school in a nutshell #instrumentation
it’s the meme of the guy looking at the butterfly being like “is this actually this?” and the text implies scientists look at a spatial resolution requirement less than 10 mili-arcseconds and think, is this a space-based interferometer science case?
March 25, 2025 at 8:43 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
cute little blob person making heart hands surrounded by a bunch of blurry pink emoji hearts
March 20, 2025 at 9:31 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
little smiley parker squirrel turns 4 this month 🥹
parker (grey cat) realizes that mom has a silvervine stick and turns around with an incredible shocked and excited face. the frame is blurry because she’s moving so quickly parker (grey cat) is about to chomp on the slivervine stick. her mouth is wide open and her tongue is sticking out parker (grey cat) successfully chomps on the silvervine stick. mom holds on to one end of the stick while parker “smiles” as she chomps on the stick with her back teeth. her eyes are squinted closed and her ears are back against her head parker (grey cat) leisurely slouched against her cat bed chewing on the silvervine stick using one side of her mouth. mom holds on to one end of the stick but apparently it is not stable enough because her paw also grips the stick close to moms hand. her mouth is open mid chew
March 9, 2025 at 11:53 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
being at UT is such a joke. what do you mean you’re going to force all your staff/students/grads to be less productive because you wanna be racist? so fucking embarrassing. good luck monitoring my PERSONAL device chuckleheads
February 24, 2025 at 6:40 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
i love sharing my life with this little creature
a close up of a cats face smushed into a soft blanket as she naps. she curled up like a shrimp and her tail and feet are tucked under her head and body.
February 22, 2025 at 11:36 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
“feels like 6°” exCUSE ME??
screenshot of the apple weather app for Austin zoomed in on the current temperature, 23 degrees, and what it feels like outside, 6 degrees. the high is 35 degrees and the low is 21 degrees
February 19, 2025 at 4:44 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
parker says good morning (threateningly)
a cat sits on the ledge of a loft staring (perhaps menacingly) down at the camera. her tail is tucked above her little feets
February 13, 2025 at 3:10 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
this one goes out to all my gen zers who wanna know more about the standard cosmological model of the universe 🫶🏻
steve buscemi is wearing a skater fit and has a skateboard slung over his shoulder. his hat is one backwards. he is saying, “how do you do, fellow kids?”
February 1, 2025 at 6:53 PM
ericasawczynec.bsky.social
favorite movie w my favorite girl (and @astromabes.bsky.social too)
a cat is curled up on a blanket in front of a television screen. the tv is showing an iconic image of when the castle in the sky is first seen in the studio ghibli movie castle in the sky. vibes are cozy.
January 27, 2025 at 4:16 PM