Our Island Universe
banner
ourislanduniverse.space
Our Island Universe
@ourislanduniverse.space
🌌 #𝑶𝒖𝒓𝑰𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝑼𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆 explores all things space — how what happens 𝙪𝙥 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 shapes life 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚. #Astronomy connects us across #cultures and #time; by sharing stories of our #cosmic past and present, I hope to inspire a brighter future. #SpaceWatch 🌟🔭🛰️🚀🪐
Pinned
We don’t know when we left the savannah but we did. We don’t know when we first crossed the oceans blue but we did. To our successors, July 20 will represent a major milestone: we set foot on another world for the first time. 56 years later, is #science about to go dark?
READ MORE:
🔗 tiny.cc/MoonDay
Reposted by Our Island Universe
Looking right into the auroral substorm
December 21, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
True! Many people live in cities where all but the brightest stars have been erased due to light pollution. When we can no longer see a dark starry night sky with the Milky Way blazing overhead, something fundamental to being human has been lost. I think that's what Calvin & Hobbes captures here. 🧪🔭
December 21, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
Save the date! The first Astronomy on Tap DC will be on January 21st at @dc9club.bsky.social. Stay tuned for details about the talk line-up and make sure to RSVP for your free ticket before the show sells out: dice.fm/event/mx8dxr...
December 20, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
The White House has been caught.

The administration inserted a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross into the Epstein files and falsely implied it showed them with victims.

In reality, it’s a publicly available fundraiser photo featuring Jackson and Ross’s own children.
December 20, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
The winter solstice occurs Sunday morning at 10:03am EST — the longest night of the year.

Long before modern calendars, people knew this moment in advance. From Newgrange to Chankillo, ancient monuments show how careful skywatching became humanity’s first way of trusting time.
🧪🔭
bit.ly/WhySolstice
December 20, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
#ourworldiswonderful; tonight I leave you with a moody sky above a moody North Sea. This was taken from the beach at Flamborough lifeboat station on Flamborough Head in East Yorkshire.
December 8, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Ready to go beyond imaging with your #Unistellar #telescope?

Join the @astrosociety.org’s live 5-session workshop and learn to analyze FITS data, build light curves, detect variable #stars + #exoplanets, & contribute to real citizen #science.

Starts Jan 21
Register → bit.ly/UnistellarWorkshop
Unistellar Telescope Training: Learn, Image & Do Real Science (Jan 21)
Master your Unistellar telescope and contribute to real astronomy. Five live online workshops start Jan 21. Early bird $199. Beginner-friendly.
bit.ly
December 9, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
Some songs don’t just play — they open a portal.

I thought about @pearljam.com, my brother & how music becomes the #universe’s way of remembering those we’ve loved & lost.

If a song has ever carried you back in time, this is for you. "Music is how your soul remembers."
substack.com/@ourislandun...
When the Soul of the Universe Remembers in Song
How music binds our lives into constellations — and how loss reveals the universe’s quiet tenderness.
substack.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Ever notice how certain songs become time machines?

I thought about how @pearljam.com & their music ties me to my brother, to the past, & to the versions of ourselves we never fully lose.

If a song has ever hit you like memory itself, this essay will speak to you.
open.substack.com/pub/ourislan...
When the Soul of the Universe Remembers in Song
How music binds our lives into constellations — and how loss reveals the universe’s quiet tenderness.
open.substack.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:45 PM
#CarlSagan joked that to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the #universe.

The truth is even more beautiful: the apples, the sugar, and the atoms in our own bodies were forged in ancient #stars.

Read @shanilv.ca's #Thanksgiving reflection!

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/ourislan...
November 27, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
If you wanted to make an apple pie from scratch for today, you’re ~13.8 billion years late!🧪🔭

#CarlSagan was right: every apple, every atom, every one of us was forged in ancient stars.

ASP's own @shanilv.ca tells the #cosmic story behind your #Thanksgiving pie:
🔗 open.substack.com/pub/ourislan...
November 27, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
“Science is a way of seeing, not just knowing.”

On what would have been Carl Sagan’s 91st birthday we celebrate one of #science’s greatest storytellers — a reminder that curiosity & wonder unite us all.

💫 Read @shanilv.ca reflection:
open.substack.com/pub/ourislan...

#CarlSaganDay #Astronomy #ASP
November 11, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
WE ARE BACK!! And the Roman telescope is looking *GREAT* as we continue to prep it for launch here at @nasagoddard 🚀✨ Roman is designed to unravel the mysteries of the dark universe - dark matter & dark energy - as well as finding tens of thousands of new planets outside our solar system.
November 14, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
Good morning Bluesky friends! We have started our holiday sale early so you can take your time to shop small this season! 💖

20% off (nearly) everything in the shop will automagically appear in your cart 🛒

shop.startorialist.com
STARtorialist Online Shop
STARtorialist is a women-owned small business founded by professional astronomers to curate space- and science-themed products, support independent designers, and contribute to STEM education and outr...
shop.startorialist.com
November 15, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
11:11 on 11/11. Every year in school we read In Flanders Fields — a poem that still stops me cold.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row…

We are the Dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.

— John McCrae (1915)

Lest we forget. 🇨🇦 #RemembranceDay
November 11, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
On what would have been his 91st birthday, I reflect on how Carl Sagan helped humanity look up & inward, reminding us that science is a way of seeing, not just knowing.🔭🧪

💫 Read on #Medium
The Candle in the Dark: #CarlSagan’s Legacy
🔗 medium.com/@shanil.vira...

#CarlSaganDay #Cosmos #PaleBlueDot
𝘛𝘩𝘦 Candle in the Dark: Celebrating Carl Sagan and the Human Story of Science
Science is not a list of facts — it’s a human story.
medium.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:57 AM
“We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

On what would have been #CarlSagan’s 91st birthday, I reflect on how he helped us look up — and inward — reminding us that #science is a way of seeing, not just knowing.

💫 Read on #Substack:
👉🏽 open.substack.com/pub/ourislan...

#CarlSaganDay #Cosmos 🔭
𝘛𝘩𝘦 Candle in the Dark: Celebrating Carl Sagan and the Human Story of Science
Science is not a list of facts — it’s a human story. Today, on what would have been Carl Sagan’s 91st birthday, I reflect on how he helped humanity look up — and inward — reminding us that science is ...
open.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
Excited to attend the @astrosociety.org gala tonight & receive the Nancy Grace Roman Award! I read about her life & career on my way here. Did you know she was responsible for making NASA data archives public so that everyone could benefit, not just PIs? Such an amazing impact on our field. 🔭
November 9, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
Join us at our November Astronomy on Tap at @dc9club.bsky.social on Tuesday November 18th! Talk program TBA shortly.
Make sure to RSVP for your free ticket: dice.fm/event/eow3y2...
November 8, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
We are so happy to see @juliaastro.org leading a #JuliaLang workshop at #AAS247!

Our inaugural #Astro101 for @unistellar.bsky.social #smart #telescope users introduced 30 participants to #Julia for data analysis — showing how #smartscope users can explore #astronomy with professional-grade tools.🧪🔭
Would you or your colleague like to improve the performance of your data analysis? Then please join us at our @julialang.org workshop at the 247th @aas.org meeting on Jan 3, 2026 in Phoenix, AZ. The regular registration deadline is Nov 7.

aas.org/meetings/aas...

#aas247 #JuliaLang #astrocode
AAS 247: Registration | American Astronomical Society
aas.org
October 30, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.

Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.

They are not the same.
October 30, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
#Science and #scienceeducation are in real danger. Funding is vanishing, public trust is fading, and even 136-year-old institutions like @astrosociety.org face an uncertain future.

This #NationalEstatePlanningWeek consider a legacy that keeps #curiosity alive. Fund #wonder:
🔭 bit.ly/ASP-Legacy-G...
Write Your Legal Will Online, Free & Simple | FreeWill
FreeWill lets you make your last will and testament quick, easy, and completely free. It is a simple online legal will maker that helps you compile will forms to print and sign, or to take as a basic ...
www.freewill.com
October 22, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
If #NASA matters to you, if the most powerful force our government has in inspiring the hopes & dreams of tomorrow’s scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, & innovators matter to you then you can’t sit silently on the sidelines as the White House proposes cuts that are tantamount to its elimination.🧪
NASA may have to cancel major space missions due to budget cuts

Potential cuts of up to 50 per cent of NASA's science budget could mean cancelling missions including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager probes

www.newscientist.com/article/2472...
October 21, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Wonder & awe about the natural world begins outside the #classroom.

#Planetariums, citizen #science, & #storytelling spark the #curiosity that keeps #physics alive.

Read why #informal #learning is essential to the discipline itself
🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2507.18851
#ScienceCommunication #Inspiration #APS
October 16, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Our Island Universe
#Physics & #astronomy thrives when 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 has a way in.
#Science is our quest to understand why the #cosmos is the way it is & 𝘯𝘰𝘵 some other way. #Informal #education isn’t a “bonus” — it’s the bridge between #discovery & #society. It's how we share what we've learned. This #APS paper hits the 🎯.
October 16, 2025 at 7:45 PM