Joe Eggen
zuul01.bsky.social
Joe Eggen
@zuul01.bsky.social
Astronomer, husband, & dad. I work in mission operations for a space telescope and study active galaxies.
Just lost 1.5+ hours of sleep because my subconscious was worried about an upcoming exam for a class I forgot to attend all semester. Man, fvck that recurring dream.
August 6, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Having grown up in the Midwest but never being able to remember the difference between a "watch" vs a "warning", I am *so very happy* to finally have a way to figure it out now.
The difference between a tornado WATCH and a tornado WARNING is that a WARNING means it's imminent 🚨 but if it's a WATCH you've got time ⌚

(yes I've seen the taco/sandwich/whatever memes but this is the only one I can remember because it has the watch-time word association)
May 15, 2025 at 10:32 PM
The sound accompanying the Junkers Ju 87 (aka the Stuka dive bomber) as it dove to target was produced by the Jericho trumpet during WWII and by my 401k in 2025.
April 4, 2025 at 6:24 PM
One of the nice things about driving an electric car is not needing to listen to gas station ads in the freezing cold.
January 10, 2025 at 2:27 PM
As an astronomer, there are two tropes that I see consistently in media:
1) smart people have telescopes in their living rooms
2) set designers do not know how to correctly assemble telescopes (this happens A LOT)
December 6, 2024 at 3:59 AM
The Roman Space Telescope, currently under construction at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center. This is in the SSDIF (asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/sm3a...) in Building 29, which is the largest high-bay clean room in the world.
December 6, 2024 at 3:45 AM
If you think about it, the most amazing room on the Starship Enterprise isn't main engineering, sick bay, the transporter, or holodeck - it's the Ready Room. 3-5 minute meetings that id a problem, brainstorm solutions, and end with clear action items for all parties? Nothing short of miraculous.
December 6, 2024 at 3:35 AM