Brad Snowder @Skywise@octodon.social

I just sold the rights to use my crater photo to another college textbook. I've lost count of how many that makes since I took it in 1991. There is also a large print hanging @GriffithObserv. The story behind the photo is a helluva tale. More... https://skywiseunlimited.com/2013/07/14/astronomers-totally-at-large/

There's a semi-circle of stars called Corona Borealis. The Cheyenne call it The Camp Circle. To the Blackfoot it's the Spider God. To Indigenous Australians, The Boomerang. To the Welsh, The Castle of Lady Arianrhod. To Chinese it's Guansuo, a debtor's prison. I call it The Taco.

The constellation of Aries is pretty much just three little stars. That's it, sorry. The early Babylonians called it The Farm Worker. To the Chinese it was a couple of government inspectors. Again, I'm so sorry.

Magellan's crews were dismayed when they got back to Europe to find that going west around the world caused their calendars to be one day short. They had seen one fewer sunrises and sunsets than the folks who stayed at home. I'll leave it to the reader to do the math.

In a small telescope the Eight-Burst Nebula looks like a figure 8. Sideways it looks like an infinity symbol. If you repeatedly tap your telescope it looks like an angry bumble bee caught in a small jar.

The Butterfly Nebula is a nebula that looks like a butterfly. So that's a relief.

Someone ate all the banana bread. Antifa maybe.

First day of class and I'm suspending the assignment until they put down the coup.

I love America. Oh it's totally a whore of Babylon though.

Let us hope this is the high water mark of the maga confederacy.

The Giant Void is an extremely large empty place, one billion light-years across, located in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered in 1988. If my wife and I had moved there in 1988 it would now be filled with all kinds of crap and we would be looking at moving into a bigger void.

Steady State Theory: The idea that conditions in the past were no better or worse than they ever will be.

Decoupling Event: the point in time when the universe had cooled enough that matter and energy could read the terms and conditions.

Critical Density: when lots of scientists point out the flaws in your paper.

“The drum in a dream pounds loud to the dreamer.” ~ Carl Sandburg

“You can be in my dream if I can be in yours.” ~ Bob Dylan

NGC-1097 and NGC-1365 are Seyfert galaxies which means they show signs in their cores of supermassive acid reflux disease. Galaxies eat everything they can but it's not always good for them. Quasars are when blackholes are pigging out like some kind of contest at a county fair.

Turns out some assholes have been holding up three fingers to form a "W" shape for white supremacy. And here I thought they were really into the constellation Cassiopeia.

Congratulations to everyone achieving something in the coming year!

Young lovers, it's great you've found someone, but before you throw yourself into something you'll regret later, get to know each other. Then throw yourself into something you'll regret later.

Saturn kept getting in my shot of Jupiter so I photoshopped it out.