Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 13/08/2026For a moment the Sun turned black and all around it white flames burned. Night fell, and the evening star shone high in the sky. 🔭 #eclipse #spain #photography 040
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Reflect Orbital plan to ruin the night sky by putting thousands of mirrors in orbit. They are not the first to try doing this - thirty years ago the Russians put the first, and so far only, reflective mirror in orbit. 🧪🔭open.substack.comReflections on Placing Mirrors in SpaceOn plans, new and old, to put mirrors in orbit 2106
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Imagine the outrage if Iran bombed an American school. Imagine the hatred, the violent revenge attacks on innocents, the indiscriminate bombings of Iran that would follow. What a stain this attack is on the USA and all of its citizens. www.bbc.com/news/article...bbc.com'What was their crime?': BBC visits Iran school in Minab where strike killed 120 childrenNearly five months on, grief is still raw as a teacher and a mother recall the horror of the attack in Minab. 000
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Unlucky number 13. In comparison, after thirteen flights the Saturn V had put a dozen people on the Moon and launched a space station. 010
Reposted by Alastair WilliamsJonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Starship Flight 13 aborted at booster ignition at 2245:29 UTC. No launch occurred, scrub for today, safe engine shutdown. 2414
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 16/07/2026"Las Malvinas" are for the penguins, not the Argentines. 000
Reposted by Alastair WilliamsKelly Lynne D’Angelo ✨ @kellylynnedang.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Please blow up the public comment (included below): BREAKING NEWS (7/15) — The administration wants to destroy Chaco Canyon without consulting Tribal Nations. It’s an irreplaceable historic & cultural site with 4,700 archeological sites that could be lost to the bulldozers of oil & gas development 240673920
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 05/06/2026The potential evacuation is almost certainly from an abundance of caution, but also a very serious and apparently unexpected situation. #iss #space 020
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 11/05/2026New post on the dawn of astrophotography #space #astrophotography #historyofastronomyopen.substack.comSeizing The Light: The First Photographs Of The HeavensOn the dawn of astrophotography 070
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 07/05/2026Is sending a nuclear ship to Mars a good idea? #space #technology #NASA #Marssubstack.comA Nuclear Ship For Mars: Making Sense of Space Reactor FreedomOn NASA's quest to send a nuclear reactor to Mars 000
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 04/05/2026Early 2000's concept art from NASA is just fantastic #NASA #Space 020
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 15/04/2026The more I read this article on a 'surge' in meteor strikes, the more skeptical I become. Is there any reason to think the increase it talks about is not simply down to random chance? The analysis itself seems to read like something an AI would cook up... amsmeteors.org/ams-q1-2026-...amsmeteors.orgQ1 2026: Has Something Changed in the Near-Earth Fireball Environment? — American Meteor Society 010
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 13/04/2026The great comet of 1882 was extraordinarily bright, so much so that it could be seen even in the middle of the day as it approached the Sun. Here it was photographed from Cape Town by David Gill. #historyofastronomy #space #comets #photography 0152
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 10/04/2026🔭🧪open.substack.comThe Week in Space and Physics: Back To The MoonOn Artemis II, the future of NASA, the fate of a comet, and eleven thousand new asteroids 040
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 04/04/2026Space exploration should never be about trying replace the Earth. It must be about inquiry, about a desire to learn and to better ourselves, to explore. There is great beauty out there, but there is no other home for humanity. 120
Reposted by Alastair WilliamsMeade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 03/04/2026How anybody can look at this image and think there are better options out there is entirely beyond me. The only planet with whales, and butterflies, and giant sequoias. Home. 14488101
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 03/04/2026The Orion Nebula, photographed by George Ritchey in 1901. #historyofastronomy #space #photography #history 0205
Reposted by Alastair WilliamsGhostblackout🏳️🌈 @ghostblackout.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Posting this here because @nasaspaceflight.com hasn't yet NASA's engineering cameras for #Artemis2 images-assets.nasa.gov/video/KSC-20...images-assets.nasa.gov 4226
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Imagine waking up to that view! #NASA #ArtemisII 072
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Quite unfortunate that most of the exciting Artemis activities are taking place during European sleeping hours! 000
Reposted by Alastair WilliamsTalia al Ghoul 🏳️⚧️ @usili.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Oh wow, the photos already released from NASA for the launch of Artemis II from the NASA HQ flickr. 3504131
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 01/04/2026The lunar plain of Mare Humorum sketched by Etienne Trouvelot in 1875. To the bottom right is the crater Gassendi, on the top left the craters of Vitello and Doppelmayer. #historyofastronomy #space #artemis #art #science 0131
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026Before the age of astrophotography, the night sky had to be drawn. Here is the work of one of the greatest. #historyofastronomy #art #space #historyopen.substack.comThe Moth and The Aurora: The Work of Étienne Léopold TrouvelotOn the life and the art of Étienne Léopold Trouvelot 0228
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026The Orion Nebula, photographed in 1883 by Andrew Ainslie Common. This image was the first to reveal stars too faint to be seen by the human eye. #historyofastronomy #space #photography #history 0184
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 30/03/2026The Earth, seen by the crew of Apollo 17. Since that flight no human has gone high or far enough to see the entirety of the Earth silhouetted against the void. #space #historyofastronomy #NASA #artemis #apollo #photography 0143
Reposted by Alastair WilliamsAnonymous Don @anondon.bsky.social · 22/03/2026It worries me less that the president—whose is, as we all learned long ago absent of morals and decency—would say this, but more that 40% of the U.S. population remain unmoved by such despicable comments. 3547
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 22/03/2026Oh okay, we're now at the point where America is threatening to commit terrible war crimes. What more red flags do you need to realise something is terribly wrong? 000
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 19/03/2026Have you ever heard of the red supergiant problem? 🧪🔭open.substack.comThe Strange Problem With Red SupergiantsAre the biggest stars vanishing without a trace? 050
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2026LLMs do not offer objective feedback. If you ask them is something is good they will tell you it is. If you ask them to criticise they will. Even if you ask them to criticise their own output! 001
Reposted by Alastair WilliamsAndrew Parsonson @andrewparsonson.bsky.social · 18/03/2026Unfavorable weather conditions have pushed the launch date of the next Isar Aerospace Spectrum flight to no earlier than 23 March. Image credit: Isar Aerospace 182
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 18/03/2026Got to love tech CEOs announcing future products that break the laws of thermodynamics. Don’t worry though, they have their best engineers at work on it. #nvidia 020
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 15/03/2026This week's newsletter looks at the changing face of WOH G64, covers the latest plans to return to the Moon, examines the newest pictures of 3I/Atlas, and asks if it is time to take panspermia seriously. 🔭🧪open.substack.comThe Week in Space and Physics: The Life of a Giant StarOn the changing nature of an extreme star, Isaacman's new approach to Artemis, a new view of comet 3I/Atlas, and more evidence in support of panspermia 0123
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 07/03/2026"I would not be surprised if we fly 400 Starship launches in the next four years,” Shotwell said in 2024. Considering they have flown just six times in the fifteen months since, they are really going to have to pick up the pace if they want to hit this ridiculous target!arstechnica.comSpaceX president predicts rapid increase in Starship launch rateIt's going to be hard to catch us, but I certainly hope people try." 020
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 06/03/2026It's not just you, orbiting data centres really are a stupid idea. #space #spacex #ai #astronomyopen.substack.comData Centres In Orbit Are Just As Crazy As You ThinkOn the latest space hype 083
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 04/03/2026Is anyone running the US not currently a psychopath? 010
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 02/03/2026The Chinese networks are a big threat to Starlink's dominance. They are unlikely to be used in the US, but there are plenty of places around the world that will see the value of an alternative and likely cheaper system. 010
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 24/02/2026I never see anyone address the question of how Musk's massive arrays of solar panels are supposed to dodge debris and avoid collisions... 220
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 24/02/2026Cool solar eclipse seen from orbit this week! Plus a look at the possibilities of nuclear electric propulsion, a possible sighting of a failed supernova, a revision to the dimensions of Jupiter, and another delay to Artemis II. #space #scicomm #astronomy #science 🧪🔭thequantumcat.spaceThe Week in Space and Physics: Atoms For SpaceOn the possibilities of nuclear propulsion, a vanishing star, the shape of Jupiter, and Artemis II. 091
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 24/02/2026In 2012 the Hinode satellite photographed Venus silhouetted against the Sun. This will not happen again until December 2117. #space #art #astronomy 13311
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 09/02/2026...and started asserting that he can build a city on the Moon instead. I wonder what happens when he learns how long the lunar night is? 000
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 22/01/2026New post today: Hubble picks up signs of dwarf worlds colliding around Fomalhaut. 🧪🔭thequantumcat.spaceThe Debris of Creation: Hubble Watches Worlds CollideOn the discovery of violent collisions around Fomalhaut 1216
Reposted by Alastair WilliamsCount Mysterioso @mysteriosox.bsky.social · 17/01/2026This is quite a post www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/reality-is... 25280102686
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 27/12/2025What do the colours of astronomical images actually mean? And why can the same object appear very different depending on the telescope we use to look at it? 🔭🧪thequantumcat.spaceThe False Colours of AstronomyThe stars don't look like the telescopes say they do 0197
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 26/11/2025New post up, looking this week at how the sister-stars of the Pleiades are now scattered across the night sky. 🧪🔭thequantumcat.spaceThe Week in Space and Physics: The Lost Sisters of the PleiadesOn the stars of the Pleiades, a superflare from a black hole, the second flight of New Glenn, and the aurora. 0100
Alastair Williams @alastairwilliams.bsky.social · 26/11/2025This is 1) a stupid idea and 2) something that will never work economically anyway. 020
Reposted by Alastair WilliamsPaul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 24/11/2025This is an incredible image of comet 3I/ATLAS, taken by Satoru Murata ICQ Comet Observations group on 16 November 2025 from western New Mexico. Structure within the major dust tail from the comet is clearly visible, together with two smaller jets trailing the nucleus and maybe even an anti-tail. 839585