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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 12/08/2026

Just a couple of the eleventy-billion photos of the eclipse I took 😅

A boat is in the mid distance in front of the shore and some buildings. It's close to sunset so the sky is orange a day there are some low clouds. The Sun is partially eclipse and close to the horizon. Since the Sun is partially eclipsed, it looks almost like an orange crescent Moon is setting.

A total solar eclipse. The sky is dark and there are some buildings and lights on the horizon. The Moon is a dark circle covering the Sun. There is a hazy halo around the Moon, which is the Sun's corona. It's kinda spooky.

A bright orange crescent on a black background. The orange crescent is the partially eclipsed Sun.

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 05/08/2026

Thrilled to be one of this year's NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award recipients! 🥳 aips.org.au/2026-young-t... 🧪

A woman wearing a navy blue cap and sunglasses is taking a selfie. She's standing in front of two radio dishes, these look like bit TV dishes. She's in the western Australian outback. The dirt behind her is orange and there are low shrubs and bushes. The sky is blue with some fluffy white clouds

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 22/04/2026

Officially 5 years to the day since I submitted my PhD thesis! And yes, it was pink throughout 😎

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 11/03/2026

At the ABC today to chat science with Dr Karl on Triple J at 11am AEDT! Important to say hi to Big Ted, Little Ted and Jemima

A selfie of a woman. She's wearing a light blue tshirt with a denim dress over it. The dress has rockets and planets on it. She's smiling, has her hair pulled back, and is wearing glasses. In the background you can see a big teddy bear to her left and a doll to her right

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 26/12/2025

Literally a few hours ago I commissioned @bsky.rennatelier.art to draw my dog Astro and she already finished it for me! How cute is this?! I love it! vgen.co/rennatelier ❤️

A cute drawing of a dog's face looking up at a little star above his head. He has a white face with a brown patch over one eye and brown ears

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 26/10/2025

Hailstone from the balcony in Brisbane, this storm is intense! Even after melting a bit it's bigger than a 50 cent piece!

Hand holding a blob of ice. The blob is more than 2 fingers wide

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 03/10/2025

Stopping in to say hi to one of my fav telescopes on the way to Siding Spring Observatory! Tonight, I'm on a panel in a pub in Coonabarabran. Siding Spring is an optical Observatory, but I'm a radio astronomer. So I had to stop in at the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) first! 🔭📡

A woman wearing black stands in the foreground. In the background are 4 radio telescopes. They look like large TV antennas. Each one is 22m in diameter.

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 07/09/2025

Did you even see the eclipse if you don't post a fuzzy phone camera photo of it? 🌚

A Black background with a small, red-ish dot in the middle. That dot is the Moon, trust me

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 05/09/2025

Totality, when the Moon is completely inside the Earth's dark shadow (or umbra) starts at 3:30am AEST and lasts 82 minutes. This is when the Moon turns red and is called a "Blood Moon". Then at 4:52am the Moon starts heading out of the umbra again (partial eclipse)

A diagram of what an eclipse is. The Sun is on the left, the Earth in the middle, and the Moon is in the Earth's shadow on the right. The outer, fainter shadow of the Earth is called the Penumbra. The innder, darker shadow of the Earth is called the Umbra

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 05/09/2025

If you're downunder like me and you want to see the best parts of the eclipse, it's going to be a very early morning (or very late night). The partial eclipse, when the darkest part of Earth's shadow starts crossing the Moon, begins at 2:28am on Monday the 8th of September

A table showing the start and end times of the eclipse for different states in Australia. This information as a table can be found in the article I linked in the first post in this thread

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 03/09/2025

On my way to Adelaide to talk about radio astronomy and radio stars! 🌟 www.assa.org.au

A photo of a smiling woman in su glasses and a hat. She's standing on the red dirt of outback WA with two ASKAP antennas in the background. The antennas look like big TV dishes. There's info about the talk overlaid, that info can be found via the link in the post

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 08/08/2025

I'm the voice of an audiobook! Not something I ever thought I'd do, but I was so excited when Dr Karl asked me to voice the audiobook version of Vital Science It was loads of fun, thanks to the fantastic reading material and the amazing producer I worked with at Bolinda Audio

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 16/06/2025

So many radio astronomers all in one place! The SKAO Science Meeting begins 📡 #SKAO2025

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 15/06/2025

Getting ready for the first day of the SKAO General Science meeting tomorrow! Who knew that this many radio astronomers could fit in one small German town?

A photo looking down a river from a bridge. On the left are some old-ish German buildings, mostly with red tiled rooves. On the right are trees and a low stone wall. The water is pretty still, so the scenery is reflected beautifully. The sky is a gorgeous clear blue with some fluffy clouds close to the horizon

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 20/05/2025

Looking for something to do tonight? Come hear me talk about my research at The Commercial Hotel for Pint of Science Australia! It's on tonight, the 20th of May, from 7pm to 9pm in Parramatta. Book your spot here: pintofscience.com.au/event/size-m...

Ad for my Pint of Science talk with text saying: "Pint of Science 2025 at The Commercial Hotel, Parramatta
7pm to 9pm on Tuesday the 20th of May

Did you know that black holes can photobomb stars? Hear about how we’ve more than doubled the known number of radio stars using Australia’s ASKAP telescope. Stars might seem easy to find, but it’s a lot trickier with black holes everywhere!"

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 18/03/2025

If you're in Sydney on Thursday the 3rd of April, come and see my free public talk! Thursday the 3rd of April, 6:15 PM, Hermann's Bar, Wentworth Building, Butlin Ave, Camperdown NSW 2050 Get your free tickets here: www.rtbevent.com/laura-driessen

A woman with wavy brown hair is wearing blue-rimmed glasses and a navy blue dress with space things (rockets, planets, space ships, asteroids) sketched in white on it. The text says: "Raising the Bar Sydney", "Astronomers are bad at naming things (including this talk)", "20 Free Talks. 10 Local Bars. 1 Night."

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 21/02/2025

11 years ago today, I finished my first ever astronomy research report at the end of a fantastic summer research project at @icrar.bsky.social! I was still an undergrad and before this project, I thought I'd be a cosmologist. But radio got me hooked and look where I am today!

A bad lighting 2014 photo of a report titled "a high-resolution, low frequency study if the Galactic Centre". Because of the time (2014) i wrote doge (the Shiba Inu, not the DOGE of today) style words over the top: such report, many writing, much relief, wow

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 15/01/2025

Happy 11th birthday to my doggo, Astro! 🎉🎂 here he's pictured living the kind of life of comfort and relaxation only whippets can achieve 😆

A white whippet is comfortable stretched out on a pile of cushions on a queen size bed. The pillows and doona cover are light blue with geometric patterns. The Dog is white and skinny with really long front legs stretched as far out as they can. He has brown ears and a brown splotch on his side. He has a cute pink tummy with brown splotches.

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 14/01/2025

The amazing @esa.int Gaia telescope is taking its last measurements today Gaia has had a tremendous impact on astronomy. Without the easy to access (and use) data releases, a lot of the work I do would be impossible Thank you, Gaia and team! Can't wait for the future data releases! 🔭🧪

Artist's impression of the Gaia space telescope in front of the Milky Way. Gaia looks kind of like a sunhat. I've added a little halo above it. The Milky Way has a glowy centre and you can see the dusk tracks in the disk. You can also see the bright blobs of the Magellanic Clouds below the Milky Way

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 24/12/2024

Throwback to when my sister and I made a porg piñata for Christmas! Piñatas are a bit of a Christmas tradition for my extended family 🎅🎄

A piñata in the shape of a porg from Star Wars. It has little pipe cleaner legs and everything

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 13/12/2024

On ABCNews Live this morning chatting about the Gemind meteor shower! The full Moon will be against us this year 🌝 but if you get up early around Moon-set, you should still be able to catch a few meteors ☄️ best time in Australia will be around 3 or 4am Saturday the 14th of December 🔭

A picture of a TV showing ABCNews Live (Australia). The host is a blonde woman in a hot pink high neck blouse and white blazer. She's wearing glasses and is on the left side of the screen. Dr Laura Driessen is on the right being interviewed. Laura is wearing a high neck dress that has space things all over it, like Jupiter, rockets, astronauts and moons. She's wearing blue glasses. At the bottom of the TV screen it says "Australia's top Geminid meteor shower set to peak this weekend"

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 01/12/2024

It's December, so it's astro-wreath time! 🎄📡🌟

A dark green Christmas wreath with small, shiny stars on it. It also has 6 circles on it, each circle has a different astronomy image on it. They are: a JWST image of a Galaxy, a Juno image of Jupiter, an ASKAP image of a supernova remnant, an Event Horizon Telescope image of the black hole at the centre of our Galaxy, a MeerKAT image of the Galactic Centre, and the Hubble Ultra Deep field

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 27/11/2024

Black holes, telescopes, and stars (oh my)! Listen to me chat with Sana Qadar about my life in astronomy on ABC RN Conversations today! At 11:05am on ABC Local Radio (nationally except Vic), at 3:05pm on Radio National, or from this arvo on Spotify and the ABC Listen app 😀

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 22/08/2023

Today's the day! You'll be able to see me on ABC Catalyst being a nerd about sound in space! The Catalyst episode "The Soundtrack of Australia: Part 2" will air on ABC TV at 8:30pm tonight, and it'll be available to stream on iView too 🌟 iview.abc.net.au/show/soundtr...

A slightly awkward selfie of a woman with blonde curly hair wearing a maroon blazer, standing in front of the magestic Murriyang (Parkes) Radio Telescope. In the picture with can see the udner-side of the dish, which looks like a giant TV antenna. The sky in the background is very blue.

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 19/08/2023

Here is a pic of my leggy good boy in his down time (when he's not running laps to demonstrate what apparent retrograde motion is)

A white whippet with brown splotches, most notably a brown path over one ear and eye, is snoozling on a bean bag. Like most skinny dogs, he's a sensitive guy who doesn't like the cold, so he's tucked in to not one, but two blankies. Because he has such long, model-worthy legs, all four feets are tucked forward and sticking out of the blankets near his face. He is wearing a cute royal blue collar.

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 18/08/2023

I'm so excited that I got to be part of this very cool two part series on sound, and it was amazing to work with the Catalyst team! Just as exciting was that this was the first time that I got to visit Murriyang (the Parkes Radio Telescope) and take epic pics of it!

A sunset image of thr Parkes Telescope (looks like a giant TV dish) pointing straight up. The sky is a lovely mix of orange fading into pink. Above the dish you can see the Orion Constellation

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 18/08/2023

Check out ABC Catalyst "The Soundtrack of Australia: Part 2" this Tuesday the 22nd of August to see me talking about sound in space! You'll be able to watch it on iView on Tuesday the 22nd of August, or watch the premiere on ABC TV at 8:30pm that same day.

An image of Australia made of rainbow sound waves

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 17/08/2023

All done already! I was first up, so now I can sit back, relax, and listen to 7 more amazing science speakers!

A blonde woman in front of a microphone and podium gesticulates passionately while talking about how radio is not sound

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 17/08/2023

Getting ready to record for the ABC Radio National Ockham's Razor podcast at the Powerhouse, with fellow Superstar of STEM Indrani Mukherjee 🌟 I'm excited to talk all about radio! 📡 #ScienceWeek

Two women stand together ready to talk about science!

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 12/08/2023

And I even got to hang out with fellow Superstar, the amazing Karen Livesey, who gave a fab talk about treating cancer with nano-magnets (so cool 🤯). Credit for the pics of me speaking goes to Karen 😎

Two women in sunglasses taking a selfie in a park in Lake Macquarie. The sky is blue, their smiles are big, and the science game is strong

A woman with dark blonde hair and a pink shirt (Karen) stands confidently in front of a PowerPoint presentation. The slide shows an organism with naturally occurring iron particles in it

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 12/08/2023

Had so much fun and so many excellent questions at Lake Macquarie library today to kick off National Science Week!

A blonde wavy hair woman (me) in a dress with space dinosaurs on it is talking in front of a PowerPoint showing the Milky Way galaxy

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 02/08/2023

It's that time of year, (Australian) astronomy summer studentship applications are open! If you're an undergrad (in Australia or NZ) who wants to try out astronomy research this summer, then get on it!

A large radio dish stands in a field in front of a beautiful blue sky. The dish is the Murriyang (Parkes) Radio Telescope and it's magnificent.

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Dr Laura Driessen @astrolaura.com · 06/07/2023

Hi everyone! *waves* I'm Laura and I'm a radio astronomer searching for radio stars with the ASKAP telescope at the University of Sydney! Nice to meet you on not-twitter (I'm @AstroLauraD on twitter)

A woman with blonde wavy hair is standing in front of the Christmas tree shaped antennas of the SKA low test array. She's wearing a pinafore style dress, that has a picture of the SKA low antennas on it

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