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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖

@chronicleflask.katday.com
14K followers 1.1K following 22K posts

Science & Fiction editor/writer. Krawalloger. Chemistry PhD ⚛️ Co-Editor at PseudoPod 🦑 Writer: The Crash Course Organic Chemistry & various DK science books 🧪 Short fiction ✒️ thefictionphial.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖
In Otter News @in-otter-news.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Whatever you're doing right now. Stop, breath, and look into this otter face.
A close-up photograph of Steve the otter peering curiously from among grass and dry twigs.  
No text appears in the image.
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Micro SF/F by O. Westin @microsff.com · 11h
Her son carefully lifted his ochre-stained hand from the cave wall and studied the outline. "That's me. My hand." He looked at the other hands. "Do you know all?" "Some are older than me." "That old?" "Hush you," she laughed. "We don't make these to be seen tomorrow, but because today, we live."
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I have separated the art from the artist and am now whipping the art to stiff peaks, after which I will gently fold it into the artist before baking at 350 til golden and puffed
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 20h
Today in small joys: for reasons, it’s particularly important I keep an eye on my blood pressure. I’ve had a Hilo (was Aktiia) wearable for years. But the only strap available was silicone, which irritated my skin, so I cobbled things. Until today! Because they’ve finally made a fabric strap! Yay!
A Hilo blood pressure device under a beautiful new bottle-green woven fabric strap.
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Tom Larkin @tomlarkin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
We’ve spent many, many hours over the past few months searching the rock pools of Cornwall for a rainbow sea slug. Today, we finally found one! Absolutely worth all the time we’ve spent - it was truly breathtaking.
Rainbow sea slug on a rockRainbow sea slug on a rockRainbow sea slug on a rock from aboveRainbow sea slug on a rock
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 23h
Happy #NationalCoffeeDay!
A white ceramic mug with a green tentacle for a handle, full of coffee
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emma burnett @slashnburnett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Amirite tho
White text on yellow-orange ombré background that reads:
Don't let Al ruin your writing.
It's your writing.
Ruin it yourself.

Amirite
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Jasmine 🌌🔭 @astrojaz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
stars don’t stop being beautiful even when they’re falling apart
This image of the Ring Nebula appears as a distorted doughnut. The nebula’s inner cavity hosts shades of blue and green, while the detailed ring transitions through shades of orange in the inner regions and pink in the outer region. The ring’s inner region has distinct filament elements.A vivid Hubble image of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, showing a bright blue-green central region surrounded by intricate concentric shells, loops, and wisps of glowing gas in turquoise, pink, and orange. The layered structure gives the nebula a complex, almost eye-like appearance.Webb’s view of the Southern Ring Nebula appears as a misshapen oval that is slightly angled from the top left to the bottom right. The image shows one star at the center. A large translucent pink-and-red irregular oval surrounds the central stars.A Hubble image of the Butterfly Nebula, with two enormous wing-shaped lobes of glowing gas extending outward from a bright central star. The lobes are filled with fiery orange, red, pink, and blue clouds, while a dark band of dust cuts through the center.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Textile embroidered art by Sophie Standing, British born textile artist #womensart
Pictorial textile artwork featuring an elephant facing forwards
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 28/09/2026
I have just discovered that you can get the full audio tracks of all the Blackadder series as one audiobook. And now you have, too.
Screenshot showing Blackadder: The Complete Collected Series audiobook: 15 hours and 3 minutes.
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🌈Dr. Frizzle @swilua.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I teach my science students how to write comprehensive literature reviews & every semester I meet with them one-on-one to make sure the topics they've chosen are narrow enough they're actually able to find all the existing primary peer-reviewed research in one semester The topics can be surprising!
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 28/09/2026
Per the Pastafarian Holy Calendar, today is #DoubleEntendreDay It’s a big one.
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In the latter months of his own long sickness the Master Herbal had taught him much of the healer's lore, and the first lesson and the last of all that lore was this: Heal the wound and cure the illness, but let the dying spirit go.
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 28/09/2026
I have handed out some minor edits today. I hope everyone’s okay 😆
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
While listening to council meetings in Montreal, local mayor Sue Montgomery decided to knit in red when men spoke and in green when women spoke, when similar numbers of both attended. Day 1 results.... #WomensArt
Photo of uneven knitting with much larger amounts of red yarn than green
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David Blanchflower BSc @davidbflower.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Felled Sycamore Gap stump has 'encouraging' growth.' 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Hadrian's Wall Sycamore Gap tree stump shows 'encouraging' signs
A thick layer of growth surrounds the stump three years after the landmark was illegally felled.
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Sapling 🌱 @sacredsapling.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I got the wonderful chance to be interviewed about our Moments of Euphoria project, and it was genuinely such a joyous conversation! If you need an emotional pick-me-up in a world that’s tough for us trans folks, give it a listen! 💖
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
theguardian.com
AI psychosis for dummies: the Stephen Collins cartoon
Not everything is fake, it turns out
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 26/09/2026
I saw that clip circulating yesterday and thought there could be a completely normal, non-sexist, explanation other than the rage bait one. Grateful for this (really well-written!) peek into a loving family, sad she felt she had to write it. themomoftheyear.substack.com/p/im-the-mom...
themomoftheyear.substack.com
I’m the Mom in That Viral Giants Clip. Let Me Tell You About My Husband.
You saw me carrying our baby and food. There was more happening in our family that night.
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It's a rare gift, to know where you need to be, before you've been to all the places you don't need to be.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Janis Goodman, contemporary printmaker #WomensArt #Monday
Print featuring the silhouette of a bird perched among the branches of a tree against a light blue sky
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Admirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
NASA mathematician, programmer & manager Dorothy Vaughan became the first Black female supervisor at NACA (precursor to NASA) in 1949. Her life & work, along with those of Katherine Johnson & Mary Jackson inspired the book/film Hidden Figures. She was born #OTD in 1910. #WomenInSTEM
This side-by-side composite image contrasts the real historical figure Dorothy Vaughan with the actress who portrayed her in the 2016 film Hidden Figures, celebrating her legacy as a pioneering NASA mathematician and its first Black female supervisor (1910–2008). On the left, a vintage, black-and-white portrait shows a young Dorothy Vaughan looking directly at the camera with a calm, serene, and dignified expression. She has dark hair pulled neatly back, wide eyes, and a slight, subtle smile. She wears a dark jacket or blouse. The background is completely plain and light, focusing all attention on her composed demeanor. On the right, a vibrant, color photograph of actress Octavia Spencer as Vaughan. She is positioned in a right-facing profile, turning her head back slightly to look toward the viewer with a knowing, confident, and warm expression. She has voluminous, shoulder-length dark hair and is wearing a textured gray blazer. The background is a softly blurred room filled with retro computing technology, including large reel-to-reel tape drives with prominent blue spools, symbolizing the transition to electronic data processing. The overall composition bridges history and modern media, creating an inspiring and respectful mood that honors Vaughan's immense historical significance in aerospace engineering and computer programming.
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 27/09/2026
Just finished watching Hidden Figures on Film4. That film is marvellous storytelling, helped, of course, by being based on a marvellous, true story.
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Alex Blechman @alexblechman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Data centers promise jobs but hire few people That's why I propose a law that every data center must hire 1,000 Priests of Data to worship the computers, pray to the servers, light candles, etc. The priests will boost the local economy and fill the air with the sweet sound of their Gregorian chants
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
UK textile artist Rachel Wright creates artworks using machine embroidery on calico with various fabrics #WomensArt
Pictorial textile artwork featuring a view looking down on a lighthouse in a swirling sea
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 26/09/2026
A piece of #FlashFiction for September, and for the full moon... thefictionphial.wordpress.com/2026/09/26/t...
thefictionphial.wordpress.com
The Last Time
No one forgets the first time. The wrenching pain, the ache of shifting bones, the coppery heat of blood, the light, oh the light, too silver and too sharp. You remember it because it’s new, …
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David Blanchflower BSc @davidbflower.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Tonight's Fullish Moon. 26 September 2026. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour #Moon #Lunar #FullMoon
The Moon just past full on a dark background.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Artwork by contemporary printmaker and illustrator Diana Catchpole #WomensArt #ReframingWomenPrintmakers
Photo of a print featuring a hare running in front of a radiating gold sun
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 26/09/2026
Some good tips here 🌕: www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astrophotogr...
skyatnightmagazine.com
How to photograph the Moon with a smartphone
Want to photograph the Moon with your smartphone? Tips, tricks and a step-by-step guide to lunar astrophotography with a smartphone.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Harvest Moon (Golden Hare) by Tamsin Abbott, English stained glass artist. #HarvestMoon is the #fullmoon closest to the autumn equinox #WomensArt
Stained glass artwork in gold and black featuring a hare lying down amonst grasses under a golden full moon
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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Do not carry a cold beverage in their presence. Politely decline any drinks or sweetmeats they may offer. Keep a plain iron nail in your left trouser pocket and a sachet or paper twist of coarse salt in your right shoe. Enter and leave your chair moving clockwise. Follow up with a thank-you note.
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Admirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Mary Allen Wilkes is a pioneering computer scientist, logic designer, and attorney. She is celebrated for writing the foundational system software for the LINC (1960s), which is widely recognized as the world's first personal computer. She was born #OTD in 1937 & is 89 today. #WomenInSTEM #CompSci
Photograph of Mary Allen Wilkes (born 1937), the pioneering computer scientist, logic designer, and attorney renowned for writing the foundational operating system software for the LINC, the world's first personal computer. She is shown from the chest up, facing slightly to her right with an open, engaging expression and a warm smile. She has short, styled white hair and wears thin, round wire-rimmed spectacles. Her attire features a layered ensemble: a dark grey or taupe turtleneck sweater paired with an open black cardigan jacket. She wears a prominent, tiered statement necklace consisting of three nested strands of oblong black, grey, and cream beads.The backdrop is an understated, minimalist office or lecture setting with pale beige walls and a dark vertical partition line visible on the left. In the lower right corner, the glossy edge of a modern laptop screen is partially visible, hinting at a professional presentation or speaking engagement. The overall composition is clean and centered, creating an approachable, intellectually distinguished mood that underscores her lasting historical significance as an elder stateswoman of computer science and law.
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Aimee Steinberger @aimeekitty.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
We need more things made from people’s deep personal feelings, not less. We need less committee, less algorithm. The good stuff comes from people souls without being heavily tampered with by rich businessmen who know nothing about art or story. People want to connect with that gem inside.
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 25/09/2026
September 26th is the Harvest full Moon – the moon closest to the equinox (and the equilux). This is a time for acknowledgement, gratitude and reflection, and putting plans and resources in place for the coming months. Astronomically, in the northern hemisphere the moon meets the horizon at…
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 25/09/2026
He’d fooled them all, even here. But the good bit was that he could go on doing it; he didn’t have to stop. All he had to do was remind himself, every few months, that he could quit any time. Provided he knew he could, he’d never have to. …and we reach the end of Going Postal, published #OTD 2024
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Speculative Insight journal @speculativeinsight.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In this new essay, Dove Cooper explores how John Wiswell uses asexual and aromantic characters throughout his novels. Subscribe to read this, and more essays throughout the year - AUD30 (~GBP16, USD22): www.speculativeinsight.com
Purple background, white text, which says Throughout Nest, Wiswell offers up commentary on amatonormative ideas and compulsory sexuality... Shesheshen's asexual perspective permeates the book and Wiswell uses it and the humour it enables to poke fun at the allonormative elements of Western society. "His Family of Monsters" -- SL Dove Cooper
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 06/09/2025
We also go through many arguments that can be used as counters to typical false frames forced upon us, such as: 1. the powerful nonsense that we as experts know nothing (Section 3.1 here doi.org/10.5281/zeno...) 3/n
3.1 Rejection of expertise, ironically including our own
Being in a colonizing discipline first demands and then encourages an attitude that might
be called intellectual hubris. Furthermore, since you cannot master all the disciplines that
you have designs on, you need confidence that your knowledge makes the ‘traditional
wisdom’ of these fields unworthy of serious consideration. Here too, the AI scientist
feels that seeing things through a computational prism so fundamentally changes the
rules of the game in the social and behavioural sciences that everything that came before
is relegated to a period of intellectual immaturity.
Sherry Turkle (1984, p. 230)
Every field that comes into contact with AI discourse becomes infected even within AI as a field of
study (recall Table 1). Our colleagues have embraced these systems, uncritically incorporating them
into their workflows and their classrooms, without input from experts on automation, cognitive science, computer science, gender and diversity studies, human-computer interaction, pedagogy, psychology, and law to name but a few fields with direct relevant expertise (Sloane et al. 2024). Meanwhile, technology companies have rushed to invest in ‘AI ethics’ or ‘AI safety’ to ethics wash their
claims, thereby “laundering accountability” (as Abeba Birhane explains in Arseni 2025) and “distracti[ng] from real AI ethics” (Crane 2021), while censoring academics and thus, violating academic
freedom (Gebru and Torres 2024; Gerdes 2022; Goudarzi 2025; Munn 2023; Ochigame 2019; Suarez
et al. 2025; Tafani 2023).
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 25/09/2026
We continue back to school season with a marvellously original take on the dangers of making deals with dangerous entities…
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
will say it again: the most effective way to curb far right agitators like Lowe, "Tommo" et. al. would be to stop their ability to earn money for it from social media or live streaming. So much of it is grifting for revenue, not attention.
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Science Magazine @science.org · 24/09/2026
Learning over an extended childhood has been fundamental to survival during human evolutionary history. Researchers show how Sumatran orangutans use their 8 years of dependency to master a broad diet, necessary for independent survival. Read more in this week’s issue: scim.ag/4xDjOfh
Learning over an extended childhood has been fundamental to survival during human evolutionary history. Researchers show how Sumatran orangutans use their 8 years of dependency to master a broad diet, necessary for independent survival. They find that infants have individual tendencies to engage in social and individual learning, which together determine diet profile breadth acquired by independence. The finding offers insights into the evolutionary roots of the complex learning mechanisms that characterize humans.

Photo: Suzi Eszterhas/Minden
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PseudoPod 🎙️ @pseudopod.org · 24/09/2026
*points*
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David Blanchflower BSc @davidbflower.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Elephants use medicinal plants to treat themselves, researchers find. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Elephants treat themselves with medicinal plants, witnesses say
African elephants use dozens of different medicinal plants to treat themselves and their families when they are sick, research reveals.
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 24/09/2026
This’ll be fun! One-night-only release on Doctor Who Day (23 November 2026) in 1,000 cinemas www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/do...
radiotimes.com
Doctor Who confirms UK cinema release for beloved David Tennant and Billie Piper story in feature-length film cut
Doctor Who: The Satan Pit Extended Cut will feature deleted scenes and never-before-seen footage.
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 24/09/2026
A fine upstanding citizen wouldn’t have stooped so low, but he hadn’t got this job because he was a fine upstanding citizen. Some tasks needed a good honest hammer. Others needed a twisty corkscrew. With any luck, he could believe that, if he really tried.
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Lyse @lyse.myatproto.social · 24/09/2026
Freya C @Sprcsti
"What a nice sheep," I think as 1 gaze out at a field. The sheep, facing away, starts to raise its head. I stare in mounting horror as the head keeps rising, rising, neck elongating in some cursed spectacle that roots me to the spot in fear until I realise, oh, it's an alpaca

brawltogethernow ®
• Follow
Sep 28,2020
Thought this was going to be horror short fiction, but no, it's just rural.

annaschmendrick Follow
Sep 29,2020
the veil between rural and eldritch is far thinner than anyone wishes to guess
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Admirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Baroness Orczy was born #OTD in 1865. Her series of novels featuring The Scarlet Pimpernel, the alter ego of Sir Percy Blakeney, is the origin of the #superhero trope--creating the archetype of the "hero with a secret identity," a concept central to modern superhero fiction. #BookSky📚🖋️
Split-image portrait of Baroness Emmuska Orczy: on the left, a black-and-white studio photograph of the author in early 20th-century attire, wearing a light chiffon gown with lace bodice, double strand of pearls, pearl drop earrings, and an elegant updo; on the right, the iconic red cover of her novel "The Scarlet Pimpernel" featuring a black line drawing of the masked hero aiding aristocrats into a carriage, with bold title text above and "BARONESS ORCZY" below.
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Compound Interest | Chemistry infographics @compoundchem.com · 23/09/2026
It's the autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere 🍂 Here's the chemistry behind the foliage colour changes we'll be seeing over the coming months: www.compoundchem.com/2014/09/11/a... #ChemSky 🧪
Infographic on the chemistry of the colours of autumn leaves. Green is caused by chlorophyll, carotenoids and flavonoids give yellows, and oranges come from carotenoids, which also contribute to reds along with anthocyanins.
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Brainmage.itch.io @brainmage.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Happy bi visibility day. Don't forget to wear your bi-viz vests.
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Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖 @chronicleflask.katday.com · 23/09/2026
“There was no safety. There was no pride. All there was, was money. Everything became money, and money became everything. Money treated us as if we were things, and we died—”
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David Blanchflower BSc @davidbflower.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Tomorrow morning the Beehive Cluster appears midway between Mars and Jupiter. 🔭 🧪
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