iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Last Sturday night I unknowingly caught a supernova in the act. While taking an #astrophotography of Stephan's Quintett with my Celestron Origin, I just by chance captured an image of SN2026aaiv in NGC7331. What are the chances for such a coincidence? 90min of data processed in Pixinsight.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I caught my image of SN2026aaiv 3 days ago on Saturday night not even knowing that it was there! (Celestron Origin, approx. 90min, processed in Pixinsight).

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The universe around us is not static at all. Throughout the Milky Way, clouds of gas and dust are clumping together, constantly giving birth to still hidden new stars. I took this #astrophotography of the Elephant Trunk Nebula with my #Celestron #Origin right from the center of a city.

Against a backdrop of reddish, glowing hydrogen gas, dark clouds of gas and dust conceal the formation of new stars that are not yet visible. The image is dotted with blue and red stars from our Milky Way.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

17s of solar eclipse captured on Mallorca with my smartphone - sound on for this peculiar #astrophotography!

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

A dying star in Cygnus gives its final performance exhibiting its colorful outer shells. Blue OIII filaments on the outside contrast with clumps of denser structures formed during explosive outbursts. This #astrophotography by my @celestronuniverse.bsky.social #Origin was processed in #Pixinsight.

A yellowish-red, jellyfish-like structure composed of gases from a Wolf-Rayet star is embedded in a sea of Milky Way stars and glowing red hydrogen clouds.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I really like your notion of spiral arms being like continents: in the end it is only human wishful thinking that something so complex could be definitely pinpointed with just one word.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

With an age of 13b years, Globula Cluster Messier 5 is almost 3x older than our sun. Despite its age, it houses many seemingly young "blue straggler" stars that are in fact the product of mergers of old stars. This #astrophotography taken with my #Celestron Origin has been processed in #Pixinsight.

Countless blue and orange stars packed tightly into a tiny sphere form the globular star cluster Messier 5.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Das Auge kann sogar als Neutrinodetektor funktionieren. Bei 5,2Mrd. Menschen im Jahr 1989 müssten sich bei rund 6,5ml Augenvolumen in den 70.000m3 Volumen aller menschlicher Augen einzelne Neutrinos der Supernova 1989a als Lichtblitz gezeigt haben.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

The Iris Nebula in constellation Cepheus is illuminated by the blueish light of its central star. Just as a lotus is rooted in mud, the Iris is surrounded by brownish soot nebulae. This #astrophotography was taken over 8h with my @celestronuniverse.bsky.social Origin from a light-polluted suburb.

Brownish cosmic clouds surround the brightly blue illuminated core of the Iris nebula.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Galaxy M51 is undergoing a phase of rapid star formation, triggered by interaction with its cosmic neighbour. Blue hues indicate regions with young, hot stars, whilst yellow hues represent old stellar populations. This #astrophotography was taken with my Celestron Origin in >8 hours of exposure .

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Why not build a pipeline for export into Asia to Oman?

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Hmhh, according to this UK government website, 40% of UK's jet fuel is coming from Kuwait. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68dbe4...

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

If I got the math right, 3,85$/gallon is less than 40% of the typical European price level. But still, the driving force for going electric is rather low here. What else has to happen?

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Was soll dieser Fiebertraum einer AI denn bitte visualisieren? 🙈

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Gibt es bessere Abbildungen? Oder: gibt es überhaupt einem menschlichen Gehirn vermittelbare Ideen, wie es hinter dem Ereignishorizont weitergeht?

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

What an enviable experience! What is the reason, btw, that we don't here more often from early results e.g. number of supernovae detected etc. Is it because the "results" only would come from "the other end" of the alert pipeline?

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Thanks - but my brain starts spinning ... (or is it expanding?)

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Wouldn't the "galaxies move through space" argument quickly 'collide' with the speed limits of relativity?

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

This maps neglects the long history of making excellent wines in many European regions before 1960, German Riesling being only one among many.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

This illustration is not appropriate. No question about it. Without wishing to defend the authors, I could imagine that the extremely rapid rotation of the asteroid gave rise to the idea of it having a more solid structure and less being of the rubble heap type.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

The universe is still full of surprises! This is Cloud-9, a starless blob held together by dark matter--a "failed galaxy." Astronomers have long speculated that such hidden objects formed the building blocks of bright galaxies like our own. Now we've found one. 🧪🔭 esahubble.org/news/heic2601/

This image shows the location of Cloud-9, which is 14 million light-years from Earth. The diffuse magenta is radio data from the ground-based Very Large Array (VLA) showing the presence of the cloud. The dashed circle marks the peak of radio emission,which is where researchers focused their search for stars. Follow-up observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys found no stars within the cloud. The few objects that appear within its boundaries are background galaxies. Before the Hubble observations, scientists could argue that Cloud-9 is a faint dwarf galaxy whose stars could not be seen with ground-based telescopes due to the lack of sensitivity. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows that, in reality, the failed galaxy contains no stars.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

I enjoyed reading your summary on the physics of skating. I remembered, however, that 40y ago I was told in Chemical Physics, that transient pressure on ice can not suffice to melt it. May I bring to your attention this recent MD study on an interesting alternative? journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...

journals.aps.org

Cold Self-Lubrication of Sliding Ice

The low kinetic friction between ice and numerous counterbodies is commonly attributed to an interfacial water layer, which is believed to originate from preexisting surface water or from melt water i...

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

M31 is our neighbor in the ocean of the universe. I recently showed that my telescope can detect individual stars 2.5Mio LY away. Imaging the entire galaxy with the same telescope is more difficult. This #astrophotography with my #CelestonOrigin is a mosaic from 6 images, each 1h of exposure time.

A yellowish shining spiral galaxy with dark brownish dust bands and blueish groups of young hot stars.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

What a beautiful, instructive visualization (and it is still even if people dispute the one or the other color shade by 10.000y).

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Is there a higher resolution version of this map available?

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

There seems to be a bad link attached!? But gorgeous image!!

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Have you yet seen two lava fountains close to each other? Check this live cam from Kilauea: www.youtube.com/live/BqmpkUd...

youtube.com

[V3cam] Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii (south Halemaʻumaʻu crater)

YouTube video by USGS

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Today, that star marked with "Var!" can be imaged with a 6 inch telescope: bsky.app/profile/dobs...

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

But the point you are making is interesting, though!

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

I am sure that you are using the word lie as a rethoric hyperbole here. To me, it's just our eyes (and monitors) that are incapable of displaying and recognizing exponential brightness profiles.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Robert "The Bobby Yaga" McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Happy 120th birthday, special relativity! Albert Einstein introduced special relativity in the paper "On The Electrodynamics Of Moving Bodies," published in Annalen der Physik #OTD in 1905. 🧪 ⚛️ 🔭 Manuscript: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... English: www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einst...

A black and white photo of Albert Einstein, around age 25, sitting at a desk. He is a wearing a flannel suit and resting his right arm on the desk. Einstein is looking to the left of the photographer in this posed photo.

The first paragraph of the paper, in German. Translated to English is reads:

It is known that Maxwell's electrodynamics—as usually understood at the present time—when applied to moving bodies, leads to asymmetries which do not appear to be inherent in the phenomena. Take, for example, the reciprocal electrodynamic action of a magnet and a conductor. The observable phenomenon here depends only on the relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, whereas the customary view draws a sharp distinction between the two cases in which either the one or the other of these bodies is in motion. For if the magnet is in motion and the conductor at rest, there arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet...

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Interesting! The word "kwaksalver" also is equivalent to the old German word for the element mercury, whick is "Quecksilber". So this could be someone who prepares mercury containing ointments which must have been quite common then.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Constellation Cygnus hides a marvel of galactic nebulae. The Eastern Veil Nebula is part of a much larger remnant of a supernova that exploded around 8,000 years ago. This #astrophotography was created as a mosaic of two images taken with my #CelestronOrigin, each with an exposure time of one hour.

Blue-white wisps of a galactic nebula against the backdrop of countless stars in the summer Milky Way.

A close-up of the blue-white wisps of the Eastern Veil nebula against the backdrop of countless stars in the summer Milky Way.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

That person in the '70s is exactly me!

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

"The star that changed the size of the universe" was discovered in 1923 by Hubble on a plate taken with the 2.5m Hooker telescope. This variable Cepheid star proved that Andromeda is a far away galaxy like our own. Today, #astrophotography with my little #CelestronOrigin can show this star clearly.

The yellowish tone of old stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy contrasts with the blue from groups of hot young stars, dark dust lanes and a few small magenta blobs from ionized hydrogen clouds. The image was exposed for around 2 hours with a 6 inch Celestron Origin telescope.

In the midst of a featureless star cloud in the Andromeda galaxy, a single star is highlghted. This variable "Cepheid" star was discovered in 1923 by Edwin Hubble on photographic plates with the 2.5m Hooker telescope on Mt. Wilson. Today, a 6 inch Celestron Origin Intelligent Home observatory can image that star quite easily.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Congratulations on that phantastic journey!

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Sehr interessante Seite, danke! Vor allem, da ich mich da altersgemäß (und damit vorteilhaft!) einordnen kann.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Galaxies, Stars, and Dust #astronomy #astrophotography #apod

$This well-composed telescopic field of view covers over a Full Moon on the sky toward the high-flying constellation Pegasus. Of course the brighter stars show diffraction spikes, the commonly seen effect of internal supports in reflecting telescopes, and lie well within our own Milky Way galaxy. The faint but pervasive clouds of interstellar dust ride above the galactic plane and dimly reflect the Milky Way's starlight. Known as galactic cirrus or integrated flux nebulae they are associated with the Milky Way's molecular clouds. In fact, the diffuse cloud cataloged as MBM 54, less than a thousand light-years distant, fills the scene. The galaxy seemingly tangled in the dusty cloud is the striking spiral galaxy NGC 7497. It's some 60 million light-years away, though. Seen almost edge-on near the center of the field, NGC 7497's own spiral arms and dust lanes echo the colors of stars and dust in our own Milky Way.$

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

The star that expanded the universe was discovered by Edwin Hubble in 1923 with a 2.5m telescope. The Cepheid star V1 gave first prove that Andromeda is a galaxy outside our milkyway. Today, this #Astrophotography with my little #CelestronOrigin clearly shows this star in the gorgeous spiral of M31.

The contrasting spiral arms of a galaxy, with old stars in yellow, young and hot groups of stars in blue and some tiny specs of magenta for glowing hydrogen gas.

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Reposted by Matthias Rauls

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

As an antidote to the constantly dreadful news, have some philosophical concepts:

35 Philosophical Concepts That Don't Exist in English (But Totally Should)
1-10: Concepts About Self & Identity
• Ubuntu (Zulu/Xhosa) - "I am because we
• Shinrin-yoku
(Japanese)
"Forest
are"; the idea that our humanity is shaped
bathing"; a meditative appreciation of nature.
through community.
• Lagom
• Tatemae &
Honne
(Japanese) - The
(Swedish) - Not too much, not
too little - just the right amount.
contrast between a person's public face • Kalpa (Sanskrit) - A cosmic unit of time; (tatemae) and their true feelings (honne).
often
used in Hindu and Buddhist
• Janteloven (Scandinavian) - The cultural cosmology.
belief that no one is better than anyone • Memento mori (Latin) - "Remember you else; humility over individualism.
• Ikigai (Japanese) - Your reason for being;
must die"; a reflection on mortality and the value of life.
the intersection of passion, mission, $ 21-30: Emotions, Relationships & Human vocation, and profession.
Nature
• Duende (Spanish) - A mysterious, soul-stirring emotional
• Kaukokaipuu (Finnish) - A longing for
power,
often
distant places you've never been.
experienced through art or music.
• Kintsugi (Japanese) - The art of repairing * Jayus (Indonesian) - A joke so badly told
that it becomes funny again.
broken pottery with gold, symbolizing • Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan) - The look beauty in imperfection and healing
shared by two people who want to act
• Zanshin (Japanese) - A state of relaxed
but hesitate.
alertness
and
focused awareness, • Forelsket (Norwegian) - The euphoria of
especially in martial arts.
falling in love.
• Gezelligheid (Dutch) - The warm,
collective comfort of being with loved • Humorebi (Japanese) - The sunlight that
filters through the leaves of trees.
ones.
• Mokita (Kivila, Papua New Guinea) - The
• Wabi-sabi (Japanese) - A
worldview
truth everyone knows but no one says.
centered on accepting transience and • Ya'aburnee (Arabic) - Literally "you bury imperfect beauty.
me"; a declaration that life without the
• Sprezzat…

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

About 8,000 years ago, a star exploded in the constellation Cygnus. Today, we can observe the faint remnants of this supernova as the "Veil Nebula". This astrophotography was composed of two 1h exposures taken with my @celestronuniverse.bsky.social‬ Origin telescope and developed in #Pixinsight.

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Das Problem sind ja nicht die 40 Schnitzel, sondern die Aufgabe, deren Energie in, sagen wir, einer Zehntelsekunde umzusetzen. Dann sind wir bei einer momentanen Leistung von 1,5GW!

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Toll geschriebener, sehr interessanter und informativer Text!

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Möglicherweise nicht mitgerechnet: Posts in den "sozialen" Medien und Chats. Aber wenn man für "Outreach" verantwortlich ist: sind solche Zahlen dann nicht zu erwarten?

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Matthias Rauls @dobsonaut.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Unaere europäischen Hörgewohnheiten machen es leider schwer, die Feinheiten / das Herausragende an so einem Musikstück zu erfassen. Aber es spricht trotzdem etwas an, wenn man sich darauf einlässt.

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