iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

It's always great fun to talk at Brighton Astro, and Thursday night was no exception! Over 150 people turned up to listen to me talk about the Tidal Universe, and it's always great to see such a diverse audience!

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

That gave me flashbacks of being a student there for a few months, many years ago!

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Whenever I see the announcement of the announcement I always think "I wonder which old white men will win the prize this year?"...

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

It's that time of the year again! Happy Equinox everyone for Tuesday night / Wednesday morning! The September Equinox occurs this year just after midnight at 00:06UT (01:06BST) on the 23rd September 2026. [1/2]

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

45 seconds of Ovingdean beach in east Brighton, taken last Saturday afternoon.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A collection of meteors/shooting-stars at the end of my garden during last month's Perseid meteor shower in mid-August. I managed to catch quite a colourful collection! [1/2]

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I'm still working through my photos of the Northern Lights over Norway that I took back in March! We had some wonderful displays.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

A few photos of the lunar eclipse from the early hours of this morning, as seen over Brighton, UK.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

A few photos of the partial solar eclipse from Hove Lawns.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

There are plenty of people at Leicester working on Swift who could do that! Do you want me to suggest names?

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Random three-body problem @threebodybot.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Initial conditions: m1=23.5 m2=17.7 m3=12.5 (solar masses) v1x=5.912 v1y=-6.079 v2x=2.671 v2y=-5.608 v3x=-5.033 v3y=-4.472 (km/s) x1=17.0 y1=17.0 x2=-4.0 y2=11.0 x3=24.0 y3=32.0 (AU from center) Music: The Blue Danube Waltz – Strauss

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Cebreros is looking intact in their live webcam feed at tethys.ejr-quartz.com/cebreros/ceb... There were flames in the background last night though.

tethys.ejr-quartz.com

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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.

The Times: Net zero risks blackouts. Below a photo of French wildfires.

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NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @rubinobservatory.org · 24/07/2026

Talk about a cosmic glow-up✨📸 This progression of images of galaxy group RSCG 55 shows the evolution of ground-based sky surveys spanning more than three decades🤯, ending with NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's view. 🔭🧪

Five-panel image showing the progressive evolution of sky surveys from 1994 to 2025, revealing more and more detail in a triple merging galaxy system and the surrounding sky.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

There are major fires west of Madrid right now. These live images show a wild fire passing behind the European Space Agency's deep space tracking station in Cebreros, 60km west of Madrid. I took the final photo when I visited the site over 15 years ago. Live images at: www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Having visited when I worked at ESAC (which is also close to the area on fire), I thought that you were referring to Cebreros... only to realise there are multiple tracking and communication stations in that area.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The fire is not far away from the ground station at Cebreros either, as shown in this latest image from www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Sometimes, things we see in the sky aren't what we think they are. Sometimes those mistakes are funny. Sometimes they interfere with your love life. www.scientificamerican.com/article/cosm... 🔭 🧪

scientificamerican.com

When astronomers get things hilariously wrong

Sometimes we mistake one kind of object with another to disastrous effect

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NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @rubinobservatory.org · 30/06/2026

This image is packed full with millions of stars in our own Milky Way 🌟 Millions more distant galaxies lie beyond them, each full of billions or trillions of stars. We even see the faint, ghostly clouds of interstellar dust known as "galactic cirrus" spread through our galaxy. 🔭🧪

$A close-up view of a dense star field centered on a bright, face-on spiral galaxy with a glowing yellowish-white core and delicate, swirling arms. The surrounding dark sky is crowded with hundreds of pinpoint stars in shades of warm orange and bright white. A brilliant blue star with faint diffraction spikes shines prominently near the top center.$ A close-up view capturing several distinct galaxies amidst a crowded field of stars. On the far left, an elongated, bluish edge-on spiral galaxy stands vertically. Near the top center, a face-on spiral galaxy reveals its faint arms, while a larger, softly glowing, yellowish edge-on galaxy stretches vertically along the right side. Numerous tiny orange and white stars fill the space between them.

A close-up view capturing several distinct galaxies amidst a crowded field of stars. On the far left, an elongated, bluish edge-on spiral galaxy stands vertically. Near the top center, a face-on spiral galaxy reveals its faint arms, while a larger, softly glowing, yellowish edge-on galaxy stretches vertically along the right side. Numerous tiny orange and white stars fill the space between them.

$A close-up view of a star-filled field showcasing multiple distant galaxies and a striking foreground star. Two diffuse, oval-shaped yellowish galaxies sit near the center and upper right, while a tilted spiral galaxy is visible in the upper left. In the lower right corner, a brilliant orange star stands out with sharp, multi-pointed diffraction spikes, situated just below and right of a bright blue star.$ A close-up view featuring a cluster of four large, softly glowing yellowish-white elliptical and spiral galaxies in an arc across a dense field of stars. The background has a faint, misty appearance from wispy dust clouds, which are sprinkled with hundreds of tiny white and orange stars.

A close-up view featuring a cluster of four large, softly glowing yellowish-white elliptical and spiral galaxies in an arc across a dense field of stars. The background has a faint, misty appearance from wispy dust clouds, which are sprinkled with hundreds of tiny white and orange stars.

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NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory @rubinobservatory.org · 30/06/2026

The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here… On June 29, 2026, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory officially began the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)! 🔭🧪☄️🌌 🔗: rubinobservatory.org/news/action-...

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The Milky Way over my back garden in Brighton, taken at 00:15BST on Saturday night / Sunday morning, 20th/21st June 2026. I show both the final processed image and one of the 33 unprocessed photographs (15s exposure at ISO-4000 on a Sony Alpha 7s) that were merged with Sequator and tweaked in Gimp.

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Institute of Physics @iop.org · 20/06/2026

The summer solstice is more than just the longest day of the year. ☀️ The earliest sunrise isn’t on the solstice 🌍 Earth’s tilt creates the seasons ⭐ Polaris won’t always be the North Star Astrophysicist Dr Darren Baskill explains the science www.iop.org/about/blogs/science-of-…

Silhouettes of people walking on a wet beach at sunset. The sky is a vibrant orange, and the sun is low on the horizon.

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Dr. Ryan French @ryanjfrench.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Over the weekend, the Sun produced this photogenic coronal mass ejection! The eruption was not pointed at Earth, but its source region will rotate to face us later this week. This means that any future eruptions could potentially be Earth-directed. Watch this space!

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Steve Brown - astronomy and astrophotography @sjbastro.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Ban all future mega constellations. spaceweather.com

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Photos from Saturday night at the observatory in Herstmonceux, Sussex.

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Casey Dreier @caseydreier.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

The FY 2027 NASA budget request hides its science cuts by omitting mission names instead of explicitly zeroing them out. We did the work and found 54 missions cancelled in this proposal. This is another extinction-level event for NASA science. Full list: planetary.org/save-nasa-science

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

That is such sad news. I knew of him from this behind the scenes video, that showed the astonishing patience of photographers like Doug, all to get a few minutes of footage. I have such admiration for them all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq-D...

youtube.com

Snow Leopard Quest 1 - BBC Planet Earth

YouTube video by Alabamababytrue

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

AI's attempt at turning JWST into an Easter egg...!

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Aurora above Hurtigruten's MS Kong Harald, just north-west of Trondheim, Norway, at around midnight on the 22nd March, 2026. This is a real-time video! The jumping is due to the video being taken at just 4 frames per second, in order for the camera to collect enough light.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

OMG yes! I frequently feel bad for correcting students on their inability to capitalise, when major news sources are so lax about it.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

A time-lapse of the aurora from the deck of Hurtigruten's MS Kong Harald, somewhere between Molde and Ålesund on the Norwegian coast. Taken on the evening of the 23rd March, 2026. Each frame is <2s, and so the flickering is on wildly short timescales!

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

I hope that was Natalie's idea! (who I think the Webb Space Telescope was really named after!)

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Waves along the Brighton undercliff yesterday, Saturday 10th January 2026.

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Random three-body problem @threebodybot.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Initial conditions: m1=79.3 m2=107.4 m3=129.2 (solar masses) v1x=-3.459 v1y=5.792 v2x=4.43 v2y=-4.308 v3x=2.531 v3y=-3.034 (km/s) x1=-28.0 y1=19.0 x2=-8.0 y2=0.0 x3=17.0 y3=28.0 (AU from center) Music: Liebestraum – Liszt

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Here are a couple of my genuine photos from the past few years. Five Geminid meteors in 40 minutes (from 5 photos overlayed onto each other), and my favourite Perseid meteor photo from a few summers ago!

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

As always, there are LOTS of fake photographs doing the round on social media at the moment, from AI generated content, to unrelated photos of star trails and photographs of satellites. (and yes, I am referring to the BBC there! How could you have guessed?!)

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

That dust is larger than most showers, resulting in bigger & brighter shooting stars that burn brightly for just a brief moment. The best time to see shooting stars is usually after midnight, when the Earth has rotated so that we are on the "front" of the Earth as it orbits around the solar system.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Unfortunately, the weather forecast is not looking good overnight this weekend, but if there is a gap in the cloud you may be able to see up to a shooting star every few minutes, as the Earth ploughs through dust left behind asteroid 3200 Phaethon.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

There are only two meteor showers worth staying up for each year - the Perseids that peak in August, and the Geminids that peak at 8am on Sunday December 14th this year.

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

The view from my garden earlier in the week...

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Das Baskill @drdasb.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

A few photos from the Lewes Bonfire night last Wednesday evening!

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Random three-body problem @threebodybot.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Initial conditions: m1=11.2 m2=134.6 m3=6.8 (solar masses) v1x=2.913 v1y=-3.732 v2x=-0.556 v2y=-5.034 v3x=-3.586 v3y=-0.75 (km/s) x1=-3.0 y1=17.0 x2=30.0 y2=-29.0 x3=18.0 y3=18.0 (AU from center) Music: Adagio for Strings – Barber

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Random three-body problem @threebodybot.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Initial conditions: m1=99.8 m2=102.0 m3=69.1 (solar masses) v1x=-2.668 v1y=-2.286 v2x=1.754 v2y=-1.251 v3x=2.368 v3y=1.79 (km/s) x1=17.0 y1=-27.0 x2=20.0 y2=25.0 x3=-9.0 y3=-7.0 (AU from center) Music: Liebestraum – Liszt

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