iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

BOINC Synergy @boincsynergy.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

SETI@home just hit a major milestone! 💥 Two new papers have been accepted to The Astronomical Journal: one on data processing & detection, and another on candidate analysis and findings. setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread... #BOINC #SETI #VolunteerComputing #DistributedComputing #GridComputing

setiathome.berkeley.edu

SETI@home papers accepted for publication

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Compelled to post my eclipse picture and maintain the stranglehold space currently has on your feed

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

One of my better Perseid shots. I need to do some processing, but it's a start. Too bad it was at the edge of the frame!

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Changed my #celestron Nexstar+ from USB mini to USB type C. Now I have one less extra cable type to pack when doing astrophotography!

A small USB type C breakout board soldered onto a Nexstar+ with 30 gauge magnet wire.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

The AAS Shapley Lecture Series call for applications is now open! If you are a public serving institution or astronomy club, apply before Sept 18! share.google/UNpFxDomp5Kj...

share.google

Harlow Shapley Visiting Lectures Program | American Astronomical Society

Information for Lecturers | Lecturer applicationInformation for Hosts | Host application

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

A good crowd at the Astronomical Society of East Texas meeting this weekend! We covered beginner spectroscopy, astrophotography, and metal detecting in space.

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Reposted by Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

DarkSky Texas @darkskytexas.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Long before maps and GPS, people found their way by looking up. For generations, the stars guided travel across Texas. The night sky wasn't just beautiful. It was a trusted guide. Protecting dark skies means preserving one of humanity's oldest navigation tools. #DarkSkyTexas #ProtectTheNight

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

The most British thing I have read in a long time. Toasted cheese induced catapult mating should become common parlance.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Saw a 12 yo in a NOAA shirt this week. That kid is going somewhere!

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Thomas Jefferson would have loved solarpunk, I think.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Just hit 500! I cool milestone in iNaturalist.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Getting my tires changed yesterday was boring, so I walked to a nearby field to inspect the wildlife. Its amazing what you can find when you look closely at the world around you.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Designed and made an SLS incense holder. Now I can finally burn the incense my mom bought for me last year.

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Reposted by Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

Royal Astronomical Society @royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

📸 🔭🚨Are you an amateur astrophotographer? 🚨🔭📸 Talking of exciting announcements, we're delighted to reveal the launch of a new commemorative photography competition to mark the 200th anniversary of our flagship journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society next year. 1/2 ⤵️

Promotional image to launch the RAStroPhoto astrophotography competition to mark the bicentenary of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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Reposted by Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Do dogs need glasses? Most dogs have 20/75 vision, seeing at 20 feet what a human can see at 75 ft. Not great. But would they benefit from corrective lenses? The answer is: probably not. Let's talk about the good & bad of 'dog-o-vision'.

static.klipy.com

Smart Dog Wearing Glasses

Alt: Smart Dog Wearing Glasses: a black Labrador retriever (I think?) wearing a human pair of glasses suddenly reacts with alarm to something off-camera. It's in a generic home or apartment with tan carpet and white walls, with vertical blinds over a window.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Paleolithic flintknapping tools found with MIT license, more news at noon

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

If you get a minute, go look at Lia Chan's Lego building Instagram page. I was able to meet them in Dallas this week, and the SLS Artemis launch blew me away. I never knew Professional Lego Builder was a job and now I want a career change.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I got to meet up with the Texas Astronomical Society, based in Dallas yesterday. Great group with hundreds of members. Check them out if you live in the Dallas area!

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Sundog slightly visible tonight. Don't see thar often in Texas!

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The RS-25 engine is a real workhorse in space science. As the main engine of the space shuttle, it provides half a million pounds of thrust. Now, the engine is pushing Artemis to the moon as the primary engine of the SLS platform. We love you RS-25!

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Reposted by Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu has a countdown clock for launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope @nancyromansci.bsky.social. Soon!

Countdown clock reading 64:19:37:30. Background is a rendering of the Roman Space Telescope

Countdown clock reading 64:19:38:00. Background is a photo of Nancy Grace Roman

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This is the c average taken to the moon by Apollo astronauts. Can I just say it is a glamorous piece of technology?

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Went to the beach and this random kid offered me free ghost shrimp. When I declined he threw it in the air and a seagull caught it. I love the coast, people are totally different there lol

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

ASET made the front page of local news once again. The kid in the picture was SUPER excited about space. Kept asking about white dwarfs and was amazed that the telescope could see around his fingers without getting blocked.

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Reposted by Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

"Boltzmann Brains" is a fanciful name for a dead-serious idea. I'm beginning to wonder whether the name hasn't caused the physics community to not spend nearly enough time thinking carefully about the problems that they pose. We have Boltzmann Brain Blindness. Long 🧵 coming. ⚛️ #cosmology (1/n)

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Reposted by Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

Leila Belkora PhD, astrophysics @leilabelkora.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Came across this gem today: a replica of Isaac Newton’s telescope, placed on a pedestal below the 200-inch Palomar telescope, for comparison. (Look closely!) 🔭 1958 photo from the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science collection at the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

A minuscule-looking telescope dwarfed by one end of the Palomar telescope. The inside of the Palomar dome is visible in the background.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Successfully trained Lasagna to enjoy the monthly flea medication. He literally ran to me when he saw me grab the tube today!

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Got to attend a Kemps Riddley sea turtle hatchling release yesterday at Padre Island. I really liked the shielded lights at the beach.

A master naturalist holds a baby kemps riddley sea turtle before the release.

Walkway lights at the beach shielded to prevent light pollution that would harm sea turtles.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Happy asteroid day! A new book just arrived in the mail for me.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Another report where a student switches between cgs, mks and customary throughout the report. I clearly teach the devil himself.

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Reposted by Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 29/06/2026

720 Ollie xkcd.com/3264/

Comic. [Person with short hair and a skateboard talking to another person, with an image of Person 1 on a skateboard going over a bump with a line with two swirls behind him.] PERSON 1: Something weird I’ve noticed is that if I do a 360 ollie, I land backward. I have to do a 720 to land going forward. [caption] Tony Hawk discovers that he’s a spin-½ fermion.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

You can mistify a kid by counting to 31 on one hand.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

My inner thoughts screaming as I read yet another lab report in comic sans. My outer self maintaining composure to break the cycle of abuse against whimsy.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Student submits data and graphs in all yellow colors. Dark yellow background. Bright yellow lines. Data points neutral yellow. I tell them not to do that and think of the color blind people. Subtly imply that I could be color blind and they wouldn't know. New submission. Now its all green.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Todays word of the day is Diaschisis. The sudden loss of function in a structurally intact region of the brain following trauma to another part of the brain.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

The South West Region Astronomical Leauge is back! Presently meeting with a group of officers from clubs across TX, NM and OK to see what the group can do in the future. I think good things will come from this.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

How.... how can he keep getting away with it. I'm SO TIRED of people at public talks and star parties asking about 'that comet that accelerated on its own' and the aliens aboard. Please.

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Reposted by Liam Plybon 🧪🔭

Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 18/06/2026

🔭 Possible Supernova Remnant in Galactic Center Image Credit & Copyright: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UCLA/Z. Zhu et al.; ESA/XMM-Newton; Optical: PanSTARRS; Radio: MeerKAT; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and P. Edmonds Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II) ap260618

A composite image shows a field of stars on a dark background,
together X-rays in blue and radio in red

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Recently got a laser engraving and cutting machine. This thing slices through plywood fast! Very convenient for jigs and holders.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Built a trebuchet in my lab. Next years students get to figure out how to remove it from the room.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

The new laser engraver I received is making some excellent test pieces. Labels for the plants that will hopefully not wear or fade!

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Gonna give the airplane on a treadmill problem to my physics class, and set a timer. Place bets on how long until they start yelling at each other! I'm thinking 4 minutes.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

I've got a moon watching party later next week at an elementary school, so I stocked up in advance.

Capri Sun 'Moon Punch' edition. Each pouch has a different phase of the moon.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Kip Thorne's book accompaniment to Interstellar is a great read. Currently trying to understand how Lasagna warps spacetime with his incredible heft.

Overwhelmingly large orange cat laying next to a book, page turned to 'Extreme Physics'.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Got a new C8. I am pretty sure this one is from 1983. I'll be doing some planet photography with it in the near future.

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Finally finished visually observing and logging the entire messier catalog!!!

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Liam Plybon 🧪🔭 @liam-plybon.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

I switched to a canned curriculum for my on level physics class, and its so boring I dont even want to grade it. Next year I'm going back to projects every 2 weeks. They are at least entertaining to grade.

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