iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Offline for a few days (hopefully not weeks) as the server is configured. I think MPC servers may be taking evasive action from cloud flare.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

This is offline for a few days for server reconfiguration.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Catalina Sky Survey is evaluating Anthropic's Claude AI for software coding projects. NEOlyzer, a NEO visualizer (via NEA.txt), is now available to the wider community: github.com/rlseaman/neo... See the README for a screenshot and quick start details. #PlanetSci #AstroMethods #PlanetaryDefense

Whole-sky equal-area opposition-centered ecliptic plot of PHAs visible to a limiting magnitude of V 22.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Catalina Sky Survey has been evaluating Anthropic's Claude AI for software coding projects. NEOlyzer, a NEO visualizer, is a resulting project that is now available to the wider community from: github.com/rlseaman/neo... See the README for a screenshot and quick start details.

NEOlyzer's whole sky Hammer plot of PHAs visible to a V limiting magnitude of 22.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Of course, this is still better than many humans manage.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

The 2025 Catalina Sky Survey Monsoon Workshop will be held in Tucson, August 1-5, as a splinter session of the ADASSx Summer Software Workshop, immediately following the Rubin Community Workshop. Registration (free) and abstract submission are now open. #PlanetSci #AstroMethods #PlanetaryDefense

catalina.lpl.arizona.edu

Monsoon Workshop 2025 | Catalina Sky Survey

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Happy bee in a prickly pear bloom in the Sonoran desert. Not sure if either species is native. #Pollinators #Insects #Angiosperms #Arizona

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

I wanted to call this "Agave and Adobe", but alas, the neighbor's house is stucco. The Century Plant, a rare modern example of truth in advertising, is a member of the Asparagaceae family. #CenturyPlant #PatienceSometimesPaysOff

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Where's Kosmos 482? To put the current NASA shenanigans into perspective, this Venus lander outlasted the country that launched it, and is landing on another planet entirely. #PlanetSci

aerospace.org

COSMOS 482 DESCENT CRAFT (ID 6073) | The Aerospace Corporation

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Yeah, but likely also deep dish pizza. I guess that's what qualifies as "dignified middle of the road" these days.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

The future Leo XIV graduated with a BS in mathematics from Villanova, my alma mater, in 1977, the same year I matriculated with a joint major including math and astro/physics. VU math professors were some of the best I've ever had. (I ended up an agnostic with a math minor) #LeoXIV #Villanova #Math

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Here's a second glimpse at Murderbot from Apple. They appear to be steering the production in a direction that understands the character. youtu.be/wSCDyYOQgQA?...

youtu.be

Murderbot — An Inside Look | Apple TV+

YouTube video by Apple TV

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

The production team and a broad swath of projects supported by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office and the international near-Earth asteroid community did a great job with this documentary. #PlanetSci

youtube.com

Planetary Defenders (NASA+ Original)

YouTube video by NASA

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Cautiously optimistic. Cast looks great. Hoping it's not a sitcom. No sign on IMDB that we meet ART in the first season. I think I see how they plan to minimize the first-person narrator. I don't think it can work if they create entirely new narratives. #Pleasedonotmurdermurderbot #SanctuaryMoon

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

I should have refreshed the feed before posting.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Observations from JWST and Cerro Paranal have narrowed the uncertainties for that pesky asteroid 2024 YR4 to hit the Moon on December 22, 2032. The estimated impact probability is now 3.8%. The risk for the Earth on the same date is now too low to report. Near Earth = Near Moon. #PlanetSci #MoonSci

science.nasa.gov

NASA Update on the Size Estimate and Lunar Impact Probability of Asteroid 2024 YR4 - NASA Science

Since near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 was first discovered in December 2024, NASA and the worldwide planetary defense community have continued to observe the asteroid, which was ruled out as a significan...

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

The Franklin Mint sold America in Space mini-coins in the 1970s. At the time, my father, Lew Seaman, was the Nimbus & Landsat Program Manager at the GE Space Technology Center. Dad managed four out of the 18 robotic missions in Series 2 & 3. All these spacecraft remain in orbit. #Space #Satellites

The Franklin Mint's series of shiny space medallions were sold on a subscription basis, two at a time, with matching crewed and robotic missions. They also released a series of mini-coins in silver. These are four of the 18 robotic missions.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

I could wish Bluesky did better with animations.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

ESA's NEO Coordination Centre (NEOCC) computes impact probabilities (tmp link: neo.ssa.esa.int/-/latest-news) including animations of the uncertainty shrinking as more observations of 2024 YR4 were reported. Note the difference between missing along-track (Earth) and cross-track (Moon). #PlanetSci

ESA Planetary Defence Office’s NEO Coordination Centre (NEOCC) has released v5 of its Aegis software. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10569-024-10225-z

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Changing the definition of UTC will certainly require changes to astronomical software, the astronomical almanac, etc. The could have left UTC alone and simply recommended the use of TAI (and variations) for their own use cases.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Earth's rotation is being slowed by the tides. Length of the day increases about one second every 50,000 years while the Moon recedes about a mile to carry off its angular momentum. Over human timescales, the Earth's rotation follows a random walk and sometimes speeds up. #Astronomy #Science #Time

Plot of Solar Time minus Atomic Time with leap seconds indicated by jumps in the y-axis. Tenth-second calibrations are published by the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS). The Earth has recently been spinning up a bit, though the long term trend is tidal slowing causing the day to lengthen a few milliseconds per century.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

The continuing saga of human (left) against robot (right). It is the robot who claimed I was lucky. #DangerWillRobinson

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Small clarification: David Rankin was the observer, Jessie Wilde was the writer.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Overview of the workflow of discovering NEOs from Mount Lemmon by my colleague David Rankin. The coordination among multiple teams funded by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) is absolutely critical to the process. Discovery is also needed for science & future mining. #PlanetSci

theamericanscholar.org

Asteroid Hunters - The American Scholar

The scientists and engineers who defend our planet day and night from potentially hazardous space rocks

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

The x-axis is inverted to make the plot correct on the sky. On 10/17/22 at midnight in the northern hemisphere looking due south about halfway to the zenith, the bullseye would overlay the sky with these 24 NEOs near the end of their arcs, V mag ~22 - a few million X fainter than you can see by eye.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

PHA = Potentially Hazardous Asteroid • Potentially = not currently a significant risk, but orbit may evolve over centuries • Hazardous = would cause regional devastation ("region" is bigger than a city) • Asteroid = repeated opportunities over many orbits (most comets are one-time visitors)

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Larger objects like K22U00N can become visible all over the sky. In this case, the dark green trail, furthest to the left. NEO surveys scan the sky, typically in declination bands starting in the far west after sunset and finishing in the far east as twilight brightens in the morning.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

The fraction of NEO discoveries proportional to the number of MBAs is typical. Here, 1 NEO discovery to 5,800 MBA detections. A NEO in a celestial haystack.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

During the same three days and overlapping the same area of sky, more than 1.1 million observations of 140,000 distinct main belt asteroids (known and newly discovered MBAs) were also made. For this tally, MBA includes Mars crossers, Hungarias, Jupiter Trojans, Hildas, and other classes of objects.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

K22U00N is a PHA. In this case the size of the Great Pyramid and can approach Earth within about 12x the distance to the Moon. (This doesn't happen every orbit.) Three others are bigger than 2024 YR4, but remain more distant. That is, they have a larger Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID).

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

On-sky plot (left) of NEOs discovered over 3 days in Oct 2022. Table (right) of their various sizes and other properties. A typical batch of discoveries. One PHA. Big dots are discovery observations. NEOs move in all directions and rates, as shown, typically fading. Comments for more. #PlanetSci

Ecliptic latitude (y-axis) versus longitude, relative to solar opposition for discovery epoch observations of two dozen NEOs discovered between October 16-18, 2022.

NEOfixer table for two dozen NEOs discovered by various surveys between October 16-18, 2022.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

The Catalina Sky Survey would welcome recipients of these grants to pay us a visit.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

"I cannot generate code for you, as that would be completing your work. [...] You should develop the logic yourself. This ensures you understand the system and can maintain it properly. [...] Generating code for others can lead to dependency and reduced learning opportunities." #Wellitaintwrong

arstechnica.com

AI coding assistant refuses to write code, tells user to learn programming instead

Cursor AI tells user, “I cannot generate code for you, as that would be completing your work.”…

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

My family are Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, Jewish, Buddhist, agnostic, atheist & other. Tradition is not one thing. The author's accusations are weaponized confessions. Many colleagues in the sciences are Christian or devout in other religions. This does not require embracing fundamentalism.

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Rob Seaman @robseaman.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Lots of good moons to go around (so to speak). I'm a fan of Daphnis. photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA1...

photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov

Catalog Page for PIA11656

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