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Tyler Nordgren

@spaceart.bsky.social
822 followers 129 following 444 posts

Artist, Astronomer, Author, International Tour Leader, Speaker and all around Astronomical Bon Vivant coined the phrase “Half the park is after dark.”

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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I get them mostly for my poster art. Usually it’s products where “the head of marketing” quotes me back my bio and says my “Half the park is after dark” poster series would be perfect on their rubber yoga mats and plushy toys. I get these constantly.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Cuyahoga National Park has a scenic train you can catch in Akron and ride into the park. You can even bring your bicycle. #parkchat
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Thank you. I was drawing a blank on the Matson Line when I was typing this post. Their old passenger service advertisements as well as their menu covers were things of beauty.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
NRAO used to have a shop but I can’t seem to find it now. Here’s the VlA shop: vlagiftshop.nrao.edu/products/vla...
vlagiftshop.nrao.edu
VLA Poster
Retro VLA Poster
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Here’s the podcast interview: bit.ly/4y5smMw
bit.ly
Experiencing the Universe Through Art
Astronomer and artist Dr. Tyler Nordgren shares his career journey and explains how wonder and curiosity emerge when art and science collide. Links Dr. Tyler Nordgren's Website: https://www.tylernordgren.com/ ⁠NRAO: https://public.nrao.edu/ Connect With AUI ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://aui.edu/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/company/associated-universities-inc/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.instagram.com/discoveraui/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.facebook.com/AUI.EDU References DarkSky International. (2016, June 10). 80% of world population lives under skyglow, new study finds. https://darksky.org/news/80-of-world-population-lives-under-skyglow-new-study-finds/ Please note: the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Green Bank Observatory are facilities of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) operated under cooperative agreement with Associated Universities Incorporated. The opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the NSF.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
30 years ago I got my PhD using the VLA to study dark matter. Today I designed a series of posters for @thenrao.bsky.social including the VLA where I show the images their data create. Check the comment for the podcast about this work. #art #astronomy
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Thanks! It’s a place I’ve been going to off and on for over 25 years and I just love how every time it’s different in some new way.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I modeled this version after old tourism posters for the cruise line that used to serve the islands.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is the original version the park asked for revisions to.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I’m working on a design for Hawaii Volcanoes incorporating all the ways the park is special at night - both below the horizon and above. #art #astronomy www.SpaceArtTravelBureau.com
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Aha ha ha
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
As a Bills fan I’m horribly conflicted about this. I remember thinking we dodged a bullet when he failed to buy the Bills. If only we knew what the price of that failure would be.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This was in a national park in Tanzania where we heard elephants trumpet and lions roar as the moon entered totality. There’s a tiny family of elephants under a tree in the lower right.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I guess I’ve always gone by where in the list of fields does it appear. If before my name then it’s “Dr” if after my name it’s “Astronomical Bon Vivant.” But I realize now I was just assuming.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I’ve had a love/hate relationship with these posters. I’d already created a series of Planetary Park travel posters by the time these came out and have had so many folks think they were mine.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Thanks. Even though I still feel as I do I’ll still probably get this printed to hang in my office.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I should have just let it go, but at a certain point I fell victim to the “sunk cost fallacy” and felt I’d already put in too much time to just stop.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Yeah, that’s what I told myself. I practiced taking a bracketed series. I had the focus already set and thought I had the field of view correct, only I didn’t. My first sequence had the mountains and water but just cut off the eclipse. The next set had just the eclipse. Third time was the charm.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Photographers, do you have a photo that though it came out great you wish you hadn’t taken for some reason? Here’s mine: Aug12 total solar eclipse in Greenland. Totality was brief and I wound up spending too long taking it. My memories are more of the camera than the scene. #photography #astro #art
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I just returned from Iceland where literally everyone seems to speak flawless English in addition to one or two other languages other than Icelandic. I felt so guilty I could only manage a bare handful of words.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Funny coincidence: I TA’d an Astro class at Cornell. One of my students who is now a Republican representative from Texas is quoted in the scroll as Trump talks to these NASA employees.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I leave for my eclipse expedition tomorrow. Most astronomers who do these gigs are just speakers who get a free trip. I started out that way 10 years ago. When the trip leader had to leave on Day 2, I found myself in charge. Now I am part of the planning, help get folks from a to b and so much more.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Friday I leave for Oslo on the first leg of an expedition I’m leading to Greenland for the total solar eclipse. We will board ship in Svalbard to eventually enter Scorsby Sund in Greenland where our path will align with the sun and moon on August 12. Here’s the poster I designed. #astronomy #art
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
I just recently told someone I was listening to a “book on tape” on my phone. It took me a moment to remember what the current term is.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Where are you? In my part of Central New York we only get to be knee-high by the 4th of July.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
This was the first song I ever taped off of MTV when I was a kid. H/t @elakdawalla.bsky.social
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I’m so excited. This looks like such a fantastic resource. I can’t wait to read it.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
I had mixed feelings about Even Eves. It was a fascinating premise (that I’d heard in a science talk in 1997) but after 800or 900 pages I began to feel he was getting paid by the word.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I second the St Viateur bagels in Montreal. Unlike in NYC, everyone in Montreal seems to agree these are the best. I highly recommend their sesame bagels with ricotta cheese and fig jam.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
SightEngine labeled one of my pieces as AI recently and it took hours trying to convince the guy making the claim that it wasn’t. I’m now saving sketches and a couple intermediate steps. But it’s proof that AI is going to run artists out of business soon.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
🥹 Thanks!
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
To be fair, my wife loved the book and was very disappointed in me that I didn’t.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Thank god. I really wanted to like “When the Moon Hits Your Eye”. But by the time I got to the end I actually screamed “WTF?” Otherwise I really love your posts and felt terrible hating this book.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Trump’s secret service call sign.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
My dad was a manager at a waste water treatment plant in Portland OR. In 1980 he went back to college to get his BS and took an astronomy class. He told me later that year while watching Cosmos on TV that Carl Sagan had been a guest speaker in his class.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
I went there a lot around 2000 when there was nothing there and you could just pull up to the rim and camp for the night and no one else was around for miles.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
I love this sign. The lettering and design are so unique and unlike the standardization (which is not a bad thing) in the parks today.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Exactly. Excellent getting the car in for scale.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
I took a day off from work to go chase the largest steam engine in the world that just happened to be passing near my town.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Artemis so Y. Commercial space will always find a way to put the bro in Space Bros.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Artemis so Y.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
I got to meet him when he came to my university for his granddaughter’s graduation (I taught her intro Astro). A really lovely man.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Six years ago this month I thought I might be having a heart attack. When I tried to google symptoms, I wound up on a buzzfeed listicle. After scrolling through four screens and ads just to get to the third symptom I finally said f*ck this and just called 911.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
I’m a 7 but I live downtown in a small city. 30 minted away I can get to a 4. Central NY has towns of one size or another every 10 miles.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Sure, go ahead.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
I only really care if all these calls to see things that are truly no big deal becomes a case of the “boy who cried wolf” when a truly amazing event occurs.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
I get it. I’m now even more furious at AI. I’ve been doing this kind of poster art since 2009 and had commissions from NASA, I❤️NY, the White House, etc and had my posters acquired by the Smithsonian, and now AI has people wondering if it’s slop.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
That’s the best news I’ve heard all evening! Go on a night near new moon to get the darkest sky.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Thanks. AI is a scourge that will soon render artists obsolete and destroy our ability to determine what is real and what isn’t. We need to do better at giving people the tools to identify what is and isn’t AI-slop.
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Tyler Nordgren @spaceart.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Thanks, but I hope this demonstrates the limitations of your AI-detection software. AI is a scourge, so I’m all for calling it out.
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