Dust and lensing and backgrounds - oh, my!

Scopes on Screen: from "Start the Revolution Without Me", aristocratic spyglass in shot edited to look as if used in naval battle. #TelescopeTuesday

Scopes on Screen: background refractor, another entry in the extremely niche genre of telescopes as set dressing in drug commercials. #TelescopeTuesday

Scopes on Screen: refractor being used sensibly in another drug commercial. Brim of cap may help with local light pollution. #TelescopeTuesday

Not enough people appreciate this Yesferatu meme.

Set up for imaging last night when some friends called to ask about viewing planets. So - here they were posing side-by-side on their one-sided fork mounts, Nexstar 5 and Origin siblings from Celestron 25 years apart. #TelescopeTuesday

Journal email: Reminder that your review is due on the 26th unless that is not a workday for you. Me: I have consulted a management representative, and the 26th will not be a workday.

The Evening Sky Map (PDF) for January 2025 is now available. Free download at: skymaps.com/tesm/ Featuring a Sky Calendar and easy-to-use Sky Maps for the northern & southern hemispheres, and equatorial regions. Please RT/share and enjoy the stars! #astronomy #space

Scopes on Screen: from "A 90s Christmas", background refractor in room of 1999 Lucy (it's temporally complicated) #TelescopeTuesday [470 in a series]

Scopes on Screen: from Raiders of the Lost Ark, out-of-focus telescope in chamber of the sage in Cairo as he translates the headpiece to the staff of Ra, just before "bad dates". (I obviously missed this one for many years) #TelescopeTuesday

I'm just going to toss out here that one lesson from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys Explore interface, among others, is that easing access for citizen scientists often also broadens usability for research astronomers.

And, I hope, enjoying the views of the quad and multiple Ethernet taps in my former office.

Scopes on Screen: from "The Dark Crystal", seen in Aughra's orrery chamber (and that is a complex system to be modeled). #TelescopeTuesday

I am struggling to imagine how dire the outlook must be for Grant to be this (uncharacteristically) blunt.

Team galaxyzoo for the win!

Scopes on Screen: alt-az refractor in remarkably sparse bedroom of a teenaged vlogger in the movie "Sugarplummed". #TelescopeTuesday

Comète C/2024 G3 – ATLAS 25 janvier 2025 depuis l'île de la Réunion.

Scopes on Screen: kind of hard to see detail with the "black on black in the dark" layout, but telescope appears in the Christmas movie "Following Yonder Star". (Not to be confused with the surprisingly poetic 1975 essay by Richard Hoagland with that title). #TelescopeTuesday

The February 2025 edition of The Evening Sky Map is ready for download at skymaps.com/tesm/. It includes a sky calendar and user-friendly star maps for the northern and southern hemispheres, as well as equatorial regions. Feel free to share and enjoy exploring the Universe!

Scopes on Screen: kind of a meta entry, homage to George Melies' production scene in the final episode of From the Earth to the Moon #TelescopeTuesday [475 in a weekly series. I planned for 500 but with Everything, I'm outta here]