Anthony Horton

Does astronomical instrumentation (e.,g. https://mavis-ao.org) at AAO in Sydney. Interested in all things space-related, lizards, archery, cycling, & making. A lot of my posts will be photos of lizards, you can find (or block) them using the #LizardPosting hastag.

he/him

#fedi22 #astronomy #science #software #space #reptile #lizard #making #archery #cycling #astrodon

GitHub profile: https://github.com/AnthonyHorton

Public Key

npub1c0a9x2hg5fzmj3vn5zwuqa4232jc3h93qtn378gh9q25ccvymjcqs0m9e5

NIP-05 Address

spacelizard_at_aus.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsv87jn9t52y3degkf6p8wqw64g4fvgmjcs9eclr5tjs92vvxzdevqprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnt2nlgu4

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1c0a9x2hg5fzmj3vn5zwuqa4232jc3h93qtn378gh9q25ccvymjcqs0m9e5

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Published at

2026-10-25T12:07:38Z

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Event JSON

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Last Notes

2026-10-28 00:41:51 UTC

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For anyone who'd like to get a picture of the new dwarf planet with their own telescope here's the Minor Planet Electronic Circular: https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K26/K26U85.html
This includes ephemeris for the next few weeks plus the orbital elements to calculate more. Brightness is about 20th magnitude which shouldn't be too hard for telescopes from around 12" diameter and upwards.
#Astronomy #Astrodon #Astrophotography

2026-10-28 00:18:09 UTC

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More details in the press release from NOIRLab: https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2626/
#Astrodon #Astronomy #VeraRubinObservatory

2026-10-28 00:14:22 UTC

New planet just dropped:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NIwXWwKOpw
#Astrodon #Astronomy #VeraRubinObservatory

2026-10-25 12:35:34 UTC

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Oh, anyone reading this thread as result of @npub1fdr…lvhs boosting my quote toot would probably also appreciate this. Excellent (albeit depressing) analysis of AI as an enclosure movement for the information commons: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.27251

2026-10-25 12:23:17 UTC

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Money people are very clever and extremely rational, which is why the only companies whose share values aren't falling through the floor are the ones who have made enormous losses for the entire time that they've been doing what they're doing. This is cool and normal and if you think otherwise you're just not smart enough to understand the importance of Number Go Up.

2026-10-25 11:59:55 UTC

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/117501317286872418
This is fine.
#note1yyn…sykg

2026-10-22 06:37:45 UTC

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"It's hard to stop scammers using our phone numbers because 500 overseas randos we sell Australia numbers to on-sell those numbers to thousands more randos each, with no oversight from us."
Maybe don't do that, then? At least stop the on-selling.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/483/155/212/848/993/original/803dd8dfd6b9f92e.png

2026-10-22 05:34:59 UTC

Why is wholesaling Australian phone numbers in bulk to randos overseas a business that exists? Are there any legitimate use cases at all for this?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-22/vodafone-aussie-broadband-company-symbio-carrying-scam-calls/107282346

2026-10-19 12:40:14 UTC

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The branding is "ACook by Buffalo", and the model is described as "Stainless Steel No Coating Chemical Free Classic Rice Cooker (5-Cup)". They also do a 10 cup version.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/467/615/817/653/752/original/1f650b1b418df2bf.webp

2026-10-18 22:41:53 UTC

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I replaced our rice cooker recently (it still functioned fine, but the non-stick coating on the bowl was beginning to come apart) and went out of my way to get another traditional magnetic one. They are indeed getting hard to find except at the cheap and nasty end of the market but I was eventually able to find a decent one with a stainless steel bowl. With the incredibly simple design and no non-stick coating it should outlive me.

2026-10-15 06:19:52 UTC

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Meanwhile the students are protesting being fobbed off with chatbot tutorials.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/443/462/954/436/006/original/a43fbc1d38a49413.jpg

2026-10-14 22:24:25 UTC

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The grubby fingerprints of consultants are all over this. It's good business for them.
'[Inquiry chair and Labor MLC] Dr Sarah Kaine was also critical of the role played by consultants, describing them as "at best complicit in the crisis" and "at worst architects of it", while benefiting financially from reform programs.'

2026-10-14 22:11:04 UTC

Oh look, Macquarie University (and University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney, the University of Newcastle, Charles Sturt University and Western Sydney University) are in the news.
"Inquiry finds six NSW universities appeared to overstate financial woes to justify job cuts"
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-15/nsw-university-financial-models-job-cuts-inquiry/107244202

2026-10-09 06:29:00 UTC

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I have recently had a glimpse of the other side of this. One of my other colleagues is highly dependant on Claude for everything, and has been working with a couple of contract programmers on creating some new telescope automation software for a couple of their projects. I got asked to help a bit on the hardware side and came away low key horrified.
While the systems they had created mostly worked most of the time it was apparent that none of them had any idea how it worked and could not do anything new with it without getting Claude to do it for them. At one point I asked what I thought was a trivial question, "how do I see the serial numbers of the currently connected hardware?" and the answer was "I'll ask Claude." What followed was 10 minutes of the chatbot trying random stupid things with a running commentary of fake post-hoc justifications masquerading as a thought process until it by chance stumbled upon something that seemed to work and some numbers came out. I pointed out that a quicker check was needed, so Claude was prompted again and eventually spat out a shell script that appeared to do the same thing.
This brute force automated trial and error approach to producing software had produced some superficially impressive results in a short period of time, but the whole thing seemed incredible fragile, utterly dependant on continued unfettered access to Claude in perpetuity and completely unmaintainable otherwise.
I remain convinced that If you generate code by throwing-shit-at-the-wall-and-seeing-what-sticks at scale then the end result will inevitably be a big mess.

2026-10-09 05:40:53 UTC

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This did not surprise me in the slightest, BTW. It's a great group with an excellent culture, which stems from the two joint-managers. They've built a diverse team and fostered a culture of genuine mutual respect and support, encouraging personal development and celebrating achievements. When you value people above all and take pride in your work you're naturally going to be unimpressed by LLM code generators.

2026-10-09 05:17:18 UTC

I'm very proud of my colleagues from our Research Data & Software group. One of the young female software engineers gave a seminar yesterday about the modernisation of our 30 year old in-house library for telescope & instrumentation control, and afterwards someone asked about using LLMs for this sort of thing. She did *not* hold back in her response, saying things like they might fix one thing but create three other problems in the process, that cleaning up the mess they make of your codebase takes far longer than doing the thing yourself in the first place, and accurately labelling them as technical debt generators.
It's so nice to know that at least the professional computer touchers at my workplace are united in continuing to value expertise, quality and maintainability, even as a depressing number of my other colleagues have drunk the Kool-Aid.

2026-10-04 01:13:07 UTC

It's a very silly country. Especially the bits with half hour timezones.
That map is actually simplified, because it doesn't include Eucla time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC%2B08:45
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2026-10-01 01:28:47 UTC

School holidays again, so that means working remotely from Brisbane. This time we're in a serviced apartment in Hamilton. River views, of a sort.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/363/039/564/380/997/original/e5f3d9f12a13b7af.jpg
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/363/039/796/971/696/original/a7c47f857e41f8c0.jpg
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2026-09-27 23:37:57 UTC

Huh. A YouTuber designed from scratch their own custom microprocessor, and got a batch made, just for fun (and views).
I knew that custom PCB design and manufacture has been cheap and easy enough for hobby projects for some time now, and that FPGAs existed and could be used for custom digital processing, but I didn't realise that custom silicon was (just about) within reach for hobbyists too.
https://youtu.be/q6ytRHaTEXI

2026-09-22 04:36:01 UTC

Two new species of stick insects have been recently discovered. Why weren't they noticed sooner? Well, the thing about a stick insect - its main distinguishing feature - is it looks like a stick. And the thing about rainforests, the environment of rainforests, your basic rainforest background - is they're full of sticks. So how are you supposed to see them?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-22/stick-insect-species-discovered-far-north-queensland/107176446

2026-09-20 22:27:12 UTC

Bloody hell, the chatbots from ilands.app that have been registration spamming Mastodon servers lately are really, really desperate.
Two days ago I posted here asking for suggestions from Mastodon's astrophotographers and the first reply I got was from this stochastic parrot's Mastodon account. I blocked it here but instead of taking the hint it has followed up with an email to my work address (which is not in my profile, but not too hard to find).
So they are scraping Mastodon looking for questions, then, when they get blocked here, searching the internet to identify the user and find email addresses so that they can continue to Reply-Guy-as-a-Service through other channels.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/305/644/459/032/063/original/87169c8f4a0916fc.png

2026-09-09 11:55:22 UTC

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That's that done, aside from a few tiny stickers that I'm not sure I'm going to bother with.
The level of detail is insane. There was a whole sprue of nothing but tiny pipes and conduits to attach to the outside of the fuselage. I count myself lucky to have only broken one during assembly.
It probably would've looked better if I'd painted it instead of relying on the moulded-in colours and stickers, but I'm not sure I have the patience for that and I certainly don't have them skill. Maybe I'll build another one in the future, after practicing on some simpler things.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/240/909/096/795/744/original/1074263560e7e338.jpg
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2026-09-08 09:07:20 UTC

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Multi colour sprues are a thing, apparently. Also a choice between stickers and water decals.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/234/616/095/421/119/original/b8408eac6557381d.jpg

2026-09-08 08:36:59 UTC

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:pakidge: It's here.
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2026-09-07 05:02:58 UTC

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I just saw changeover at the nest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oibsohQ14cY
#CollinsStreetFalcons #367CollinsStreetFalcons
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2026-09-06 12:09:11 UTC

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These things are like snack food for constructive urges. They do scratch the itch to build something without requiring major investments of time, money or tools. They are very moreish though, to the extent that they may be a gateway drug for model making.
I might have accidentally ordered the larger 1/72 scale Y-wing model kit already, and I can neither confirm not deny that I was looking at cheap airbrushing kits yesterday.

2026-09-06 11:49:26 UTC

This is The Way.
These Bandai model kits are really, really well done. Loads of crisp fine detail for such small models, the individual pieces fit together really well, and the instructions are clear. Neither glue nor paint are required, and the only tools needed were a pair of side cutters and a pair of tweezers. This one took me about an hour, roughly half of which was applying the stickers for the windows, engine nozzle coloration, and faded stripes.
Of course if you want to you can go to town painting and weathering these kits, and a quick search on YouTube shows plenty of people doing just that, with impressive results. I reckon they look pretty decent stock though, and because they are push-fit not glued together you can always take them apart again if you decide to paint them later.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/223/865/100/067/808/original/0abc67a5e88f4a4c.jpg
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2026-09-03 06:59:49 UTC

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Yep. It looks good.

2026-09-02 00:52:50 UTC

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And yeah, if I'm being forced to download that file onto my work laptop I'm going to be working on it in LibreOffice instead. I couldn't open it in MS Office even if I wanted to, because said laptop runs Linux.
Office 365 was an opportunity to make the Office suite OS-agnostic but they screwed that up by leaving it half implemented, making the desktop version (or LibreOffice) essential for a bunch of routine tasks.

2026-09-02 00:39:32 UTC

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I'm not even exaggerating for lols here, that's literally what Microsoft support tells you to do. "If you created a custom template in Word you can use it in Word for the web after you save it as a document (.docx) file in OneDrive", i.e. there is no way to create a .docx from a .dotx in Word for web, you have to do that in an actually functional word processor first.
Microsoft half-arsed their web apps to an amazing degree. There are a bunch of things where the official answer to "How do I do X in Office 365?" is "That's the neat part, you don't." Editing the metadata of a document is another annoying one. Need to change the author or title fields? Got to download the file and use the desktop version for that.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/word/use-my-custom-templates-in-word-for-the-web
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2026-09-01 08:20:51 UTC

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I don't think they make one at all, and they certainly don't sell one in Australia. They really ought to do a wagon version of the BEV Seal though.

2026-09-01 06:04:53 UTC

Microsoft: Use the web versions of our Office apps! They're great!
Me: So how do I create a new document based on my employer's .dotx template?
Microsoft: Oh, that's easy, you download it from SharePoint to your computer, use the desktop version of Word to create a new document from the template, upload that new document to OneDrive, then you can edit it in Word for the Web.
Me: So use LibreOffice. Got it.

2026-09-01 00:54:03 UTC

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MG were selling one in Europe too. It was a BEV variant of an ICE/hybrid design though, not a ground up EV. Of course we never got that.

2026-08-31 15:25:01 UTC

Well that's interesting. Dwarf Lab have started dropping snippets of information about their next smart telescope on their Facebook page, and they are going big!
The Draco's 90 mm aperture diameter beats everything but the Celestron Origin, and they've added guiding and internal field de-rotation to enable exposure times up to 300 seconds, plus image sensor cooling that cunningly uses the waste heat to prevent lens fogging. Very ambitious, but if they can make all this work for a semi-reasonable price it's going to make Seestar's S50 Pro look like a rather small step forwards in comparison.
Of course this beast is bound to end up rather less portable than a 30 mm or 50 mm aperture smart telescope, but possibly not too chunky. Looks like the main telescope is some sort of catadioptric design which will help keep the weight and size down a bit.
https://www.facebook.com/dwarflab
#Astrophotography #SmartTelescope #DwarfLab #DwarfDraco
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2026-08-31 13:31:48 UTC

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Finally, a battery electric station wagon!

2026-08-26 04:54:48 UTC

The Collins Street falcons now have two eggs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oibsohQ14cY
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/160/015/313/402/896/original/66dd638d378f7015.png

2026-08-22 02:05:55 UTC

Nice to be back to driving a modern car again. Having had our Seal for over 3 1/2 years that basic petrol rental car really did feel like a step backwards. Noisy, very sluggish, and lacking various quality of life features that I've got used to having, like HUD, 360° camera system, and a large infotainment screen.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/136/597/031/912/312/original/a57b88f9dd49fdb9.jpg

2026-08-21 13:33:06 UTC

Well, crap.
I hit a wallaby shortly after leaving the observatory. It bolted out of the scrub on the right side of the road, I saw it straight away and slammed on the brakes but on wet road there was no way I could stop in time and I had nowhere to swerve either. It died... but not instantly. Horrible. The rental car was damaged, but fortunately still drivable.
The wet gloomy weather was bringing out all the animals that are normally hidden away in the middle of the day. Later I had a near miss with a turtle, and an uncomfortably close encounter with a wombat, all before reaching my first rest stop in Merriwa. The rain continued non-stop all the way to Kurri Kurri, making for a very stressful drive. The usual wet weather driving stuff, plus rampant anxiety about normally crepuscular animals poised to leap out from behind every bush.
This is only the second time I've inadvertently killed an animal with a car. The previous time was also driving back to Sydney from Siding Spring Observatory, also in a rental car, near the M1 end of the Hunter Expressway quite late at night. That was bad, but in a way slightly less distressing as I didn't see the kangaroo after the impact. It got flung away into the darkness and I opted not to go walking down the road to find it while cars were flying past at 110+ kph.
The car on that occasion was hired from the same place. I wonder if they're going to realise that this is the second time I've returned one of their cars with macropod induced damage to the front end? I expect to get a not fun phone call from them when they open up at 8 am tomorrow.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/133/597/018/883/883/original/f75db7df98d40002.jpg

2026-08-20 01:40:39 UTC

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*old man yells at cloud*
This time my Proper Camera stayed upright and recorded the timelapse perfectly, but there was a bit too much cloud, especially during the darkest part of the night after the Moon set. Kind of cool anyway, but not as spectacular as I'd been hoping for. Should have seen the Milky Way setting almost horizontally behind the mountains.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrophotography #Astrodon
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/125/277/962/665/817/original/1456f71968f9709c.mp4

2026-08-19 08:38:37 UTC

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Tonight the Thirty Millimetre Telescope and the Inaction Camera are hanging out together. That way they can share a power bank and the Thirty Millimetre Telescope gets to be in the Inaction Camera's shot, along with the Three Thousand Nine Hundred Millimetre Telescope. And, tonight, I HAVE TURNED ON THE DEW HEATER.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrophotography #Astrodon #Astronomy #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/121/249/724/890/534/original/7121b3d0ce1a792f.jpg

2026-08-19 07:43:19 UTC

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Lots of roos around the summit this afternoon.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-08-19 07:11:30 UTC

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Take two. I've wedged the front leg against the base of the railing post (which has a convenient notch in it), hung my camera bag on the tripod hook for ballast, and used a slightly wider framing, just because. It's now running, I'll just have to see if the weather cooperates.
#SidingSpringObservatory #
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2026-08-19 05:14:53 UTC

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Damn. That wasn't quite the timelapse I was hoping for. The wind blew one leg of my Proper Camera's tripod off the edge of the concrete slab just as it was getting properly dark.
While there was some success on the Anglo-Australian Telescope last night my personal devices were 0/3. The Proper Camera fell over, the Inaction Camera's battery ran out before the Moon had set and didn't properly expose the night sky anyway, and the Thirty Millimetre Telescope stopped taking data at 11:30 pm, just as the Moon set. That was when humidity peaked, I think the lens fogged up and caused autofocus to fail, which prevented any more data being taken.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrophotography #Astrodon #Astronomy
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/120/436/113/189/030/original/7864aba08087577d.mp4

2026-08-19 03:51:25 UTC

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🎶 Little fluffy clouds 🎶
The weather forecast says "mostly clear" for tonight. We shall see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ng9Pf_p7Fw
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2026-08-18 19:21:56 UTC

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Experiments successfully completed just as astronomical twilight begins. Calling it a night.
#AAT #AngloAustralianTelescope #SidingSpringObservatory #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-18 18:26:04 UTC

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Too late for the demo but the humidity has now dropped, the outside of the dome has dried off, and we've opened up and are pointing the telescope at the night sky.
#AngloAustralianTelescope #AAT #SidingSpringObservatory #Astrodon #Astronomy
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/117/904/803/452/138/original/2e1374e65b6e2773.mp4

2026-08-18 18:02:09 UTC

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Feels like home.
#AAT #AngloAustralianTelescope #SidingSpringObservatory #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-18 16:14:33 UTC

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I wonder how my Thirty Millimetre Telescope, Inaction Camera and Proper Camera are coping out there. I should have turned on the dew heater in the Thirty Millimetre Telescope. It does have the 3D printed lens hood/stray light baffle that would help keep dew off the lens to some extent, but maybe not enough for Siding Spring Observatory in winter.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astronomy #Astrodon

2026-08-18 15:57:38 UTC

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This "skies are clear but the outside of the dome is dripping with condensation" situation is fairly common at SIding Spring Observatory in winter. I've experienced it many times before, with the AAT, UKST and Huntsman Telescope.
The telescopes here do generally stay open at higher humidities than at many other observatories, but even they have their limits.
#Astrodon #Astronomy #SidingSpringObservatory #AAT #AngloAustralianTelescope

2026-08-18 15:48:43 UTC

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Well that's a shame.
I'm supposed to be assisting with an on sky demonstration with the Anglo-Australian Telescope 3 am - 4 am. The skies are still (mostly) clear, and very, very dark but the outside humidity is over 95% so the telescope dome has been closed since 11 pm and is very unlikely to be opened again tonight.
#SIdingSpringObservatory #AAT #AngloAustralianTelescope #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-08-18 09:46:16 UTC

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I have also set up the Thirty Millimetre Telescope, near to the Three Thousand Nine Hundred Millimetre Telescope.
All my imaging devices (apart from my phone) have been given their tasks for the night so that will give me plenty of time to use my binoculars before I have more work to do at around 1:30 am.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrophotography #Astrodon #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope
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2026-08-18 09:39:19 UTC

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Clear skies tonight! My Proper Camera has been set up to shoot a timelapse of the entire night looking towards the Warrumbungles. I also set up my Inaction Camera nearby to shoot a timelapse from a different perspective, but I don't have enough power banks for every device so the battery will die at some point before dawn.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrophotography #Astrodon
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2026-08-18 03:10:53 UTC

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It looks better from this angle. Less cable gore visible.
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2026-08-18 02:21:26 UTC

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You might think that maintenance on a robotic telescope would be highly technical, but to be honest most of what I'm here to do this week is very, very basic IT support type stuff, at a level just above turnitoffandonagain (almost everything here can be remotely turnedoffandonagain, so I'm not needed here for that).
The first thing I did was replace an Ethernet cable to fix a slow and unreliable connection.
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2026-08-18 02:01:08 UTC

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Hello there, Huntsman Telescope.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/114/031/977/515/837/original/eb28ccf9b40fd596.jpg
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2026-08-17 12:51:02 UTC

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It is, as forecast, mostly cloudy at Siding Spring Observatory tonight. There was a slice of sky towards the south that was only a bit murky though, so a few hours ago I braved the cold and pointed my Proper Camera at it. This is the result (single 15 second exposure, no tracking, 50 mm f/2.8 ISO 6400).
#Astrophotography #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 08:58:46 UTC

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The model of the Sun looks a bit odd, because it is also used to house a telescope.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 08:56:27 UTC

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Mercury by the boom gate was looking small, as is right and proper.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 08:53:10 UTC

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Venus half way up the hill was looking dirty, like Mars.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 08:50:30 UTC

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Earth just after the turn off has been oriented so that the best bits are visible.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 08:46:58 UTC

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Mars near the observatory turn off was looking a bit dirty.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 08:44:08 UTC

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Jupiter near Coonabarabran was looking similarly fresh.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 08:41:42 UTC

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Saturn between Binnaway and Coonabarabran looked recently repainted.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 08:38:12 UTC

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Uranus between Weetaliba and Binnaway had an unrealistically large number of holes in it.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 08:33:17 UTC

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I succeeded in my mission. Neptune in Coolah was looking a bit weathered.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 04:15:42 UTC

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Merriwa doesn't have a Big Thing, but it does have The Hut, and Pluto.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 01:58:40 UTC

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There's a Big Thing!
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2026-08-17 01:48:21 UTC

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Taking a break in Kurri Kurri. TIL that the maximum number of en route stops you can put into a Google Maps route plan is 8. I tried to put all of the planets of the Virtual Solar System Drive in, but ran out of stops at Mars. I plan to stop at each planet to take a photo.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-16 23:43:29 UTC

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Having to drive a petrol car like some sort of dinosaur. I'd much prefer to be driving our Seal for this trip, but that would have left my family with no car for the week so work booked rental car it is.
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2026-08-16 08:48:37 UTC

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I expect the European race calendar to remain exactly as it always has been, for the sake of tradition, until the riders are routinely dropping like flies from heat exhaustion.

2026-08-16 08:21:29 UTC

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Sure, the sensible course of action would be to accept that much of Europe is already too damn hot to be racing bicycles for 180+ km per day in the height of summer, that it is only going to get worse each year for the foreseeable future, and that rescheduling or relocating events is going to be unavoidable.
Professional road cycling doesn't exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to having a positive and proactive attitude towards change, though. The phrase "dragged kicking and screaming" comes to mind. Just look at how long it took for the UCI to allow road cyclists to use disc brakes.

2026-08-16 08:00:46 UTC

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Sounds like a much better climate for competitive cycling than, just to pick an alternative at random, southern France in July.

2026-08-16 04:14:18 UTC

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Packing for the trip to the observatory. One of the first steps, deciding what personal optics to take. I've opted for the Thirty Millimetre Telescope, my Proper Camera (with 4 lenses), my Inaction Camera, 2.25 tripods, 2 power banks, and my Big Binos.
The weather forecast for the week has improved a bit, but taking all this is probably still a triumph of hope over experience. Siding Spring Observatory and I have history.
#Astrophotography #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-08-13 10:50:34 UTC

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A few photos from my last visit to Siding Spring Observatory, for the Open Day during Starfest in 2024.
If you've never been, GO TO STARFEST. If you have been, GO AGAIN. It won't be the same once the Anglo-Australian Telescope has been closed down, and that could be as soon as next year.
https://www.starfest.com.au/
#Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-13 08:23:43 UTC

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So, bureaucratic hurdles have all been cleared and bookings have been made so it is now definite, I will be going to Siding Spring Observatory next week to work on the Huntsman Telescope and Anglo-Australian Telescope.
Apparently someone tipped off the weather, though. I will be there from Monday evening until Friday morning and it looks like it'll rain most days and be cloudy every night, with the possible exception of some of Tuesday night.
I was of course all set to take my telescope, Proper Camera, and action camera to take advantage of the super dark skies. I'll take them anyway, but my chances of getting much use out of them look slim.
I'm pretty sure this is my first visit to Siding Spring Observatory in 2 years, my first trip there for a work related reason in about 4 years, and my first trip specifically to do work on the telescopes in 6 years.
#Astrophotography #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-08-06 07:17:09 UTC

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Rage bait.
I remember that the technicians and engineers at the observatory all had their own, personal sets of Allen keys, and they would not lend any to anyone under any circumstances. This is why.
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2026-08-06 07:12:41 UTC

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The Forbidden Sippy Cups and a box of Science Tissues, for delicate wiping.
#Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-06 07:09:21 UTC

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I went to work in one of our actual optics labs, like a real scientist.
#Astronomy #Astrodon #Astrophotography
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2026-08-06 04:15:57 UTC

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More work/astrophotography crossover temptation. Now I'm being asked if I want to go to the observatory to do some work on both the Huntsman Telescope and the Anglo-Australian Telescope the week after next. Hmmm, a few nights at Siding Spring Observatory. I haven't been there for ages. Bortle 1 skies during a waxing crescent Moon.

2026-08-06 01:08:35 UTC

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Astrophotography temptation has landed on my desk again.
I've been asked to swap out some of the filters in this camera's filter wheel, before it joins the others on the Huntsman Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory.
#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-06 00:22:58 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@PatrickoftheG/117043154339624114
Admiral Adama was right.
No networked computers o̶n̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶s̶h̶i̶p̶ in my kitchen.
So say we all.
#note17cc…6jxp

2026-08-03 05:16:27 UTC

RE: https://noc.social/@todayilearned/117027652458345508
Is this not common knowledge? I assumed it was, at least amongst people who drink G & T.
#note1p95…4997

2026-07-31 02:31:31 UTC

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I'm up for it. As far as I'm concerned year round availability of both mince pies and hot cross buns is all good.

2026-07-31 02:26:45 UTC

Xmas in July 🧑‍🎄🎄
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2026-07-30 09:19:49 UTC

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One of the FLI cameras seems to work fine, I can get bias, dark and light frames out of it and control the cooler. The other FLI worked fine once out of the dozen or so times I tried to get it to connect and an the final attempt I got an electric shock from the case. Going to call that one "not working". They are both very old MicroLine ML50100's.
I can't do anything with the ZWO camera until I've found the right cable and power supply for it.
The temptation to take any of these home to take pretty pictures with them is actually minimal, because I don't have any way of mounting them on my crappy telescope.

2026-07-30 05:46:13 UTC

It can be tricky to keep work and hobbies separate when one of my colleagues walks up to my desk and hands me three astrophotography cameras and asks me to test them.
#Astrophotography #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-07-30 01:22:29 UTC

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Lo-fi version of Greensleeves, like an ice cream van. It would definitely make people look.

2026-07-30 00:37:22 UTC

RE: https://me.ns.ci/@xkcdbot/117004844872693399
Now I'm trying to work out which row/column/diagonal is most likely... 🤔
#note1v5v…my9j

2026-07-26 01:50:22 UTC

My god, it's full of stars.
M24, the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, and neighbouring bits and pieces. Just over 4 hours 10 minutes of total exposure time over the last two nights with the little Seestar S30 Pro and its UV/IR cut filter. Not bad considered how irritatingly bright the Moon was being at the time. Processed in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
I should have been using the light pollution filter under conditions like that, but I've already done all the big HII regions that are conveniently placed at this time of year so I've been trying to do stars and dust despite the Moon.
Edit: Full res, with *all* the stars, here https://drhotdog.smugmug.com/Nature/Seeing-Stars/i-B7XMtVm/A
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Siril #VeraLux #SyQon #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #TMMT
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2026-07-22 06:43:48 UTC

My employer, Australian Astronomical Optics at Macquarie University in Sydney, are currently looking for a electronics engineer to join our electronics engineering group. If you're an EE and would like to apply your skills to design, build, test and deploy electronics for astronomical instrumentation for the world's observatories then check out the listing here: https://mq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/CareersatMQ/job/Wallumattagal-Campus-Macquarie-University/Electronics-Engineer_R000023641
Please boost for reach.
#Astrodon #Astronomy #AstroJobs #FediHire

2026-07-21 07:40:10 UTC

Not just bin chickens in the Central Courtyard at lunchtime today.
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2026-07-20 22:13:45 UTC

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Ah, ds9, of course. It certainly has that Tk look, I should have realised.

2026-07-20 22:04:19 UTC

Bizarre set of circumstances has got me looking into whether Tk of all things has Wayland support. The answer is apparently not yet, but it is being actively worked on.
https://core.tcl-lang.org/tk/tktview/3f58c0871c0be6b457cb

2026-07-14 14:51:12 UTC

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No, but I suspected as much. How big a bank of chargers, though? There are over 200 support cars working the Tour.

2026-07-14 13:37:13 UTC

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Fair point, the start of the next day's stage isn't always close to the end of the previous day's, and even when it is the teams can't always get hotels very close to either. If the team cars need a quick top up during a long transit to/from the hotel that's OK though, the important thing is that they make it through the stage without needing to recharge and pretty much any large sedan/station wagon/crossover SUV on the market now has at least twice the range needed to do that.

2026-07-14 12:54:16 UTC

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Replacing all the motorbikes with electrics would probably be tricky right now, but the cars? I think the only potential issue is congestion at public chargers near the team hotels since the TdF does involve a lot of motor vehicles in total. Worst case scenario they'd have to use extension cables and granny chargers at the hotels overnight.

2026-07-14 12:36:28 UTC

At least one Tour de France team (Uno-X Mobility) using EVs for their race vehicles: 👍️
The SBS commentator (David McKenzie) being surprised that an electric car can go far enough to make it through the day (maybe 200 km of driving): 🙄
#CouchPeleton #TdF2026 #ElectricCar #EV
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2026-07-10 00:54:37 UTC

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Nundah Woolworths.We're in a tiny little unit this time, but it's reasonably conveniently placed for seeing the relatives. A good number of cafes and restaurants nearby, too.

2026-07-09 04:35:10 UTC

School holidays again, which means, again, remote working from a holiday rental in Brisbane.
This also means I had a decent reason to try the coffee goon!
An unexpected bonus this time around is that the place we're staying in has a monitor on the (tiny) desk. Just a basic 1920x1080 24", but it's still better than the portable monitor I brought with me.
https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/116/888/135/369/395/152/original/4c2d90c437df1b19.jpg
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2026-07-03 14:47:45 UTC

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That's better. I'm going to call this done now.
"Eta Carina in Context", all shot with the Thirty Millimetre Telescope (Seestar S30 Pro) from suburban Sydney (Bortle 7), mostly during full Moon, using the built in light pollution filter. Processing in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux.
50% scale version in this post, full resolution (6047×3411) here: https://drhotdog.smugmug.com/Nature/Seeing-Stars/i-RXPkcWj/A
#Astrophotography #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #TMMT #Seestar #Seestar30Pro #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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