Looks like no auroras tonight, but there's a severe thunderstorm watch from a huge chunk of thunderstorms that looks like it'll get here in 3-4 hours (I guess Weather Canada is pretty confident they'll keep going until they get here). Poor dog.
Prof. Sam Lawler
🔒 Manual approval@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
Professor of astronomy, farmer of goats. Asteroid (42910). She/her.
Living and learning on the land and under the skies of Treaty 4 (Saskatchewan, Canada).
Thanks to Saskatchewan's beautiful night sky, my research background in small body orbital dynamics, and a couple of really unfortunately placed SpaceX reentries, I spend a lot of time yelling about satellite pollution in international news media.
Potatoes. PO - TAY - TOES. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew.
(I will sleep well tonight! And dream of potatoes. Or a potato-hilling machine.)
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Lots of people sent me links to this news story (thanks!) Looks like Alice Gorman is the scientist who got roped in to comment this time (she's fantastic, I just think it's funny to see who gets stuck with explaining each space junk fall).
Interesting that the local police took such a cautious stance - probably the right thing to do, though as space debris becomes more common, this will become difficult.
Hopefully some silent SpaceX dudes will show up soon in a UHaul.
BBC News Top Stories@bbcnewsfeed@mastodonapp.ukAustralia probes mystery space balls that washed up on beach
Officials are searching for the origins of six pieces of space debris discovered on Forrest Beach in Queensland.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jyydr7jnjo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss
Replying to @sundogplanets@mastodon.social
Well, this is embarrassing. Looks like I finally cursed at Starlink enough that I managed to open up some kind of portal in VLEO right over my barn. Sorry everybody! I promise I'll help clean up.
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Replying to @sundogplanets@mastodon.social
This is looking SOUTH. Holy crap.
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More more more!
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Replying to @sundogplanets@mastodon.social
yes yes Yes YEs YES YES YES!!!
PURPLE! RED! ORANGE!! GREEN!!! WOWWWW
(It was not this bright naked-eye, but these colours are all totally visible! Incredible!)
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Replying to @sundogplanets@mastodon.social
Hard to tell through a window, but I think the sky looks kinda red again! Time to set up my camera, put on lots of layers, and head outside. Wooo!!!
The sky isn't quite dark enough to see if there are auroras yet, but the fucking Starlinks are easy to see. Due to the Starlink main orbital shell configuration, there is almost always a Starlink or two visible crawling across the sky at the same elevation as the North Star from my latitude (lots more in other parts of the sky too... sigh.)
Remember when Starlink publicly and loudly promised they'd get fainter than magnitude 7? That sure would have been nice. Liars.
Need some ridiculous baby goats using rolled up shade cloth as a scratching post? Yes, you do.
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