Brutkey

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I finally had time to wade through sitting on hold long enough to talk to my rural Sask internet provider (Xplore, yeah, I know I should switch to a different company...) because they sent me a vague email a few days ago saying I needed a new receiver and that I may have to switch to satellite-based internet, which, as you might imagine if you've read like...any of my posts... I'm just not doing. Nope.

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I assumed that Starlink has sucked up so much of their rural Sask business that they are having to shut off towers as more and more Canadians switch to using American billionaire-owned satellites. But no, they sent out a confusing form letter to everyone: they're actually just upgrading my tower and my receiver is too old. (Annoying because my farm-sitter will have to deal with this, but oh well)

So, I still have access to cell-tower ground-based internet, in rural Canada. For now!

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I finally had time to wade through sitting on hold long enough to talk to my rural Sask internet provider (Xplore, yeah, I know I should switch to a different company...) because they sent me a vague email a few days ago saying I needed a new receiver and that I may have to switch to satellite-based internet, which, as you might imagine if you've read like...any of my posts... I'm just not doing. Nope.

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Here, have some huge BC trees:

Looking straight up at a canopy of extremely tall fir trees. There's a really neat pattern of similar size gaps between adjacent tree tops, and the bright white cloudy sky peeking through the gaps.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

RE: https://scicomm.xyz/@JohnBarentine/115967984519741487

Amazon Kuiper has actually been quite good about talking to astronomers from the very beginning of building their megaconstellations.

Did all that volunteer time from astronomers make any difference at all?

Looks like... no. They are still too damn bright. (Though I supposed maybe they would have been even brighter without any discussions with astronomers? Sigh.)

Dr. John Barentine FRAS
@JohnBarentine@scicomm.xyz

"The satellites in Amazon's new internet-beaming megaconstellation in low Earth orbit (LEO) are bright enough to disrupt astronomical research, a study has found." (via @spacedotcom@bird.makeup)

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/amazons-internet-beaming-satellites-are-bright-enough-to-disrupt-astronomical-research-study-finds

#Satellites #Space #Astronomy

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Jonathan McDowell updated his "Enormous (`Mega') Satellite Constellations" page, now showing 200,000+ more planned satellites thanks to China's CTC and the US's Terawave megaconstellations. ☹☹️

https://www.planet4589.org/space/con/conlist.html

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Everything is terrible, but I submitted the first draft of one chapter of my book to a proofreader! Kind of nerve-wracking, but nice to see that this book might actually happen.

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I got to visit some cows at a friend's farm! The internet needs some fuzzy animals right now

2 large orange cows mamas with their 1 day old tiny fuzzy brown babies right next to them. They're all looking right at me, in a pen with wood shavings all over the floor, inside a large old barn. The 2 mamas and one baby are standing, with one baby lounging in the shavings. A large reddish cow with a white stripe down the middle of her face and nose, looking right at the camera, with her reddish baby standing next to her. They are in a pen in a barn, on wood shavings. A close-up of the face of a reddish cow, looking intently at me, trying to figure out if my phone is something she can eat. There's an open door behind her into a pen with more cows. A very close-up, slightly out-of-focus view of the cows moist nose as she comes in close to make sure that my phone isn't something that might be delicious.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

Their astronomy outreach program is AMAZING (despite only having 1 astro prof). Paid staff run a modern telescope with perfect equipment, people use a virtual queue to get a turn at the big telescope, and the local RASC amateur astronomy chapter set up their own telescopes around the outside for everyone to look at while waiting. There's scientific art scattered around, and great student volunteer opportunities. It's amazing! Anybody have a few million $ for my university to do this too?

Looking up at a very shiny new large telescope white telescope with a black dust shield and a lot of wires and camera equipment on one side, inside a white dome. A telescope dome sitting in a courtyard under the blue sky. There's a powers-of-ten art exhibit on the ground, a spectral lines art project on the concrete benches, and a bunch of star maps on some concrete walls further on. A sundial that incorporates an analemma for more accuracy in timing. The sun is shining through the analemma making a sun-shadow line that perfectly tells the time when projected onto a curved metal piece with timestamps on it.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

SFU likes over-the-top caution signs

A big sign in the dining hall that says "CAUTION DO NOT FEED WILDLIFE" and then has the outlines of a bear, a deer with HUGE antlers, a raccoon, and a pigeon. A sign standing on a walkway that says "PLEASE FIND NEAREST ENTRANCE AND REMAIN INDOORS ON YOUR JOURNEY ACROSS CAMPUS". It was maybe -2C and there was a teeny tiny bit of frost in a few places.
Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

I survived my incredibly long day at Simon Fraser University, and had a lot of super interesting conversations (molecular motors whaaaattt?!) Also SFU is a wildly weird and beautiful campus

A view looking up a wide staircase that makes a 90 degree turn, and a weird round open space above it. Everything is concrete and very geometric. A view looking across a huge open space underneath a giant roof two stories up, but open on the sides to the outdoors. There are neat parallel lines on the ground from the sun coming through. A huge quad area with lots of super wide staircases and a weird elevated hallway with lots of windows. The sky above is blue. A huge rectangular courtyard surrounded by an elevated concrete narrow building on two sides. There's a rectangular pond in the middle, with a skim of ice on top, and a very annoyed seagull standing on top of the ice. It's sunny and the sky is bright blue.