Mission mode change detected, now in Monument Mode.
Goodnight friends.

Blue Ghost’s final message as it signs off from the Moon

ESO analysis confirms that the INNA industrial megaproject would have a devastating and irreversible impact on the facilities at Paranal Observatory in #Chile.

Light #pollution would increase by at least 35% above ESO's Very Large Telescope, by a minimum of 5% above ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope and by at least 55% above the south site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory

Air turbulence would also increase, degrading seeing conditions by up to 40%

Vibrations from the project could seriously impair the functioning of the ELT and the VLT Interferometer, which are both extremely sensitive to micro-seismic noise.

Dust during construction is also problematic as it settles on the telescope mirrors and obstructs their view.

Full story here: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2506/

More in the message below. 1/

Leviathan Resurrected: Illustration and Astronomy

In the 1840s, the Leviathan of Parsonstown, built by William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse, became the largest telescope in the world.

By: Danny Robb

https://daily.jstor.org/leviathan-resurrected-illustration-and-astronomy/

The lasers our Very Large Telescope (VLT) pierce the Milky Way… but what is that vertical glow just below?

That’s the zodiacal light: caused by dust grains in the Solar System, it's so faint that it’s only visible in the darkest skies, such as those of Chile’s Atacama Desert.

And the pristine night sky in this region has always been intertwined with the culture and traditions of its indigenous people, discover how: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2511a/

F. Millour/ESO

Lunar occultation of Venus

There is a LOT of heavy lifting being done in this short article. I will attempt to summarize.

Scientist Says He Found Evidence Our Entire Universe Is Trapped Inside a Black Hole
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/scientist-says-found-evidence-entire-121519011.html?guccounter=1

"Kansas State University associate professor of computer science Lior Shamir found that out of the 263 galaxies examined, two thirds of them rotated clockwise, while only a third rotated counterclockwise, as detailed in a paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
[...]
"It is still not clear what causes this to happen, but there are two primary possible explanations," said Shamir in a statement. "One explanation is that the universe was born rotating. That explanation agrees with theories such as black hole cosmology, which postulates that the entire universe is the interior of a black hole."

The findings add credence to an existing, Russian doll-like theory called "Schwarzschild cosmology," which suggests that our galaxy is trapped within a black hole, which in turn is located inside another universe.
[...]
"I think that the simplest explanation of the rotating universe is the universe was born in a rotating black hole,"
[...]
As Space.com reports, this would imply that other observed black holes could be wormholes, otherwise known as Einstein-Rosen bridges, to other universes, which are unobservable to us due to the black holes trapping light within them."
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/james-webb-space-telescope/is-our-universe-trapped-inside-a-black-hole-this-james-webb-space-telescope-discovery-might-blow-your-mind

Just added the Ancient Greek inscriptions to my replica of the #AntikytheraMechanism. Grab your own virtual copy at

https://www.thomasweibel.ch/antikythera/

1/9 Martian Potato1

Animation of Phobos Over Mars: a time lapse from 2007 to 2021

Full size & info: https://flic.kr/p/2qREua9
Credit: ESA/DLR/FUBerlin/AndreaLuck CC BY

8 frames, captured by ESA Mars Express. It's stabilized on Phobos (Todd crater) to play with the disorienting effect.

All images below

Check out also my Album about Phobos on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAvrQL

Happy birthday to Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848) a trail blazing woman in #astronomy. Hers was a real life Cinderella story, where rather than marrying a prince, she made a life and career for herself. Marriage her expected role but she was deemed unmarriageable, since a childhood bout of typhus stunted her growth. Her mother thought she should train to be a servant, & purposely stood in the way of her learning French, or music,

There’s a new night sky webcam on Mauna Kea. It is on the CFHT building and looks west. The Keck Telescope domes and the Subaru Telescope building are in the foreground.

Orion is prominent in the sky from the webcam right now. The moon is up and behind the camera, so the scene is bright and the sky not very dark.

Live cam: https://www.youtube.com/live/qh6Nqiq6LIg

Other live cam links in that video description.

Last night's Lunar Eclipse from my backyard. Thanks for looking and Clear Skies!

SW 127 Mak
Canon T3i
SW AZ-GTe

On this date in 1781, William and Caroline Herschel discovered a new “comet”, which turned out to be the planet now known as Uranus. It was the first new planet to be discovered since ancient times. And William Herschel wanted to call it Georgium Sidius (George’s Star) after his patron King George III of England. The things scientists contemplate to get funding…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus