Mark McCaughrean

https://mastodon.social/@markmccaughrean

Adjunct scientist, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg / Former Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency / JWST Science Working Group Interdisciplinary Scientist / Co-founder Space Rocks / New worlds ahead / Opinions very much own   

Now living in a hilly part of Germany & very much missing regular cycling with the wide horizons & big skies of The Netherlands 😢🚴‍♂️

Personal website: http://www.markmccaughrean.net
Space Rocks: http://www.spacerocksofficial.com
111 Places in Space book: https://emons-verlag.de/p/111-places-in-space-that-you-must-not-miss-7517

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markmccaughrean_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2025-09-05 16:08:22 UTC

After the rains, out came the sunshine, & the insects with it 🌞🐝
Here's something new: a common tachnid (Tachina fera; Igelfliege in 🇩🇪).
I only managed to get one quick shot before it flew off, but I think it shows enough detail to classify it as T. fera rather than T. ferox, which I photographed earlier in the summer.
#Heidelberg 🏰
#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🦗
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/152/546/375/182/191/original/df79c8e8e597f9c2.jpg

2025-07-11 18:02:44 UTC

When all else fails, you can always rely on the Queen of the Lavender Bush, Misumena Vatia, to put on a show 🙂🙇‍♂️
Captured just before the sun set over the hills across the valley, our goldenrod crab spider seemed to be readying herself for an evening feast 😬
#Arachnids 🕸️
#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/835/887/520/118/432/original/02519c3d64132692.jpg

2025-07-09 12:23:44 UTC

A different bug in a different environment.
Up at my current home institute [@mpi_astro](https://wisskomm.social/@mpi_astro ) in the forest above Heidelberg, the wasp-mimic colours of this spotted longhorn beetle (Rutpela maculata) caught my eye as it landed on a flower 🪲🌼
Known in German as the Gefleckter Schmalbok 🇩🇪
They spend most of their 2-3 year lives as larvae & just 2-4 weeks as adults like this one.
#Insects 🪳
#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/823/230/179/875/358/original/8febfe47cab798f6.jpeg

2025-06-22 14:48:06 UTC

Hot pictures for a hot afternoon 🥵
Most of the images in my book, "111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss", came from space agencies & observatories, as well as talented archive image processors & amateur astronomers, most released with CC licences.
But I made quite a few too, also processing archival data, from my JWST observations, or from my back garden.
I've made them all available with CC BY-SA licences here:
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCbdAn
#SpaceScience
#111PlacesInSpace
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/727/553/323/392/694/original/e3527cfe4ca23fac.png

2025-06-11 21:33:27 UTC

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Now for a starter, we’re going to ignore the ESA/NASA Ulysses mission (1990-2009), which used a huge gravity assist at Jupiter in 1992 to lift it completely out of the ecliptic. It then orbited far above the Sun’s north and south poles.
But it didn’t have cameras on-board, so couldn’t take images. It rather measured particles and magnetic fields in the solar wind.
The mission ended shortly after I arrived at ESA.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(spacecraft)

2025-06-04 21:41:57 UTC

“Hey, you-hoo: why did you put that stupid window there for me to fly into?!”
This owl seemed a little shocked after hitting the living room window, which is three floors up, just now, but after a few moments on the windowsill, it seemed ok & flew away 🦉
#BirdsOfMastodon 🕊️
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/627/260/644/063/499/original/d6b23b10b65e6d31.jpeg

2025-04-16 20:12:25 UTC

I'm saddened to have just heard the news that Svetlana Gerasimenko passed away last week, on 8 April.
She was the co-discoverer in 1969 of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with fellow Ukrainian astronomer, Klim Churyumov (1937-2016).
This is the comet that was explored by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft from 2014-2016 & landed on by the Philae probe in November 2014.
A comet & events that changed my life 🙇‍♂️
Ad astra, Svetlana ✨
#SpaceScience
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/349/453/178/748/067/original/366820caf7e92ae7.jpeg

2025-03-27 09:07:44 UTC

Here’s the moment that we lost radio contact with Gaia today 📡🛰️
The memories of the same happening here at the end of the Rosetta mission in 2016 are strong 😭
A sad day, but the science continues 👍
As astra, Gaia ✨
#SpaceScience #Astronomy #Gaia #Science
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/233/602/450/251/972/original/6446569044c4729f.mp4

2025-03-25 18:09:27 UTC

Niche question for astronomers & historians of astronomy, particularly those at Harvard perhaps.
Can anyone tell me the birth & death dates of Edith F. Reilly, who worked with Bart Bok in the 1940's & co-authored the discovery paper on "small dark nebulae", now called "Bok globules"?
I've looked online, but have drawn a blank. They'd be good to have for my book.
https://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1947ApJ...105..255B
#SpaceScience #Astronomy #HistoryOfScience

2025-02-23 23:03:13 UTC

Sunday night on Undershaft, City of London.
#London 🧐
#Architecture 🏙️
#Photography 📷
#iPhonePhotography 📱
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/055/671/847/437/979/original/091a17d25a6441ab.jpeg

2025-01-15 22:23:10 UTC

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Although Gaia lasted years longer than originally planned, its life was always going to be limited – it uses a cold gas propellant to maintain its extremely precise spin rate as it scans the sky & that has nearly now run out.
There are no meaningful science operations to be done if the spin rate can’t be maintained, hence the end of mission.
For some insights into the tech tests yet to be done & how those may help deliver better calibration for Gaia’s data:
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/technology-tests

2025-01-15 22:18:49 UTC

After more than a decade ceaselessly surveying the sky to measure the positions, distances, & motions of stars in our Milky Way & beyond, ESA’s Gaia mission stopped taking data today.
After some tech tests it will be moved away from L2 & turned off forever in March.
This amazing mission has transformed modern astronomy in ways that will live on deep into the future & its final two catalogue releases still to come promise new treasures galore.
Ad astra, Gaia ✨
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/end-of-observations
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/834/685/452/893/615/original/c502b48fe065dfc6.jpeg

2024-11-25 09:28:31 UTC

“Like an enormous housecat, the cosmos is pretty, good to have around, sometimes can even appear caring, but ultimately could not give a flying fuck.”
– under the entry for “cosmodicy” in RationalWiki, originally written by Sake Fueled
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Cosmodicy
#Tigger 😽
#Photography 📷
#CatsOfMastodon 🐈
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/542/143/840/459/958/original/4ec6baea44da3b76.jpeg

2024-11-23 12:06:51 UTC

After days of cold, wet, & snowy absence, the Sun had the cheek to reappear today wearing a halo, as if it had done nothing wrong 🌞🤷‍♂️
#Heidelberg 🏰
#Photography 📷
#AtmosphericOptics 🌈
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/532/173/683/785/883/original/3ab4989db5df2fb4.jpeg

2024-11-18 14:16:42 UTC

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Indeed, I also had to sign a waiver at some point giving permission for someone (DHL? UK customs?) to open my small package if necessary.
Documents are not subject to customs charges (remember: the UK is no longer in the EU), so this seemed like a proforma thing, but still.
And then the package was done – it will be picked up today & should be at HMPO tomorrow or Wednesday.
But I won't relax until I've heard that it is – I really don't like doing this at all.
10/

2024-11-18 14:13:47 UTC

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I made sure he included the HMPO tracking code for my specific application in the address, as required, although it went at the end – it couldn't be embedded above the street name as HMPO had written it.
But he also tripped over another issue I'd seen last night, namely that you must enter a recipient mobile phone number for "customs reasons" – HMPO does not give one, so what to do?
He entered 00 44 for the UK & left the rest blank – it worked, but I hope it doesn't cause a problem.
9/

2024-11-18 14:10:37 UTC

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The post master seemed a bit sceptical at first, as it was something he'd never done before, he said. He also seemed concerned that it would be expensive – yes, it was (€55), but that's the least of my worries.
When he entered the post code for the HMPO in Hemel Hempstead, where I'd been told to send the passport, the right destination came up. Or at least, it did when he typed just HP2 7, without the remaining HQ part – I'd seen the same problem on DHL's website last night.
8/

2024-11-18 14:07:12 UTC

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So I went to the little local post office. It was, as ever, very busy, with lots of people in line just before the lunchtime closing.
The guy who runs the place is chatty & seems to know everyone, which is nice, but doesn't exactly promote efficiency.
And frankly I felt quite uncomfortable discussing wanting to ship my passport to the UK in front of loads of other people – it felt like I was trying to do something illegal.
7/

2024-11-17 10:19:45 UTC

It’s completely unsurprising that so many people are finally leaving the former Bird site nest.
The same happened when the Child King bought it & smeared x-rated shit all over it.
But the prime refuge this time seems not to be the Fediverse, but Bluesky.
Many old Bird site friends are there & several have exhorted me to become active on it too.
But surely “once bitten, twice shy” applies, as it’s majority privately owned by a US tech bro & could also be bought & slide into the abyss.
Hmm …

2024-09-22 16:16:50 UTC

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Thanks, Cees – that matches my less-expert thoughts re: FOV & turning *everything* off.
As for the chances of SpaceX or any other constellation operator putting the work & money in to stopping their electronics buzzing, I'm sceptical – with the optical brightness, I'm sure they were motivated to reduce it because the wider public could see & complain about it, not just astronomers. With invisible radio emissions, we're on our own.