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If you don't want the federal government to underwrite research and development through our universities, what is your alternative model? Just stop funding R&D? Fall behind China and the rest of the world that does fund R&D? That is not a strategy for making America great. Just

1/ This graph from Jon Bruner tells an important story: America's current dominance in science only began after the mid-1930s, when persecuted scientists began fleeing universities in Germany and then elsewhere in occupied Europe.

Any day spent at Kitt Peak National Observatory is a day well-spent. (Today was that day for me.) ✨

.Sam Lawler @[email protected]: "The re-entries are really rising quickly. If we stop measuring what is happening in the atmosphere right now, we could be way beyond the point where we can stop the damage that's being done." (via SPACE.com) space.com/space-explorat…

"We report clear associations between circadian gene expression, daily behavioral patterns, and fitness in free-living, urban-adapted individuals. The dose-dependent nature of the observed behavioral and genetic changes supports urban planning measures." sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

This case has implications for situations in the U.S. where NEPA review may include consideration of the light-pollution impact of projects. And it underscores the need for the community to support federal agencies that will make many of these decisions.

(*Werner von Braun enters the chat*)

"Radiation leaking out of private satellites is disrupting radio astronomers' ability to detect important signals from across the universe. If left unchecked, we could reach an 'inflection point' beyond which we can no longer properly study the cosmos." livescience.com/space/astronom…

"Increased eruptions from the sun can create geomagnetic storms that heat our planet’s atmosphere, causing it to swell outwards in size and increasing drag on satellites. This effect is only becoming apparent now because of a boom in satellite launches.” newscientist.com/article/248190…

"Jared Isaacman has a long-standing relationship with Elon Musk, who this week left his post as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump and chief of the Department of Government Efficiency." It may have cost him the NASA Administrator job. politico.com/news/2025/05/3…

If, some months ago, you told me that at 11pm on 1st June in Tucson it would be 66°F outside and that 0.8 inches of rain had fallen in the past 12 hours, I would have said you were completely nuts. Yet here we are. #wx #azwx

Satellite observations of artificial light at night revolutionized studies of light pollution, yet certain shortcomings of existing facilities often limit their utility. Read more about what we can and can't learn about 'night lights' from satellite data: darkskyconsulting.com/blog/what-sate…

It's not your imagination: "The luminous intensity of the average individual car headlights, taking the mean of the high and low beam lights, increased in [2016-2025] by a 22%, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate 2.2 %/year." (via Salva Bará) zenodo.org/records/155659…

Today's H-alpha Sun in good seeing conditions while dodging clouds at 17:00 UTC.

Ad astra, sir. Fred Espenak

Some quick lunar snapshots tonight under so-so seeing conditions: Theophilus/Cyrillus/Catharina; Rima Ariadaeus and Julius Caesar; Eudoxus/Aristoteles to Vallis Alpes; and sunrise over the Apennines/Caucasus.

In August I'll be participating in (and speaking at) this great event organized by Visit Utah. Key topics include agritourism and astrotourism development best practices and marketing resources. More info and registration are available on: travel.utah.gov/workshop/

Faced with the growing risk that #LightPollution represents for the development of astronomy in Chile, international observatories with a presence in the country have formed a joint organization dedicated to protecting the dark skies of northern Chile: giantmagellan.org/2025/06/03/dar…