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David Dickinson

@astrodave.bsky.social

580 followers 390 following 1.4K posts

Writer, Space pundit, Skywatcher

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 13d

Oct Astronomy

3-3I ATLAS passes Mars
7-Full Moon
10-Moon occults M45
13-Moon occults Regulus
17-Moon occults Spica
19-R2 SWAN passes Earth
20-New Moon
21-Orionid meteors peak
21-Moon occults Antares
21-Uranus at opposition
29-3I ATLAS at perihelion
29-Mercury at greatest (dusk) elongation

Spica and Comet R2 SWAN. Credit Gerald Rhemann

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 1h

Yeah... maps rule (and the Earth's still not flat)

laughingsquid.com/facts-about-...

Fascinating Facts About Maps

Mike Estrin of List 25 shared several fascinating facts about maps, noting that no map can be perfectly accurate for various reasons.

laughingsquid.com

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 7h

Watch both launches on NSF live’s channel, to avoid the ick factor of viewing it on the grave of the former birdsite: www.youtube.com/@NASASpacefl...

NASASpaceflight

NASASpaceflight (NSF) delivers live rocket launch coverage, breaking spaceflight news, and in-depth reporting from around the world. NASASpaceflight is not affiliated with or does not represent the N...

www.youtube.com

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 7h

-Next up, a Falcon-9 rocket will launch with Kupier Project KF-3 from the Cape; the 2 hour 14 minute window now opens at 8:08p EDT, and the mission will head up the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. That’s good news for launch watchers, as it has also moved up to just past sunset… prime ‘jellyfish’ territory.

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 7h

We’ve got a SpaceX doubleheader tonight:

-First up is the suborbital Starship Flight 11 launch from Boca Chica. The 45 min window opens at 7:15p EDT, and could be a photogenic one as it heads eastwards over the Gulf of Mexico if it creeps past local sunset. www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/10/star...

Starship Flight 11: End of an era, but the beginning of a new one - NASASpaceFlight.com

After 10 flights, many static fires, tanking tests, cryogenic proof tests, and a few wet…

www.nasaspaceflight.com

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Reposted by David Dickinson

Filipp Romanov @filipp-romanov.bsky.social · 8h

I observed comet C/2013 C2 (TENAGRA) during its outburst in brightness at high heliocentric distance on 2025-10-12 near 20:45 UT, using 2.0-m f/10 Liverpool Telescope.

My data were published in the CBET 5619 www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iau/cbet/005...

@astrodave.bsky.social
@davidbflower.bsky.social

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting, how brown dwarfs really blur the line between planets and stars - via @skyandtelescope.bsky.social -
skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

Rogue World Found Gobbling Material at Unprecedented Rate

Astronomers discovered a small, free-floating object that’s accreting matter at a breakneck pace, suggesting that some planet-size worlds could form similar to stars.

skyandtelescope.org

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 1d

...and most of those sungrazing comets are found by volunteer sleuths combing through SOHO images daily.

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 1d

Though it wasn’t designed for it, SOHO has proven itself to be a prolific hunter of sungrazing comets, with 5,176 discovered to date since its arrival around the Sun-Earth Lagrange 1 point on February 14th, 1996.

sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/index.php/

sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 1d

A one-two punch… while all talk is about October comets, the joint ESA/NASA Solar Heliospheric observatory (SOHO) recently spotted a pair of doom’d Kreutz sungrazers taking the plunge. The view is courtesy of SOHO’s LASCO C3 coronagraph imager (look to the lower right, the first one is faint).

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 2d

Black hole, eats star. Has to happen occasionally: www.science.org/content/arti...

Long-lived gamma ray burst could signal a new kind of cosmic catastrophe

Some theorists think unusual event could be a black hole devouring a star from within

www.science.org

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 2d

That's it... I'm moving the SE Asia, as @marwellaspaceart.bsky.social and @shahgazer.bsky.social get all of the good occultations, like tonight's occultation of Beta Tauri by the Moon: www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bstar/1... note wiki entry on occultations: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Ta...

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 2d

+7th mag HIP 37422 photo-bombs the Galilean moons from October 12th to 14th, appearing as a pseudo-5th major ‘moon’. HIP 37422 actually passes behind Jupiter on October 14th.

Mentioned here @universetoday.com -https://www.universetoday.com/articles/catching-the-october-action-with-jupiters-moons

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 3d

The comet passed 0.018 AU from Mars on October 3rd. And the best may still be yet to come. ESA also has plans to image the comet using the JUICE mission en route to Jupiter around November 4th, 6 days after 3I/ATLAS passes perihelion 1.36 AU from the Sun on October 29th.

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 3d

They caught it: the @operations.esa.int European Space Agency’s two orbital Mars missions, the Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express caught sight of everyone’s favorite interstellar comet of the hour earlier this week: 3I/ATLAS.

www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

ESA’s ExoMars and Mars Express observe comet 3I/ATLAS

Between 1 and 7 October, ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Mars Express spacecraft turned their eyes towards interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, as it passed close to Mars. 

www.esa.int

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Reposted by David Dickinson

SETI Institute @setiinstitute.bsky.social · 4d

#PPOD: The official names of asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson’s surface features — as identified by the Southwest Research Institute-led Lucy Mission — have been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Credit: NASA/SwRI/Goddard/JHUAPL 🧪 🔭

This image is a detailed map of the asteroid Donaldjohanson, created by NASA's Lucy mission team. The asteroid is a contact binary, meaning it's composed of two lobes connected by a neck. The smaller, left lobe is Afar Lobus. The larger, right lobe is Olduvai Lobus. The neck is called Windover Collum. Two regions are near the nect: Hadar Regio and Mintogawa Regio. Other named features are (left to right) Luzia Dorsum (Ridge), Cashel Saxum (Boulder), Narmada (Crater), Kennewick Saxum (Boulder), Boxgrove Saxum (Boulder), and Mungo (Crater).

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 4d

The 2 hour 18 minute launch window opens at 9:34 PM EDT tonight. That’s 2+ hours after sunset… but the launch trajectory takes the mission right up the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, worth watching for if skies are clear. Webcast: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bKy...

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 4d

East Coast launch alert. SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight. Onboard are 24 satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper mega-constellation (yes, SpaceX is even launching competitors now… they have that big a piece of the orbital space launch pie).

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 4d

Found: Sag*'s missing galactic wind: www.science.org/content/arti...

Missing wind from Milky Way’s giant black hole finally found

Astronomers may have glimpsed a long-predicted wind of gas blowing out from Sagittarius A*

www.science.org

Reposted by David Dickinson

Filipp Romanov @filipp-romanov.bsky.social · 5d

My best photos of the comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) above the Sea of Japan (imaged last year using my Canon EOS 60D camera, from Yuzhno-Morskoy, Nakhodka):

1 - 2024-10-20;
2 - 2024-10-16;
3 - 2024-10-13;
4 - 2024-10-03.

@astrodave.bsky.social @davidbflower.bsky.social
#PhotoHour #StormHour

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 5d

Astronomy is becoming an online affair. A recent find shows what’s possible, as devoted amateur astronomer @filipp-romanov.bsky.social discovered a supernova in a remote galaxy.

Here’s our latest post on the find and how he did it for @universetoday.com - www.universetoday.com/articles/ded...

Dedicated Amateur Discovers Supernova in Remote Galaxy

Astronomy is increasingly becoming an online affair. Recent discoveries of interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS and R2 SWAN highlighted this fact, when both were first discussed on message boards and verified ...

www.universetoday.com

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David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 5d

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon has been wowing early morning astrophotographers, and it’s about to go on to its encore dusk apparition in mid-October, joining Comet R2 SWAN in the evening sky. Here’s our latest post for @universetoday.com on what to expect: www.universetoday.com/articles/com...