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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies

@palomarskies.bsky.social

3.6K followers 710 following 2.5K posts

Associate professor of astronomy at Palomar College, user of smart telescopes. 🔭 Blog: http://visiblesuns.blogspot.com/

visiblesuns.blogspot.com

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · Sep 3

"The world is still beautiful, even with all the traffic, the injustice, the noise, the wars. The world is still beautiful. It's all we have and we should celebrate it." - Film score composer Lionel Newman

DSCOVR 🔴 EPIC (Unofficial) @dscovr-epic.bsky.social · Jul 21

1:37:11 PM on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, over the North Atlantic Ocean.

Earth from space, centered on the North Atlantic Ocean, captured on Tuesday, July 15, 2025 at 1:37:11 PM by NASA's DSCOVR EPIC camera.

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 4h

Wow! I love that artwork. And, you'll be fine. 🖖

Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 4h

Looking at an old friend this evening: Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Here's a two panel mosaic of part of it. 🔭

Two overlapping images that record the central region and spiral arms of Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Stars and dust lanes are visible in the galaxy. The image also shows Messier 32, an elliptical galaxy to the lower right of the core of M31.

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 4h

Super!

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 4h

Awesome.

Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 10h

It is not amazingly bright and I was not able to spot it with binoculars last night, but it is in the southwest in early evening. It's about 11 degrees above and slightly right of the bright orange star Antares.

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 13h

Here's about 10 minutes of motion of Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) from last night against the background stars when it was about 29 million miles from Earth. 🔭

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 18h

A scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey showing astronauts of the rim of a crater overlooking Clavius Base. Earth and a shuttle are in the black sky.

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Reposted by Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies

Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 1d

This Is Fascism

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

I wasn’t able to see it in binoculars.

Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s a comet that’s out in the evening sky, the blue-green fuzz ball known as Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN). 🔭

A telescopic view of stars. There is a comet at center. It looks like a small blue-green ball of fuzz.

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

They are wonderful books! 📚

Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

These two images were taken with a Unistellar Odyssey Pro telescope.

Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

Jupiter’s moon Io is the little dot to the right of the lower brown stripe in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks, Lance!

Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks!

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

Here's an animated gif of four images of comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) taken 11 October 2025. 🔭

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

1/2 Here's an image from this morning 11 October 2025 of Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon). It's an eight-minute exposure with a Celestron Origin telescope. 🔭

A telescopic image of a comet. The comet's greenish-white coma is near the lower right. Its tail extends upward and to the left.

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 1d

I was up early this morning to catch the comet (images soon) but I also took a look the the Moon, in the waning gibbous phase, and Jupiter, with its Great Red Spot. 🔭

A telescopic image of the Moon in the waning gibbous phase. Dark lunar "seas" are visible along with many impact craters.

A telescopic image of the planet Jupiter. Two parallel dark bands cut across it. The Great Red Spot is visible in the center of the lower dark band. Jupiter's moon Io is visible just to the right of the right edge of the lower band.

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 2d

How could this possibly be cheaper than batteries?

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman) @drspacejunk.bsky.social · 2d

Do we really want 250,000 mirrored satellites in Low Earth Orbit? Hasn't the Starlink megaconstellation already done enough damage?
🧪 @mjibrown.bsky.social

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Satellites beaming sunlight down to Earth sound like science fiction – and they have astronomers very worried.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies

Sarah Tuttle @niais.bsky.social · 2d

Are you someone who is interested in astronomy graduate school? This is a list of many/most departments and their expectations for admissions this year. Please feel free to spread it far and wide. If you are doing admissions and you'd like to update your entry, reach out as per the form!

US Astronomy Graduate Admissions, AY 2025-2026

docs.google.com

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 2d

2/2 Arrowed in this image of the Tulip Nebula is HDE 226868, a blue supergiant star that is the companion to Cygnus X-1, the first confirmed stellar-mass black hole. It mass around 17 times the mass of the Sun. It's siphoning gas from the star & superheating it so that it gives off x-rays.🔭

An image of the Tulip Nebula. One star near the top of the image is arrowed.

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 2d

🔭 1/2 Here's the Tulip Nebula (Sharpless 101) a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas located about 6,000 light years away in the direction of the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. The nebula is nice but what makes me happiest is what is also in this image.

A telescopic image of a dense field of stars. At center in the Tulip Nebula, a red cloud of glowing gas with an irregular shape. Two dark "fingers" of dust can be seen extending up from the bottom part of the nebula.

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 2d

We elect people to government who don’t actually believe in government.

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Reposted by Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies

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...

Comet A6 Lemmon's Encore October Evening Show

October 2025 may provide a memorable sky scene, as Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon puts on an encore appearance at dusk. The comet joins Comet R2 SWAN, which slides 0.26 Astronomical Units (AU) past Earth on O...

www.universetoday.com

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Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 3d

💯!