Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) now has a magnitude of 4.8. A bit of a sudden increase in brightness. Show be easy to spot in Binoculars. In theory naked eye too. 🔭 🧪 theskylive.com/c2025a6-info

Honey mushrooms in a Donegal garden. iPhone camera. Look down. #mushroom #mountcharles #fungus

It’s National T-Levels Week! 🎉 T-Levels give 16–19 year olds in England a mix of classroom learning and real industry experience, preparing them for future careers in science and tech. For employers, T-Level placements are a great way to grow future talent and strengthen your skills pipeline.

Want to work at the IOP? We’re hiring for three key roles

🔹 Project Coordinator - Strategic Implementation
📅 Apply by 27 October: bit.ly/4hdx4AY

🔹 Manager, Corporate Partnerships
📅 Apply by 12 October: bit.ly/4mMV1AZ

🔹 Officer, Science
📅 Apply by 15 October: bit.ly/4h1sXrs

I’m coming back to Ireland next week.

Please note that attendance is compulsory unless an absence note is provided in advance.

Tickets available from some places on the internet.

Still active, an inspiration, and doing conservation work right up to the end. Thank you for being a great and wonderful citizen of this planet, Jane Goodall.

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

There's a really nice explanation (with clear graphics) in this @quantamagazine.bsky.social article of why most molecules in the atmosphere (oxygen & nitrogen) don't act as greenhouse gases, but a lot of the far less numerous ones (like carbon dioxide and methane) do. A great teaching aid :)

Just got an email from a university based teacher trainer about “Why Don’t Things Fall Up? saying he has used it for “examples of good clear science communication, pitched to the right level for the right audience”. The audience is *you* and it is just 99p on Kindle for few more days (til end Sept)

Royal Autopsy - presented by me & pathologist Dr Brett Lockyer - still streaming on Sky History:
youtu.be/yeIdwiqJtfY?...

Quantum tech is cooler than you think… literally! Atoms, superconductors, and crystals can form quantum systems, but only when they’re cooled close to absolute zero. In Dr Carrie Weidner’s lab at @bristoluni.bsky.social, lasers act like sci-fi tractor beams, chilling atoms and holding them in place.

Nearest star today form Manchester UK. Using the Lunt 60 scope. #astrophotography #sunspot #zwoasi #autostakkert

The European Physical Society (EPS) invites nominations for the Alessandro Volta Prize, celebrating outstanding achievements in physics.

Open to individuals or groups of up to three people
Award includes diploma, medal, and €10,000 in prize money

⏰ 30 September 2025
🔗 eps.org/alessandro-v...

Langrenus & Vendelinus craters from last night on a 98% illuminated moon. Both about 130 km diameter and Langrenus has central peaks which rise up about 3km from the crater floor. About 1000 images stacked. Look up.
Skymax 150 scope
ZWOASI 585 camera
Televue x4 powermate

Goniatite fossils spread throughout this piece of shale from the Cliffs of Moher. Evidence of lives lived on this same spot over 300 million years ago.
County Clare, Ireland.

How small can a computer get? 🤔 Maddison Coke @manchester.ac.uk is using single atoms to build the next generation of super-powerful computers - but the cooling system is bigger than a room! ❄️

Explore the tiniest adventures with Mimi: iop.org/TinyAdventure

#MimisTinyAdventure

p.s. Storm in a Teacup is still available, if you don't believe me about how interesting and fun physics is: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/stor...

I promise you'll see the world differently afterwards!

M31 from Manchester UK. 20 images stacked x 30 secs. Look up.

Caroline's Rose Cluster from Manchester UK. Discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1783. Not too difficult to image. Only 10 x 30 sec exposures Look up.

IOP President-elect Michele Dougherty has been featured on BBC Radio 4, sharing her incredible journey into astronomy - from the moments that sparked her passion, to becoming the first woman in 350 years to be appointed Astronomer Royal.

🎧 Tune in here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

We're hiring! Nation Support Coordinator - Scotland.

You'll be supporting staff and committee members in Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland, and building and maintaining member and volunteer relationships across the physics community.

📆 Apply by 7 September.

iopjobs.org/current/vaca...

A Stone that floats!!
A small piece of pumice stone. Spewed out by a volcanic eruption and has drifted in the Atlantic before washing up on Irelands west coast.
County Clare, Ireland.

Primary Teachers! If you’re planning to teach pupils how to read a clock or about time in general in the school year ahead, I am offering FREE online sessions to talk about my new book “About Time”

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell shone on BBC The Sky at Night sharing how she discovered pulsars and pushed through the barriers of her time. She also sat down with PhD student Aida Seye, a Bell Burnell Scholarship recipient, to talk about chasing cosmic dreams.

📺 www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Back in Manchester and some great views of our nearest star today. Amazing surface activity with new sunspots coming into view. Lunt 60 scope and zwoasi 174 camera