Tim McKay
LightNews LightNews
banner
timmckay.bsky.social
Tim McKay
@timmckay.bsky.social
660 followers 740 following 410 posts
Bird & nature lover; book addict; educator, astronomer, physicist; happiest outdoors. Born at 320 ppm.
Posts Replies Media Videos
timmckay.bsky.social
I love the "All the Galaxies!" account, because most of the images come from the SDSS. I was very fortunate to join the SDSS in '92, when it was still a dream, and to work on it for more than 20 years. Mapping the universe was a great adventure, and seeing the galaxies shared again here is a thrill.
allthegalaxies.galaxyzoo.org All the Galaxies! @allthegalaxies.galaxyzoo.org · 9h
A spiral galaxy, observed with the Apache Point 2.5m Telescope in the SDSS survey.

It is at redshift 0.018 (lookback time 257.3 million years) with coordinates (41.86597, -0.28513).

43 volunteers classified this galaxy in Galaxy Zoo 2.
A spiral galaxy from the Galaxy Zoo 2 project, classified by 43 volunteers.
November 26, 2025 at 11:36 PM
timmckay.bsky.social
So many amazing photographs in this collection!
November 26, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
jackiantonovich.bsky.social
Thinking a lot lately about the simple fact that college allows people to spend about 15 weeks immersed in a disciplinary conversation with an expert in that field. And what a special thing that is.
November 21, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
smashfizzle.bsky.social
👑
November 21, 2025 at 10:07 PM
timmckay.bsky.social
National Book Award winners for 2025 were released yesterday. Very pleased to see Omar El Akkad's new work recognized in this way. www.nationalbook.org/awards-prize...
National Book Awards 2025 - National Book Foundation
www.nationalbook.org
November 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
christhorogood.bsky.social
Rafflesia hasseltii: a plant seen more by tigers than people. Watching this flower open by night was the closest thing to magic:
November 19, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
lucymercer.bsky.social
wrote an article for @thebookseller.com outlining to the industry why small presses are the lifeforce & future of book production. Pls share esp w people who may not know what small press publishers do!

www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.
www.thebookseller.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
offishial-business.bsky.social
my piece "river relics" will on display dec. 5-19 in the exhibit "our river: mississippi muse" curated by @friendsmissriv.bsky.social ! very grateful for the opportunity to show work highlighting the beauty and vulnerability of the mississippi, as well as the many lives that depend on it. ♥️
Image shows a light-skinned nonbinary person holding up a framed painting of MN ancient fish. They have a pink buzzcut and dangly silver earrings, and there is art and photos of various fish including gar and sharks in the background. Detailed description of painting on next image. Ink painting of an emerald bowfin, longnose gar, and lake sturgeon. The fish are painted in black and silver ink, and in the background are blue, black, and silver lines of varying thickness that resemble water, alone with lines of silver and black dots. The same painting propped against the light teal-blue railing of a bridge, with the Mississippi River in the background.
November 17, 2025 at 9:54 PM
timmckay.bsky.social
Excited to have the new Barton/Bandemer tunnel open in the Ann Arbor section of the Border-to-Border trail. One more step in the grand plan, the tunnel provides a safe and convenient connection between these two riverfront parks previously divided by an impassible train track.

b2btrail.org
A brand new walking and biking trail extends from the upper left through a tunnel on the right that leads under a train track. The tunnel is labelled "Barton" because it leads from Bandemer park to Barton Nature Area.
November 15, 2025 at 11:15 PM
timmckay.bsky.social
Pleased and proud to see portraits of some of our amazing Intend-to-Attend ambassadors featured on the U-M LSA website today. These students work with their communities to lift as they climb, encouraging college-going for younger students all across the State of Michigan.
lsa.umich.edu
Three University of Michigan College of LSA students who work with the Intend-to-Attend program are pictured on the LSA Home Page.
November 14, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
rbgkew.bsky.social
Today on #ArmisticeDay, we're remembering the Kew staff who served during both World Wars and balanced their lives in science and horticulture with duty and sacrifice 🧵👇

#KewLA
Herbarium illustration of a paper showing colour code bar at the top of the image.
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 PM
timmckay.bsky.social
Looking forward to reading this!
November 14, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
misterjayem.bsky.social
"Please trust us now when we say that what is happening in the Chicago area is wrong *** It is not law enforcement; it is terror."
Letter from Chicago broadcast veterans: Federal immigration agents have traumatized us and eroded our rights
The fact that some federal immigration forces may be leaving soon is cold comfort given the damage they’ve done.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
sarahoconnorft.ft.com
Is AI making job recruitment less meritocratic? We're getting some v interesting research studies on this question now, and the news is... not good. @jburnmurdoch.ft.com & I dive in, in the latest edition of our newsletter The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/e5b7...
November 14, 2025 at 10:13 AM
timmckay.bsky.social
Today I had the incredible pleasure of watching three UM-LSA Collegiate Professors: Gus Evrard, my only career-long collaborator, Miranda Brown, our LSA Honors Director, and Linda Tesar, who helps keep LSA's budget safe and sound. Good friends and great scholars! Feeling blessed to know them!
Linda Tesar, Gus Evrard, and Miranda Brown - all answering questions after delivering their University of Michigan LSA Collegiate Lectures. What an amazing array of profound expertise and midwestern charm!
November 14, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
chicagoreader.com
The opposition to so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” is not the first time Chicagoans have stood up against our neighbors being snatched off the street by outsiders. Jeff Nichols takes a look back at how Chicago residents resisted abductions of Black Chicagoans after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.
November 13, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
artologica.net
#sfn #sfn25 #sciart
Art and science go together like gin and tonic, but you’d never know it from most scientific meetings, where they tend to serve the science straight. At many conferences, you’d be lucky to score a pen or a tote bag plastered with a corporate logo as a souvenir. Attendees of the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting (SfN), on the other hand, can bypass the standard swag and find a wide variety of fine art and craft items reflecting their love of all things brainy.
November 13, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
davidho.bsky.social
The Uninhabitable United States
What Climate Change Will Do to America by Mid-Century
Many places may become uninhabitable. Many people may be on their own.
www.theatlantic.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
skwinnicki.bsky.social
This is my last and longest of three aurora threads, for the final substorm I saw from Columbus Ohio USA. It was by far the most brilliant and the strongest (at one point visible *south* of us)! It started ~11:30PM local time and lasted a full half-hour. Just unbelievably stunning!

1/10
Brilliant bands of aurora lights in the sky above a lake. There is an arc of soft green coming from the lower left, and a brilliant band of bright red above it. The two arcs meet toward the right of the photo, where they mix to make an orangish color. Behind them the sky is purplish. An almost comet-shaped blob of light fills the entire sky, terminating in a rounded tip toward the right of the frame, above an elated photographer standing on a dark dam near a cold gray lake. The colors that make up this blob are bright yellow-green and bright red, mixing together to form orange and other colors. It is stunning. You can almost hear the people in the photo whooping for joy. A mess of bright red and wispy yellow-green fills the entire sky above a gray lake, brilliant aurora with no pattern, rhyme, or reason. Two aurora bands in the sky, looking like they’ve been painted with vertical brush strokes even though the bands run horizontally. On the bottom is a soft green band. On top is a brilliant red band. They are almost touching in the center of the frame.
November 12, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
davidnaimon.bsky.social
Congrats to Omar El Akkad & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson both shortlisted for the 2025 Writers' Trust Hilary Weston Prize for Nonfiction
ICYMI here are my 2025 conversations with each
Omar: tinhouse.com/podcast/omar...
Leanne: tinhouse.com/podcast/lean...
@biidaasamose.bsky.social @haymarketbooks.org
November 11, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
jexpbiol.bsky.social
When downy woodpeckers pound wood with their beaks they hold themselves rigid like hammers & grunt like tennis stars to stabilise their core muscles at the moment of impact

@nickantonson.bsky.social

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
A downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) about to drill on a hardwood tree in Rhode Island, USA. Photo credit: N. M. Moody.
November 11, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
radiolento.bsky.social
Sound ON!!
November 10, 2025 at 10:30 PM
timmckay.bsky.social
Spent part of today working with the Washtenaw Bird and Nature Alliance at our Searles Preserve, making plans for future restoration of this diverse nature area, and removing invasive shrubs. Late fall in Michigan forests, amidst our first snow, is lovely.
The Washtenaw Bird and Nature Alliance board walks through the Searles Nature Preserve amidst some late fall snow. Maple and oak leaves amidst the snow on a Michigan forest floor in early November.
November 10, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Reposted by Tim McKay
aadl.org
The first snow of the season makes for the perfect cozy backdrop to A2 Community Bookfest!

Browse local authors and discover new reads right here at the Downtown Library.

Join us today from 10AM–5PM for Bookfest fun!

aadl.org/bookfest
Patrons interact with a vendor at A2 Community Bookfest! Patrons interact with a vendor at A2 Community Bookfest! A2 Community Bookfest welcome table. Comic art from a Bookfest vendor.
November 9, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Tim McKay
alexwild.bsky.social
A charming essay by the former chair of Africana studies at Bowdoin College about the New York Times crafting elitist propaganda.
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:56 PM