Dr. Craig DeForest ☀️
LightNews LightNews
banner
craig.deforest.org
Dr. Craig DeForest ☀️
@craig.deforest.org
1.8K followers 970 following 920 posts
Dad, mountaineer, heliophysicist. I lead the PUNCH space mission and direct a team at SwRI. I like science, space, communication, humans, dogs, horses, puns. Lowering barriers and promoting open science are priorities. My personal account; my opinions.
Posts Replies Media Videos
craig.deforest.org
The Proba-3/ASPIICS paper just dropped on ArXiV! If you like heliophysics, the corona, or cool mission concepts, give it a read. ASPIICS is a coronagraph comprising two spacecraft in formation: a camera and a separate occulter. They're producing amazing images. ☀️🛰️🔭🚀 arxiv.org/abs/2511.01679
An image of the solar corona produced by a true "artificial eclipse" with two spacecraft flying in formation so that one is in the shadow of the other.
November 7, 2025 at 5:42 AM
craig.deforest.org
I'm delighted to see that @swri.org has joined us here! Southwest Research Institute does a ton of interesting things, but of course #heliophysics is one of them. The outreach/social-media team are really great, give 'em a follow! You won't be sorry. 🧪
(bsky.app/profile/swri...)
Banner for SwRI's bsky user page Southwest Research Institute logo
October 23, 2025 at 9:26 PM
craig.deforest.org
Don't ever change, Apple Photos AI. You are very helpful. No, really. Without you, I might have confused this for a picture of a golden retriever.
A schnozz-portrait of a horse at sunset is covered by an AI-driven recognition window, identifying it as "HORSE: Domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal" with the opening paragraph of the Wikipedia article on taxon equus ferus caballus.
October 21, 2025 at 10:07 PM
craig.deforest.org
Sometimes we all need a little boddhi satva in our lives. Or a big one.
I do *not* have a big head! See?
October 19, 2025 at 12:19 PM
craig.deforest.org
Are you an undergrad or grad student nearing graduation? Find your next gig!

Announcing: the AAS/SPD grad student & postdoc opportunity fair, Wed. 5-Nov. Hear about opportunities across the nation, meet potential advisors, & learn about your next career step.

🧪🔭☀️🎢⚛️

spd.aas.org/graduate-stu...
This is a flyer for the 5th annual Virtual Prospective Grad Student & Postdoctoral Opportunity Fair put on by the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society. More information here: https://spd.aas.org/graduate-student-postdoc-opportunity-fair
October 15, 2025 at 11:56 PM
craig.deforest.org
A lot of things sort of suck right now. I was delighted to find out that, for under $40, you can now buy an instrument that will tell you, with digital precision, just how much things suck.

Provided you can attach a hose to those things.

www.amazon.com/Manometer-Pr...
A digital manometer can also tell you how much things suck, and also how badly things blow, depending on which hose you use.
October 7, 2025 at 11:22 PM
craig.deforest.org
What's all this fuss about solving for eigenmodes of mechanical systems? Gaussian elimination has been a solved problem since 1835. #math #dadjoke #illseemyselfoutnow
Image of the grave of mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss, who is buried in the town of Göttingen, Germany
October 6, 2025 at 10:40 PM
craig.deforest.org
Great milestone from the PUNCH SOC team this week -- as we continue refining our data, we've rolled out preliminary Level 3 data, with most of the solar F corona removed. Current data are "v0g"; expect version "v0h" in about two weeks. We'll reprocess everything when we reach v1. ☀️
October 4, 2025 at 3:47 PM
craig.deforest.org
David Hathaway and Lisa Upton just released an updated solar cycle prediction. In their words, it's "virtually unchanged since early 2022", an indicator that they're more or less getting it right with empirical prediction. Looks like we're *just* past maximum in the current cycle. ☀️🔭🧪🚀
A plot of the Hathaway/Upton solar cycle prediction and measured sunspot numbers, with a backdrop of the Sun as seen in X-rays by the Yohkoh spacecraft in the late 20th Century. We appear to have (just) passed solar maximum.
October 2, 2025 at 10:03 PM
craig.deforest.org
PUNCH has tracked Comet 2025/SWAN continuously at 4 minute cadence since early Aug, and 3I/Atlas continuously since 21-Sep. With the U.S. govt. shut down, I've been asked not to publish PUNCH imagery of 3I/Atlas. Instead, here's a tracked image from just before it entered our FOV. ☀️🔭🛰️🚀
A tracked image shows 3I/Atlas's location on 20-Sep-2025 as seen by the PUNCH mission. Axes and title indicate right ascension, declination, and UTC timestamp, indicating this is an astronomical image. The comet was then just outside the PUNCH field of view, so most of the image is dark, with a small circle at the center marking the location of the comet. tiny bit of actual PUNCH data appears at the upper right of the image. The blackness reminds us that the U.S. government is shut down as of today (1-Oct-2025).
October 1, 2025 at 3:40 PM
craig.deforest.org
Comet 3I/Atlas is a fun challenge for PUNCH. We're very sensitive, though not a "telescope" (~2.5' resolution: basically naked-eye). At mag 12, the sky is *very* crowded. But we can see Atlas and SWAN in nearly-raw data. We're imaging at 4 minute cadence 24/7; FOV is 90° centered on the Sun. 🧪🔭🛰️☀️
A starfield from the PUNCH mission shows two comets: SWAN and the interstellar comet Atlas.
September 27, 2025 at 2:50 PM
craig.deforest.org
In order to view the #solarwind, PUNCH also captures literally everything in the sky that is within 45° of the Sun. When Comet 2025 R2 (SWAN) was announced, we looked for it in the data, and there it was! Here's a blog post about it. ☀️🛰️🔭🧪
whtwnd.com/punch-missio...
September 22, 2025 at 3:22 PM
craig.deforest.org
Interesting #art #sculpture seen in the #Prague airport. "Pegasus", 2010.
"Pegasus" by David Cerny is a sculpted chimera between a three-blade propellor mounted on a cowled radial gasoline engine, and a pair of hoofed rear legs from a horse or ox. A tail reminiscent of an airplane empennage rises from behind. It is on display at the Prague airport in Czechia.
September 15, 2025 at 5:57 PM
craig.deforest.org
It took years, but I digitized and ditched my wall of binders full of Xeroxed journal articles on paper. I love #Zotero. But I'm starting to have 2nd thoughts about going all-digital. This morning I opened up Gosling 1997 ("CMEs: an Overview") and was greeted with this. Yikes! ☀️🧪
An archival digital copy of an important research paper (Gosling 1997: "Coronal Mass Ejections: An Overview", in Crooker, Joselyn & Feynman (eds.) "Coronal Mass Ejections", ISBN 978-1-118-66437-7) appears as gibberish after apparent file corruption of the PDF.
September 14, 2025 at 3:42 PM
craig.deforest.org
Hey #Costco , it is September 13. September. It is not even the equinox yet. Why are your #Christmas decorations up?
A picture of Christmas decorations set up to sell in the Superior, Colorado branch of Costco, taken 13-Sep-2025
September 14, 2025 at 4:45 AM
craig.deforest.org
More interesting vanishing points. This skybridge is in Manchester, UK. "Feels" like noir science fiction set from the 1990s.
A retrofuturistic skybridge in Manchester, UK, looks like a science fiction set, with jetstream cross section, techno highlights, and driving rain outside.
September 10, 2025 at 2:38 PM
craig.deforest.org
It’s easy to forget, in a world of humongous jetliners like the A380, just how huge and imposing even a “little” EJ commuter jet is when seen from up close. We lost something by switching to sanitized enclosed jetway chutes at most airports.
Even a “small” commuter jet like this Embraer E-Jet E1 is very impressive when seen from below the wing.
September 9, 2025 at 3:02 PM
craig.deforest.org
Pretty. I walked through here while adjusting to jet-lag yesterday, just before heading back to the hotel to crash and sleep.
This is a tunnel under the Powder Bridge near Praha Castle in Prague, Czechia. It's basically a drainage culvert for the stream that's under the grating on the left side of the floor -- but very pretty, with electric lights, cleanly laid bricks, and a pleasant walkway.
September 8, 2025 at 3:45 AM
craig.deforest.org
I just climbed into the largest aircraft I have ever flown in. Lots of planetary scientists and other solar people in here too. The A380 is truly enormous.
A ramp worker in front of the starboard jet engine of the A380 is completely dwarfed by the rotor behind him! Hard to imagine something this large can fly .. but after all that is how it got here.
September 6, 2025 at 9:58 PM
craig.deforest.org
This cartoon is from 2006 but is still relevant today, 19 years later.
A political cartoon by Carlson in 2006 is still relevant today. A man stands in front of a Weber-style charcoal grill, wearing shorts and a chef's toque and holding a spatula. Across from him a man in a business suit, with a briefcase labeled "Census Bureau", has a jubilant expression and tosses confetti into the air. He says "Workers wages now make up the lowest share of GDP ince 1947, even though productivity is up. In contrast, corporate profits are the highest in 40 years. ... HAPPY LABOR DAY!!"
September 1, 2025 at 5:21 PM
craig.deforest.org
It's moments like this, when I find myself in an international teleconference with ~100 of the world's leading astronomers, discussing how we're all tracking an interstellar comet streaking across our solar system, that I wonder whether we're really living in the Marvel Comics universe.
Three images, recently released from two of NASA's fleet of space telescopes, reveal interstellar comet 3I/Atlas. (Full story here: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/3i-atlas-spherex-webb)
August 28, 2025 at 3:56 PM
craig.deforest.org
The #AIAA #Smallsat conference is going on right now. PUNCH is a finalist for their "Smallsat Mission of the Year" award! Please take a moment to click through and vote "standing ovation" for PUNCH! Voting is open through Tuesday 12-August. ☀️🛰️🚀
sites.google.com/aiaa-smstc.o...
A scene from the 2024 Smallsat conference, digitally altered to show the PUNCH logo on top of one of the banners behind the speaker stage
August 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM
craig.deforest.org
It's hard to capture the magic of train travel – especially the Moffat Tunnel line. Very civilized. Incredible scenery. Check out that giant rock, part of the Boulder flatirons formation. We tunneled through. Took #amtrak under the Divide to Winter Park, then walked home to Nederland. #backpacking
Interior view of an Amtrak observation car, about to pass under a giant rock -- part of the same geologic formation that formed the Boulder (Colorado) flatirons.
July 21, 2025 at 1:12 AM
craig.deforest.org
Here's where we camped Friday night (in the krummholz down below), after scrambling down next to the snowfield in the foreground. Gorgeous cirque, and a great reward for a 12-mile half-day (Amtrak dropped us off at noon, this was nearly 7pm)
#backpacking #hiking #colorado #amtrak
A view down into a mountain cirque, from above treeline; camera is on the continental divide at the edge of the Indian Peaks wilderness in Colorado. A stand of pine trees and krummholz are visible 400 feet below. In the background are several glacial lakes and a spectacular waterfall, with a snowy and rocky mountain ridge forming the skyline.
July 21, 2025 at 1:04 AM
craig.deforest.org
This weekend my son and I took the train to Winter Park (visible in the background) and walked home to Nederland. It was pretty epic: just 30 miles, but we crossed some of the most spectacular scenery Colorado has to offer. #colorado #hikes #winterpark #backpacking #amtrak
July 21, 2025 at 12:48 AM