telescope

Spoiler: It’s not me.

Amazingly, he’s one of the contestants. I thought he was just going to be a mandatory part of the healthcare team. We’ve all done our fair share of stints at the local GUM clinic, after all.

But no, “hunky Dublin microbiologist Dami Hope” was revealed to the world as one of the contestants on Love Island 2022. And then it went a bit weird:

…because microbiologists don’t use telescopes very often. We’re probably better known for using microscopes. The hint’s in the name: we’re not “telebiologists”, are we?

In fact, looking back over my long and illustrious scientific career, I don’t think that I have ever used a telescope while in the lab. So they’ve clearly got that one very wrong.

Unless of course “telescope” is just a euphemism for his… Oh god… Oh no.

No.

Let’s not mention the V-word today.

Instead: how about this? I spotted this on Twitter earlier and got in touch with amateur astronomer Grant Petersen to ask if I could share the image on here.

He said yes, and so… well… here is that image:

Amazing.

These were taken using a Celestron Nexstar 8″ SCT with a focal length of 2032mm and a focal ratio of F/10, and an Orion USB camera II.
And then arranged on a smartphone.

Isn’t technology wonderful?

I am blown away by this image (hence my asking if I could put it on here), but if there is one minor (hopefully constructive) criticism I might make, it’s that there is no image of Earth. And that really should surely be one of the easiest ones to get.
I’ve got several myself. And they are lot closer up than these.

Of course, ironically, getting a shot of Earth in the same vein as these images is a great deal more difficult than even shooting Neptune, which despite being quite a large planet…

…is also a ridiculous 4.5 billion kilometres away.

Photo credit: Grant Petersen

Tag: telescope

Love Island microbiologist revealed

Day 54 – Planet Parade