Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman) header
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Anthony Horton @[email protected]

@vacant3rdman

Astronomical instrumentation at @AAOMacquarie (#MAVIS, #TAIPAN, #EUPRAXIA, @SkyHopperSpace, @AstroHuntsman), all things space & some other stuff too.

 Sydney, Australia
Joined September 2009
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Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)Photo by Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)
Replying to @vacant3rdman
(Let's try that again, but with a usable link) I'm giving Mastodon a go. I've got myself a nifty new handle, on an Australian server: aus.social/@spacelizard
Anthony Horton (@spacelizard@aus.social)

Anthony Horton (@[email protected])

9.56K Posts, 353 Following, 994 Followers · Does astronomical instrumentation (e.,g. https://mavis-ao.org) at AAO in Sydney. Interested in all things space-related, lizards, archery, cycling, &...

aus.social
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Er... I think we interrupted something 😆 When we came home he was like this, and froze in this position staring back at us for at least 10 minutes. #LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink – at Sydney, New South Wales
Photo of a Blue Tongue Skink reared up on his hind legs in the corner of his lizard enclosure.

ALT Photo of a Blue Tongue Skink reared up on his hind legs in the corner of his lizard enclosure.

Photo of the belly of a Blue Tongue Skink reared up on his hind legs in the corner of his lizard enclosure.

ALT Photo of the belly of a Blue Tongue Skink reared up on his hind legs in the corner of his lizard enclosure.

Photo of the side of a Blue Tongue Skink reared up on his hind legs in the corner of his lizard enclosure.

ALT Photo of the side of a Blue Tongue Skink reared up on his hind legs in the corner of his lizard enclosure.

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I've been at UNSW this week to use their thermal vacuum (TVAC) testing chamber. Behind that yellow tinted viewport are components of the Malya payload for the MMS-1 satellite. PSA: Do not lick the Zinc Selenide.
Photo of a viewport on a thermal vacuum chamber, used for testing hardware. The viewport has a yellow tint.

ALT Photo of a viewport on a thermal vacuum chamber, used for testing hardware. The viewport has a yellow tint.

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Fun little side project, I mounted a 360 camera on top of a 2 stage rocket. Got to Mach 1.2 without killing the camera, not too bad!
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I love* playing flight connection roulette. At 14 hours notice Qantas rescheduled our LHR-SIN flight to 2 hours later, shortening our transit duration from a comfortable 3 hours to an alarmingly tight 45 minutes. I've tried to get some reassurance... (1/2) – at Hillingdon, London
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...that our connecting SIN-SYD flight will wait, but Qantas staff are sticking resolutely to the line "our short notice unexplained schedule change may or may not cause you to get stuck in Singapore for 24 hours, you'll just have to find out when you get there". (2/2) – at Hillingdon, London
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Just feels unreal that this was right next to one of the most observed galaxies all along. They just had to stare for really long with some specific gear
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The JWST telescope Magnus Opus is on Arxiv. Thank you to Mike McElwain for taking this on. This is really an excellent summary and yes building this telescope was this friggin hard and yes it is working that friggin well! arxiv.org/abs/2301.01779
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Got some good views during the flight from Sydney to Singapore four days ago. – at East Midlands, England
Photo of the view out of an airplane window at dusk, including a dramatic cloudscape and the tip of the plane's left wing.

ALT Photo of the view out of an airplane window at dusk, including a dramatic cloudscape and the tip of the plane's left wing.

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Another good view from the flight over. G&Ts are my go-to beverage for making long haul flights more bearable. – at East Midlands, England
Photo of an airplane tray table with a gin and tonic in a plastic cup on it.

ALT Photo of an airplane tray table with a gin and tonic in a plastic cup on it.

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Season's Yeetings! 🚀🎄 @XylaFoxlin, @joebarnard & friends have made a rocket propelled Xmas tree, again. Xyla's video (tree & booster): youtu.be/Jo40R7-ZOQQ Joe's video (camera systems): youtu.be/lKA1WtGXRPQ – at Sydney, New South Wales
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Fell at the last hurdle. This is our hire car. We can't drive it anywhere because the car hire place decided they weren't going to open today after all, despite taking a booking months ago, confirming it several times, and even sending us multiple reminders. Thanks @SixtUK. – at Birmingham, England
Image from Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)
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.@SixtUK claim they tried to call us (when we would have been on the plane over) to say that we could pick it up yesterday or the 27th instead. Apparently they think it's OK to unilaterally change the pick up date at the last minute for customers travelling from overseas, at Xmas – at Birmingham, England
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I hate car hire companies. They always regard (prepaid!) bookings as a binding commitment on their customers, but a mere suggestion for themselves. – at Birmingham, England
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Our Sydney born & bred kid is finding the thermal shocks of winter in the UK challenging. He's getting cold outside then too hot as soon we go inside anywhere. He's going to have to get used to instantly donning/doffing several layers of clothing as he walks through a doorway. – at Birmingham, England
Image from Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)
Image from Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)
Image from Anthony Horton @spacelizard@aus.social (@vacant3rdman)
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About to get onto this big metal bird to fly to London. – at Sydney, New South Wales
Photo of a Qantas A380 at Sydney Airport, partially obscured by the terminal building.

ALT Photo of a Qantas A380 at Sydney Airport, partially obscured by the terminal building.

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It's looking like a real rocket now. And still quite similar to my model of it.
adam gilmour (@GilmourAdam) profile pictureadam gilmour@GilmourAdam22 Dec 2022
The best birthday present I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to launch this into space next year.
Image from adam gilmour (@GilmourAdam)
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Twitter CEO said "it is very easy to buy Twitter bots… it's very cheap" — weird to admit, when you're basing all your major life decisions on Twitter polls?
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He says Tesla is going to be 10x harder for him to run than Twitter… not sure that's going to help investor sentiment — given his disaster @ Twitter
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This comes three months after NASA announced signing a Space Act Agreement with SpaceX to study reboosts and potential servicing of Hubble on a Crew Dragon mission, perhaps as part of the Polaris program.
Hubble (@NASAHubble) profile pictureHubble
@NASAHubble22 Dec 2022
NASA issued a Request for Information today seeking additional information about capabilities to reboost a satellite in orbit, using Hubble as a demonstration, at no cost to the government: go.nasa.gov/3jqm4pO
This image shows the Hubble Space Telescope, a spacecraft roughly the size of a school bus.

ALT This image shows the Hubble Space Telescope, a spacecraft roughly the size of a school bus.

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