Like I’ve said in my latest Reducing Infinites post, I’ve switched back to using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) as my primary means of consuming written content (rather that browsing social media feeds). So, how do we do this? First: Pick a reader. I use NetNewsWire, which is free, lightweight, and open source. There are lots of them out there, though a great many of them seem to try to be competing with things like Apple News and/or Reddit by attempting to load in a lot of content all at once. NetNewsWire essentially loads the headline and a “read more” block… Read more: How to RSS?

This week the NuSTAR News update is a report on the yearly proposal cycle to figure out what the telescope will observe in the coming observing cycle (which runs June-May every year). For a small mission only planning to observe the high energy sky for two years at launch, NuSTAR is now into its 12th “General Observer” Cycle with a healthy oversubscription rate (meaning that there are many more requests to use NuSTAR than the available time). It’s also useful to think a bit about what that means and how it affects the flow of funding (as well as the… Read more: Funding astronomy (in the U.S.)

Like everyone else remotely related to the astronomical world, this past winter’s holiday season (basically Thanksgiving through New Years Eve celebrations) was filled with people wanting to know about our solar system’s interstellar visitor. I was invited to give an update on NuSTAR observations of the comet at a recent NASA coordination meeting. Most of that information is in the public domain, so the meeting was mostly about what we can learn from different observers at different places. It’s not aliens. Sorry. Just addressing this off the top. If you clicked here hoping for a hot scoop about how all… Read more: Let’s talk about 3I/ATLAS