This week I gave nearly the same talk to amateur astronomers (Monday) and to professional astronomers (Thursday). It's super depressing, all about satellites crashing in orbit, pieces falling on us on the ground, atmospheric pollution and how the law really doesn't help us at all with any of this. While the talk for amateurs was depressing, everyone kept their spirits up, and seemed somewhat energized by the list of possible actions I provided at the end of the talk. #ProfSamLectureTour

Super busy today, but just have to quickly share that this morning, I woke up at a friend's house, under a skylight, and was delighted to see stars above me for nearly the first time this whole BC trip (lots of clouds here)! And literally 10 seconds later, I saw a fucking Starlink train! Through the skylight!!! AUGH.

I really really hate QR codes. But a lot of people really like them. And they're useful during a talk for the people who really like them (I'm also including the text of the link, though, dammit!) But... I have never done this before, and a lot of the "free QR code generators" look kind of scammy and I don't want to give people weird viruses or spam. So... fediverse, help! EDIT TO ADD SOLUTION: within like 2 minutes

QR Code Generator from the ZXing Project

I love you, fediverse.

I am up at the observatory in Victoria today (and for the whole week)! It is really fun to see a whole bunch of people I used to work with when I was a postdoc here, and be in a building that is completely full of astronomers!! Quite a change from Saskatchewan where I am the only professional research astronomer in the entire province... (Also it's sunny again and I want to go hike. But I will get some writing and emailing and talk-organizing done first...) #ProfSamLectureTour