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Thad Szabo

@astrothad

(he/him) Professor of Phys & Astro at Cerritos College Has benefited from the companionship of chinchillas, a dog, & a cat. Some humans are OK. Seeking a living kidney donor: www.kidneyforthad.info Astrophotos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/astrothad

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Latest posts by Thad Szabo @astrothad

I remember when a 5 hit while I was in the backyard doing astrophotography. My rig stayed polar aligned despite trees and power poles swaying.

Got to see a seiche in the pool at our apartment when a 7.2 hit northern Mexico. That was a wobbly 20-30 seconds.

10.03.2026 05:01 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I just learned about something called recency bias.

It's my favorite thing ever.

03.02.2026 06:14 ๐Ÿ‘ 219 ๐Ÿ” 28 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

We're at war with Iran because the President of the United States likes to fuck kids

That's super clear, right?

He fucks kids

Children

Trump fucks Children

That needs to be very clear

09.03.2026 01:25 ๐Ÿ‘ 2301 ๐Ÿ” 691 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 149 ๐Ÿ“Œ 33

Crochet cat >> spherical cow

08.03.2026 07:21 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

No notes.
I'm sure I know some folks who could come up with similarly compelling versions

08.03.2026 07:19 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

we appear to have four competing fascist movements jockeying for control: blood & soil nazism under miller and hegseth, darwinian ecofascism from rfk, technofascism under vance and musk, and one Big Wet Hitler who understands the true animating core of the american volk is a deep love for shopping

03.03.2026 22:21 ๐Ÿ‘ 8125 ๐Ÿ” 1943 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 107 ๐Ÿ“Œ 69

"you need to learn how to use gAI or you'll get left behind!"

counterpoint!

the absolute fastest way to render yourself unemployable is to build your skillset around a tool that does your thinking for you, that everyone has access to, and that one company can change or take away at any time

05.03.2026 14:27 ๐Ÿ‘ 4911 ๐Ÿ” 1682 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 41 ๐Ÿ“Œ 48

Maybe I can use pictures of clouds as flat frames - always look on the bright side of life (insert whistling)

03.03.2026 10:57 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

If I get out a 2nd telescope ๐Ÿ”ญ I bet it will make the clouds even thicker

03.03.2026 10:37 ๐Ÿ‘ 13 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This looks familiar

03.03.2026 10:35 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Trying to watch and photograph this #LunarEclipse through passing clouds of various thickness is kinda eerie

03.03.2026 10:33 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I had medical appointments on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday last week. I have them on Monday and Wednesday this week. Not how I want to spend so much of my time, but hey - #KidneyFailure and waiting for a transplant. Can you help me find a living donor?
nkr.org/KRN489

02.03.2026 19:50 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
Total Lunar Eclipse on March 2โ€“3, 2026 โ€“ Where and When to See Total lunar eclipse on March 2โ€“3, 2026: Where and when is the Blood Moon visible and what will it look like? Visibility map, animation, and local times.

๐ŸŒ•โžก๏ธ๐Ÿ”ด Lunar eclipse alert!

Depending on where you are (mostly: Central/Eastern Asia, Oceania, most of North/Central America), you may be able to see a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE ("blood moon") overnight!

You can find information about timing and viewing locations here: www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/luna...

02.03.2026 19:01 ๐Ÿ‘ 425 ๐Ÿ” 188 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 18 ๐Ÿ“Œ 37

Howโ€™s the regime change going in Venezuela, the opposition is in power now right? โ€ฆ right?

02.03.2026 04:07 ๐Ÿ‘ 576 ๐Ÿ” 80 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 17 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
Rubin Observatory has started paging astronomers 800,000 times a night Asteroids, exploding stars, and feasting black holes swarm in the first-ever batch of nightly alerts from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile

Asteroids, exploding stars, and feasting black holes swarm in the first-ever batch of nightly alerts from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile

28.02.2026 19:37 ๐Ÿ‘ 531 ๐Ÿ” 104 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 18 ๐Ÿ“Œ 6

How to stop the robot apocalypse - mirrors and runny eggs.

28.02.2026 08:46 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I was at a Tesla event in OCTOBER 2014 where we heard Lone Skum's eternal promise - "Full self-driving is 6 months away." In case, like Skum, you can't count, that was over 11 years ago.

28.02.2026 01:20 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

GOOD NEWS! A UNIVERSAL sarbecovirus vaccine candidate has OFFICIALLY started clinical trials. GBP511 is the FIRST vaccine to reach human testing that is intended to protect against MULTIPLE strains of SARS-CoV-2 as well as other related coronaviruses with the potential to spark dangerous outbreaks.

26.02.2026 17:00 ๐Ÿ‘ 3521 ๐Ÿ” 1090 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 27 ๐Ÿ“Œ 30

How hard is "Prosecute murderers" and #AbolishICE ? That's what we want

04.02.2026 01:51 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I'm teaching calculus based physics for the first time this semester. Usually, I get the trig/algebra based intro course. I feel parts of my brain waking up that haven't been roused in many years.

I like it. Hope my students do too.

01.02.2026 12:43 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I have not been able to get this out of my head since, oh... January 2025?

01.02.2026 12:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Not the birds we wanted, but go birds.

26.01.2026 03:18 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
Hot ancient galaxy cluster challenges current cosmological models โ€“ Physics World Observations of the thermal energy in a baby galaxy cluster 12.4 billion light years away suggest much more energetic early cluster growth than current theories assume

Observations of the thermal energy in a baby galaxy cluster 12.4 billion light years away are at least five times greater than theories predict, suggesting much more energetic early cluster growth than predicted by current models. ๐Ÿงชโš›๏ธ physicsworld.com/a/hot-ancien...

23.01.2026 11:38 ๐Ÿ‘ 45 ๐Ÿ” 10 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

You're welcome! That "tiny" red spot in the South Temperate Zone is the size of the north part of the continent of Africa.

So I think Jupiter is pretty darn large.

20.01.2026 10:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

If you haven't heard anything from Die Spitz yet, look them up and have a listen. Reminds of the best of punk/metal/cathartic screaming that I would listen to in college. Adding them to the list of live shows I would love to get to see once I get my kidney transplant.

20.01.2026 09:51 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

How to identify an astronomer as GenX

20.01.2026 05:55 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
Jupiter, 2026-01-18 around 0540 UTC Although there's still a problem with the mount, I will be able to use it and the C14 on campus for visual observations and planetary imaging this semester. This image of Jupiter was part of the test ...

Good target, especially at its current declination. Here's what it looked like on Saturday night.
flic.kr/p/2rSwbra

20.01.2026 00:55 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Trying to figure out if I have enough proverbial spoons

20.01.2026 00:47 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Sorry - at least now I know not to bother another friend in Toronto about it

20.01.2026 00:35 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I have a dialysis (home, PD) treatment tonight and a lecture and lab to teach tomorrow. Do I still try driving for 90+ minutes to get somewhere far enough north of LA to see aurorae?

20.01.2026 00:29 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0