Sera Markoff

apparently all camelids do, but only when stressed, so that's why you have to keep petting them (nicely) 😂

He used to have pet ducks so why not?? I may be too busy trying to pet the alpacas tho...

There are no parallel sessions, rejoice!!!

Screen shot of a table schedule from a black hole conference showing black hole talks and discussion before/after an "Unconferencing" session and a photo of alpacas captioned by "Petting Alpacas"

I wasn't kidding, there is bonified alpaca petting on our schedule for the "Blackholistic 2026" 🔭🧪 conference in Oxford next week!

yep we're looking for spare harddrives under every surface

Astronomers are capturing video of a black hole for the first time | CBC Radio Astronomers are working to capture the first-ever video of a black hole — a groundbreaking effort that could shed light on how these enigmatic cosmic objects behave and offer clues about the origins o...

The first ever #blackhole movie campaign by @ehtelescope.bsky.social kicked off this morning!!! 🔭🧪 I was honoured to represent the team together with Vincent Fish on CBC's Quirks and Quarks science podcast. Tune in if you want to hear about the science and methods for this groundbreaking campaign!!

Read more here: eventhorizontelescope.org/news/2026/03...

We're happy to announce a newly signed agreement for the construction of the Africa Millimeter Telescope (AMT). This will open great possibilities for astronomy on the African continent and make black hole images even sharper!

#astronomy #blackholes #EHT #AMT #africa

...but also be the first millimetre-radio telescope in Africa. For my research in particular the synergy with the H.E.S.S. Telescopes and CTAO brings a special "sauce" as we'll be able to study #blackholes at both extremes of the electromagnetic spectrum, simultaneously! [2/2]

Africa Millimetre Telescope to bring black holes into sharper focus for movies | Radboud University An international consortium led by Radboud University has secured a contract agreement for the construction of a radio telescope that will become the Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT) in Namibia.

I'm excited to share a major milestone in our @erc.europa.eu SyG "Blackholistic": the agreement w/ mtex to construct a new 14m mm-radio dish in Namibia, that will become the Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT). 🔭🧪 AMT will enable not just sharper images of #blackholes w/ @ehtelescope.bsky.social [1/2]

I'm helping organise a conference on #blackholes 🔭🧪 at Oxford U, and the LOC have outdone themselves! Direct quote from their email:

"Also..between 1200-1400 on March 26th we will have two alpacas at the meeting which you can pet in case you’re needing a distraction from all the black holes.." 🦙🤭

Photo of Prof James Chibueze at the podium with his title slide projected in the background “Astronomy and Astrophysics as Development Drivers in Africa”

Photo of Prof James Chibueze receiving the prize from Prof Sheila Rowan of the Royal Society

It was such an honour to celebrate my Africa Millimetre Telescope 🧪🔭colleague Prof James Chibueze’s Rising Star Africa Prize at the @royalsociety.org tonight!

I’m at the launch of the Southampton Space Institute which is part of something called “Space South Central”, quite funny if you’re a West Coast hiphop fan…

ElfQuest Reading Room - ElfQuest WELCOME TO THE ELFQUEST COMICS LIBRARYHere you will find nearly every issue and collection of ElfQuest comics published between 1978 and 2013. ElfQuest Reading Room

My friend just sent me this link to a free Elfquest site with all the comics going back to the beginning! This was the first comic I ever collected, and yes I was a pre-teen, and just reading a few pages was the brain cleanse I needed today:
elfquest.com/reading-room/

Trump has launched an illegal regime change war.

As someone who has survived the horrors of war, I know military strikes will not make us safer; they will inflame tensions and push the region further into chaos.

When we abandon diplomacy, we choose destruction.

My Eurostar was cursed by a swan, hear me out. 1st: train diverted bc...swan. 2nd: our electricity cut out, we stopped in some small village to reboot the system. 3rd: limped into Brussels, had to go thru passport control again and 400 ppl assigned random train cars and left to fight for seats. 😱

Screenshot of Dutch explanation that the Amsterdam to London train is delayed because of "an animal on the tracks".

It's in the Dutch part actually but that is funny about the UK swans! 😂

I'd still place my bets on the train :)

...said swan has appeared to add 40 mins to our journey, could they not, I don't know, pick it up or something?

Of all the reasons for a train to be diverted...I just heard for the first time that our Eurostar is going a different route because of a swan on the tracks! 🦢

Waxing moon -- we had a stormy day (with lightning and thunder!) so this is one I took about a month ago.

I just realized that today is Chinese New Year, the 1st day of Ramadan, AND Fat Tuesday. That means the Chinese new moon lined up with the Ramadan crescent and also fell exactly the right amount of time before the Easter full moon.

An extremely rare lineup of 3 major moon-based traditions!

Immigrants are stealing all the good jobs in violent crime.

notorious radical left communist rag says tax the rich

Love this!

Orange fluffy cat lying belly up, staring off into space looking a bit stunned

Just watched Marty Supreme and this more or less sums up how we feel #caturday

Kudos to @hogg.bsky.social for his new paper on arXiv that is stimulating a lot of discussion around the value of astrophysics and also the discourse around #LLMs. I think even non astro people will find this interesting! 🔭🧪

arxiv.org/pdf/2602.10181

Happy #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience! 🧪🔭Here's a nice highlight using a photo from our collaboration meeting last summer in Berlin.

UK ‘could lose generation of scientists’ with cuts to projects and research facilities Researchers say best scientists are taking posts overseas because of lack of job stability at home

Glad to see pushback picking up in the media about the proposed massive cuts to UK particle/astro/nuclear physics 🧪🔭. Everyone understands that tough choices have to be made, but not investing in your future is a surefire way of, well, not having much of one 🤷‍♀️

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

😂

I have officially transitioned from Dutch to British!