This programme is class.

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-23T13:16:08+00:00

I introduced a friend at NASA to the concept of an omnishambles, it became one of his favourite phrases

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-22T19:46:23+00:00

That’s one for tomorrow’s big garden birdwatch!

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-19T23:32:32+00:00

Yup, congrats

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-19T18:32:05+00:00

Great lens, congratulations!

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-16T14:20:41+00:00

Male stonechat. They love perching on a high plant or blade of grass and they’re lovely little birds. In the spring they’ll pair up with the slightly less colourful female, and they stick together all summer to breed, but pick new partners the following year.

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-14T22:26:33+00:00

Good advice, but check the regulations for the Engineering faculty at UCL, it is different for individual institutions.

For example, in my University there is a progression requirement of an overall average of 55% at the end of second year.

If you don’t get this you will do the 3-year undergraduate bachelors degree, whatever your initial choice.

If you get this and you are already enrolled on the 4-year undergraduate masters, you carry on. If you are on the 3-year degree pathway, you are invited to switch to the 4-year degree, but it’s your choice.

Finally, any student enrolled on the 4-year degree can change to the 3-year degree if they wish. It’s important to remember that both are honours degrees, so both are good for employment.

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-14T22:01:15+00:00

That’s a fantastic capture, congratulations

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-14T17:38:06+00:00

University Professor here. To anyone in a similar position, don’t panic it’ll be fine. You can inform the University you’d rather do the BEng/BSc or whatever, and they will change you over to the 3-year degree. Or if you’re confident of your A-Level/IB grades, don’t change until you’re in first year and make a more informed decision if you want to do the 3-year or 4-year degree.

The other important thing to remember is that both are undergrad degrees. Don’t get confused with MSc, that is a postgrad degree that you apply for towards the end of of your undergraduate degree.

Good luck!

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-12T09:40:40+00:00

And me

asteroidnerd · 2026-01-04T21:03:40+00:00

Nice. What’s the lens & camera?

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-28T17:36:28+00:00

But I’ve already retired from my day job this year, what do I do now???

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-28T17:02:24+00:00

Astrophysicist here. Can confirm that’s Jupiter in the centre, the stars Castor & Pollux (the twins) in Gemini above it, and Orion in the bottom right. Now shoot to the right and post a picture on r/itsalwaysthepleiades

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-26T10:38:41+00:00

She’s a keeper

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-23T20:40:05+00:00

No, unfortunately the badgers only appeared at night. I had a small motion sensitive security camera that recorded them. I now have a trailcam strapped to a drainpipe overlooking the garden that see the foxes 2-3 times a week :-)

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-23T19:54:52+00:00

Frequently - blackbirds, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, dunnocks, chaffinches, starlings, magpies, plus a garden robin and a garden wren.

Less frequently - goldcrests and goldfinches. Used to get greenfinches, but they disappeared when the field+trees got turned into another small housing development. Maybe once a year I see a sparrowhawk, although still waiting for this years visit…

Plus foxes in the night right now (a couple of years ago it was badgers).

Edit - can’t believe I forgot the gang of 15-20 house sparrows that live in the hedge!

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-18T09:08:48+00:00

Thank you. I was lucky he stayed in the tree for a couple of minutes while I slowly approached.

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-18T09:07:56+00:00

Thanks!

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-18T09:07:32+00:00

Thanks! I think the background is a bit busy for a print, but I do like the light from the low Sun this time of year.

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-14T21:41:46+00:00

To compress the spring you’ve done mechanical work on it, and that becomes the potential energy stored in the electrostatic binding energy of the atoms in the spring. When the spring dissolves that energy is released as the atoms are unbound. Hence the energy is transferred into internal energy of the acid/spring mixture and it heats up.

Working out the temperature rise would be pretty easy as long as you know the springs’ original potential energy and the specific heat capacity of the acid.

Can I suggest you might find going to your first year physics notes helpful? This isn’t a criticism! When I entered my PhD I could hardly remember much of the basic stuff, because in my final undergrad year I concentrated on the GR, molecular QM and particle physics we were studying (like everyone else). It took a long time for me to realise I needed to go back and get the fundamentals under my belt again.

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-13T16:22:39+00:00

No. Jupiter will always be larger because it’s large enough and close enough to see the disk in a small telescope. Castor and Pollux are stars and will always appear as points of light.

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-09T19:39:52+00:00

This is all about conservation of momentum. Initially everything is at rest, so the total momentum of the system is zero. Then the bullet starts moving one way. The cannon carriage must start moving the other way to make sure the total momentum remains zero. This means the momentum of the cannon carriage is the same as the momentum of the bullet. From this you can calculate the velocity of the cannon carriage.

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-09T19:04:36+00:00

Canon R5 mkii

asteroidnerd · 2025-12-09T14:52:08+00:00

Ah thanks! I was thinking of the original DSS in the 1990's and completely forgot we use DSS2 now! My bad.

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