#astronomers

Below are brand new photos never released to the public until now! Good luck to all winners and remember, keep looking up and scoping!

Winners will be announced on September 17, the day after which the public exhibition will open at London’s National Maritime Museum. The show is also accompanied by the book Astronomy Photographer of the Year, Collection 15. Tumblrs very own ASTRONOMY 101 will be assisting in picking out the top 10 astronomy photographers of the year 2026! We are super excited to be apart of this again for the 5th year in a role. Top 3 winners will also be posted to our Tumblr profile and will be pinned on top of our profile for 1 month. Good luck!

Post made Exclusively by: Astronomer Josh Farley

Saint Dominic

1170 - 1221

Feast Day: August 8 (New), August 4 (Trad)

Patronage: Astronomers, astronomy, Dominican Republic, falsely accused people, stargazing

Saint Dominic Guzman was a Spanish priest and founder of the Dominican Order. He is the patron saint of astronomy and science, a reflection of his lifelong love of learning and teaching. When Dominic was baptized as a baby, his mother reportedly saw a star shining from his chest. In portraits, he is often depicted with a star shining on or above his head. And although there is no evidence that St. Dominic ever studied astronomy himself, this aspect of scientific learning was well known when St. Dominic attended university, and it's certainly possible that he was exposed to the mysteries of the heavens.

See I THOUGHT I remembered hearing something about that but for some reason thought I made it up, as an astronomer myself who got a lot of my early astronomy education from his books that’s so incredibly disappointing to hear, he was an inspiration to me for a long time but now? Hell no. I’m fortunate enough to know a lot of astronomers both personally and online that I look up to, who ARENT creepazoid rapists. There are better ways to get access to astronomy—here’s a couple alternatives:

Carl Sagan—he was active in the 80s mostly so some of his info is outdated, but his book Cosmos is still an amazing starting point

NASA’s Curious Universe/ Universo Curioso de la NASA: an official NASA podcast covering a variety of astronomical topics with versions in both English and Spanish

How the Universe Works: a show on the Science Channel that I watched until I no longer had access to it but I think is now available on Netflix/HBO (though Americans will probably need a vpn)

and last but certainly not least aka my favorite,

the_astro_stud (Kihana Wilson) on Instagram/Bluesky: a Black queer educator studying cosmology and making videos on various astronomical phenomena while supporting marginalized groups in the field (I ADORE her)

Webb reveals warped structure in nearby TW Hydrae’s protoplanetary disk has moved forward this week. This post distills the reporting from Phys.org Space and adds Chucky’s take on what it actually means for people who use this technology. (more…)

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket Is About to Crash Into the Moon—and It has moved forward this week. This post distills the reporting from WIRED Science and adds Chucky’s take on what it actually means for people who use this technology. (more…)