Sending peace, sunsets, and happy dogs.

265.

But it could be closer to thousands per month once they start launching Starlinks with the giant SpaceX rocket. Kessler Syndrome here we come!

I'm giving a public talk tomorrow evening in Winnipeg https://winnipeg.rasc.ca/event/monthly-meeting-september-2025/ so it's time to update my talk slides.

Quiz time: How many more Starlink satellites are in orbit today than were in orbit on Aug 7, last time I gave a version of this talk?

That was 2 full hours of mostly talking about all the ways Reflect Orbital (and inevitable copycat sats) are terrible for astronomy (and ecology, and public safety...) and our limited ways to fight that. I need to go rage scream in the hay field now.

Well, just went to check on goats, like I often do in the middle of the work-from-home day, and unlike every single other time I've checked, the fence was down. And the goats were gone.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.

I very quickly checked all the places they could be hiding in the pen. Luckily the llama and the horse were still where they were supposed to be, so I closed up the fence and ran around yelling for goats and whistling for the dogs. How far could they have gone? Did they eat all the trees?!

Everything just came together perfectly, so I'm going to be in Winnipeg on Friday in person to give this talk! It's open to the general public: https://winnipeg.rasc.ca/event/monthly-meeting-september-2025/

One of my favourite things about living on the prairies is watching the weird, orange, atmosphere-distorted moon rise from the very-flat horizon. Gorgeous.

Once the llama has locked on to you, this pattern is inevitable

Everything is terrible, but I had a very pretty bike ride.

Goodnight

Fall is coming hard here. At least it's pretty, even if the forecast says 0C for tonight. SIGH.

Fun fact of the day: when goats and llamas eat whole apples, they look like they are singing opera.