bad astronomer under southern skies

i saw this lovely astronomy image collage on elise andrew's twitter feed this week and thought you might like it too.

Credit: link

elise is the founder of the fantastic "i fucking love science" facebook group, and is hosting an "IFLS live" event in sydney tonight.  the event features a pretty amazing array of special guests, including the bad astronomer, phil plait, who i was lucky enough to hang out with over the weekend.

trouble makers making trouble

we spent some time enjoying the views from sydney observatory.

sydney's harbour bridge and opera house from observatory hill

the southern cross over phil plait

i think phil was searching for special southern hemishere dirty space news in the night sky above the crescent moon and very bright venus.

phil plate admiring the southern skies

you can listen to some of our visit , as it was captured in the skeptic zone podcast #251 by richard saunders.

richard saunders recording phil plait while observing with this 16'' telescope

looking forward to the event tonight and will hopefully post something here about it afterwards!   you can follow me on twitter for updates, or the #IFLSlive hashtag.

Credit: link