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Prof. Emily Levesque 🤓✨🔭📚 Profile picture
Prof. Emily Levesque 🤓✨🔭📚
@emsque
Astronomer, professor, author, weird star enthusiast. Get THE LAST STARGAZERS, my book of behind-the-scenes astronomy adventures, at https://t.co/bdMG62ZDht
Jun 11, 2020 • 33 tweets • 6 min read
So last night I sat down to see about taking the General GRE and Physics GRE, a process that many prospective grad students will have to tackle in the coming months.

Here's what I learned... Right now ETS offers an "at home" option for the General GRE! There's an online proctor! Testing is already happening and will be available 7 days a week from Jul 1 - Sep 30! How accommodating! How accessible!

Wait for it.
May 18, 2020 • 17 tweets • 8 min read
Exactly #40YearsAgo Doug Geisler was asleep atop Manastash Ridge Observatory. An astronomy grad student, he’d just logged his first excellent night at the telescope for his PhD thesis.

He was the only person on the summit, ~90 miles from #MountStHelens...

#MSH40 Around this time #40YearsAgo Doug woke up briefly at Manastash Ridge, convinced he’d heard a low boom or distant rumble.

Tired after a night of observing billion-year-old stars, he went back to sleep.

Years later, he told me he dreamed about the end of the world. #MSH40
Feb 26, 2020 • 21 tweets • 16 min read
So! Last week @MassiveStarGuy and I got some nice data and found out that #Betelgeuse's recent dimming was NOT caused by a drop in the star's surface temperature.

A thread!

arxiv.org/abs/2002.10463 @MassiveStarGuy Starting in October, Betelgeuse started dimming pretty impressively, and astronomers started tossing around ideas for what might be causing this sudden drop in the star's visual brightness. I wrote a thread summarizing the possibilities back in December:
Dec 24, 2019 • 26 tweets • 12 min read
Looking for a primer on stars like Betelgeuse? There's an ebook for that😁iopscience.iop.org/book/978-0-750…

In short:
1) Betelgeuse probably won't explode tomorrow
2) (but if it did it'd be SO COOL)
3) we should observe the heck out of it anyway because it's a red supergiant and AWESOME "But wait, why did it get fainter?? Does that mean it's about to die?!"

First of all, there are several not-because-it's-about-to-die explanations for why Betelgeuse might have gotten fainter...
May 18, 2019 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
"Hours lost: 6. Reason: Volcano"

Doug Geisler's telescope log from 39y ago today - he was the sole person at Manastash Ridge Observatory when Mt. St. Helens erupted!

I interviewed Doug earlier this year for #TheLastStargazers and got to hear the full tale... On the night of May 17th 1980 Doug was the only person on the mountain (not uncommon at MRO) and was actually taking his very first night of data for his PhD thesis, starting what was SUPPOSED to be a five-night observing run...
Mar 24, 2019 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
OMG a bunch of us just put an eyepiece on the @LCOAstro Swope 1-meter telescope & POINTED IT AT ETA CARINA.

You could see the structure! The bipolar lobes!! THE STAR WAS BRIGHT RED BECAUSE OF THE DUST!!! AAAAAHHHH 🤩🌟🎉

...I should explain why I’m screaming. #TheLastStargazers When I interview people for this book I always ask what they think a common misconception might be about what professional astronomers do.

By far the most common answer is "people think we still look through eyepieces. We don't anymore."

This is 99% true...