7 Daily Reminders

2018 June 16

Dusty With a Chance of Dust Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, Curiosity Mars Rover

Explanation: It’s storm season on Mars. Dusty with a chance of dust is the weather report for Gale crater as a recent planet-scale dust storm rages. On June 10 looking toward the east-northeast crater rim, the Curiosity rover’s Mastcam captured this image of its local conditions so far. Meanwhile over 2,000 kilometers away, the Opportunity rover ceased science operations as the storm grew thicker at its location on the west rim of Endeavour crater, and has stopped communicating, waiting out the storm for now. Curiosity is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, but the smaller Opportunity rover uses solar panels to charge its batteries. For Opportunity, the increasingly severe lack of sunlight has caused its batteries to run low.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180616.html

“The conception of objective reality … has thus evaporated … into the transparent clarity of mathematics that represents no longer the behavior of particles but rather our knowledge of this behavior”

— Werner Heisenberg, on the role of measurements in quantum mechanics

7 Self-Compassion Stress Relievers

1. Start the morning with a time of silence so that you feel calm, and are grounded for the day.

2. Set good intentions for yourself. Make sure your automatic thoughts are positive and healthy.

3. Focus on your breathing to relieve anxiety, and create a sense of being strong and in control.

4. Stretch to release any tightness or tension – so you don’t keep carrying the stresses of the day.

5. Set small, realistic and manageable tasks so you don’t start to panic, and feel overwhelmed.

6. Keep your focus on right now – don’t worry about later. You have you need to live this moment fruitfully.

7. Before you go to bed, think of 3 things that went right – and end the day with gratitude – then rest, and get some sleep.

listen, the studyblr community can be a wonderful place - but there’s this emphasis on absolute perfection that really doesn’t help a lot of students dealing with other issues on top of their studies. here are five unconventional study tips that might not fit the studyblr aesthetic but have helped me get straight as whilst learning to live with mental health and family problems too!

1. don’t study whilst commuting

i walk to school, so posts about studying on the bus just aren’t helpful - i don’t have the option to do that! even if i’m taking the train somewhere, the last thing on my mind is studying. i’m thinking about my bed and how early it is and whether or not my coffee is cool enough to drink without burning myself yet. not all of us can start working the second we’re awake, and that’s okay!

instead: record your lessons and listen to them as you travel!

even if you’re not paying attention, you’ll remember more than you think! this is especially useful for languages - i recorded myself reading a few essays and listened to them as i walked, which made noticing grammatical errors so much easier!

2. don’t rewrite all your notes

i love the studyblr aesthetic as much as anyone, but i honestly don’t have the time to write out pages and pages of notes in the hope of gaining a few followers. of course it’s nice to have pretty-looking notes, but when you have a huge list of tasks to do, it can become a way of procrastinating work that’s actually needed for a grade.

instead: organise your class notes!

check the material you’ll study before the lesson! if you’re into the brush lettering aesthetic, write out or print titles off ahead of class so you can stick them on your page without having to waste valuable lesson time drawing them. plus, knowing what you’re going to study before you actually come to it means you can prepare a list of questions to ask the teacher and improve your understanding of the subject! this way, you’ll have organised, clear notes from the beginning, so you won’t have to copy anything out at home.

3. don’t buy expensive stationery

i know everyone seems to have those tombow brush pens and leuchtturm journals. as someone who can’t afford them, trust me when i say i get how it feels. but spending money on expensive products (especially ones you don’t know how to use) is just counterproductive - your grades won’t magically go up if you start shopping at muji.

instead: try budget alternatives!

would you buy a £90 contour kit if you’d never used foundation before? the same goes for stationery! substitute for cheaper products from your local stationery stores whilst you get a feel for what’s helpful for you, not what anyone else has. for example, i tried so many types of pens before realising that my writing’s nicest with gel pens, so now i let myself get more expensive ones - but i didn’t waste more than £5 figuring this out because i’m #cheap. this list of popular studyblr dupes is constantly being added to if you really need to try something, but stressing about your stationery is not going to help you in the slightest.

4. don’t worry too much about being organised

look, we’d all like to be organised, but i’m an adult who’s lived with depression since i was thirteen, and i know it’s not always possible to have that pinterest-ready study den. sometimes your homework will be done on a bed that’s not been made in weeks of it’s going to be done at all, and that’s okay.

instead: do what you can.

had a bad day? stick on some guns n roses and do the work later. too exhausted to function? just finish that last maths problem and go to bed. it’s okay to not have a picture perfect lifestyle - most of the people who post those photos don’t have it either. just do what you have to do to get through the week.

5. don’t ignore your mental health

there’s such a weird culture of perfectionism here and it’s so damaging! of course no one has to post about their personal lives on their studyblrs - but please don’t let that lead you to believe it’s not important. this mentality of “everything is fine and i must be perfect” isn’t healthy.

instead: talk about how you feel!

it doesn’t have to be on your studyblr, but if you’re feeling suffocated by pressure to achieve, or you think you’re depressed, or you’re just going through a tough time and need to vent, talk to someone! bottling things up is not a healthy way to live life - believe me, i’ve tried it. it doesn’t work. there are so many young people here and we need to stop acting like our studies are all we can ever be.

i’m not trying to “call out” anyone who finds the minimalist note taking and study devotion helpful - everyone here is different, and i’m glad it works for you! but not all of us can do that, so this is for the people who can’t.

im very grateful for the lessons in photography i was taught in stop motion class because just now they made it possible to photograph the stars with my phone in spite of the camera usually not detecting the light of stars because theyre so dim,,,, enjoy these shiny motherfuckers

If Earth had Saturn’s Rings

From an excellent post by Jason Davis

From Washington, D.C., the rings would only fill a portion of the sky, but appear striking nonetheless. Here, we see them at sunrise.

From Guatemala, only 14 degrees above the equator, the rings would begin to stretch across the horizon. Their reflected light would make the moon much brighter.

From Earth’s equator, Saturn’s rings would be viewed edge-on, appearing as a thin, bright line bisecting the sky.

At the March and September equinoxes, the Sun would be positioned directly over the rings, casting a dramatic shadow at the equator.

At midnight at the Tropic of Capricorn, which sits at 23 degrees south latitude, the Earth casts a shadow over the middle of the rings, while the outer portions remain lit.

via x

South Demerdji, Crimea by Alexander Trashin

js

Typical bagel morning on this rainy day featuring my cool pajamas

Learning astronomy

Podcasts

astronomy cast  : hundreds of podcasts! Great for beginners and general facts, but keep in mind that those are from 2006, so some technical things may no longer be relevant

Videos 

crash course : amazing synthetic videos about astronomy, those are my personal favorites 

Websites

astronomy basics : all you need to know if you’re a great beginner!

Free online courses

probably the most complete one I’ve ever seen

khan academy astronomy courses are quality af

Books

list of books about what to see and how with a telescope

another list of books about astronomy in general 

telescope books

astrophotography

Stargazing

Sky maps

sky maps per month 

very good starwheels aka planispheres 

How to observe

basic skills

10 steps to begin

the perfect all-in-one stargazing guide: I can’t recommend this highly enough!!

Telescopes and things

telescopes

telescope reviews : aka what to chose for what you want to see

everything about telescopes : super useful when you start using one!!

Astrophotography

Starting

everything you need to know depending on what equipment you have!!

all you need version 2!

General

catching the light

hundreds of tips 

Apps and websites

For computers

stellarium

googlesky

astroplanner: plan your observation!

winstars: 3D planet/stargazing!

planetarium 

+ full list of softwares and websites

For mobiles

starwalk2 (android version): alright guys, this one is my absolute favorite at all times. Like, really. Have you ever wished you could point a device at the sky and know exactly what’s above you? And have a description of those things? Even in the middle of the day?? Well, now you can yaaay! :D 

Astronomy News

astronomy.com

universetoday

skyandtelescope

space.com aka my personal favorite

astronomynow

sci-news

++bonus !

All the random facts

here +other links:  x x x x

Backgrounds

hubble site gallery

ESA/Hubble gallery

HD wallpapers

NASA gallery

Even more resources

friendsoftheobservatory

NASA

European Space Agency

ISS Live

I really hoped it helped! Thank you very much for reading! Zoya

my college sent out a document of advice for graduate freshers from the Oxford University Counselling Service and I thought it had some really good reminders in it.