Prof. Sam Lawler

@sundogplanets

Professor of astronomy, farmer of goats. Asteroid (42910). She/her. Living and learning on the land and under the skies of Treaty 4 (Saskatchewan, Canada) […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 14

Everything is terrible, but my goats are very happy. Please enjoy my happy chaos goats.

A bunch of goats of different sizes and colours all laying down contentedly in the shade of a tall wooden fence.

A small grey goat with long white ears, happily using a wooden feed trough as a bed. He looks like he's asking me "So what?!"

A chaos of goats of many different colours and sizes, all nearly hidden by grass and shrubs that are taller than them, happily eating everything in a very green wooded area.

A different view of a few goats happily eating in the tall grass. There are some trees in the background, as well as a mostly cloudy sky.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 14

Seems to be a techbro-bot #FediBlock @TiffanyNBastow Systematically going through and trying to tell people they should be nicer to the billionaire-owned megaconstellation companies that are destroying the sky, the atmosphere, and our ability to use orbit in the future.

A screenshot of a post from the account I suggested blocking with a lot of nonsense about "please let them destroy everything!"

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 13

So the #FediverseChickCountdown was really a bust, only 7 chicks hatched (and I didn't post much because of fucking Reflect Orbital) But those 7 chicks are SO CUTE. I reloaded the incubator, turned the temperature down slightly, didn't keep eggs for quite as […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A small fluffy black chick with a poofy head, standing in green grass, looking at the camera.

A person's hand full of fluffy yellow, brown, and black chicks, under a heat lamp so everything looks slight red.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 12

I always find it completely hilarious when I'm biking and an ENTIRE HERD of cows stops eating to all stare at me (People don't bike much 'round these parts...)

A flat, grassy field, surrounded by a barbed wire fence, with a herd of a few dozen large brown and black cows. If you look carefully they are all staring directly at me. The sky is blue with a few clouds above a very flat horizon

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 10

I just barely have the bandwidth for this because of ALL THE TERRIBLE SHIT the techbros are doing in orbit. But I have chicks! Only 7 😬. This is what I get for estimating a hatch rate. It's still a day early, maybe more will hatch today. Or maybe I started […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Seven baby chicks, super fluffy, and many colours: yellow, black, brown, orange. They are laying on clean straw.

A hand holding up a fluffy yellow chick, who looks pretty content.

A hand holding up a black fluffy chick, who maybe would like to be set down now please.

A view showing the baby chicks under a heat lamp on clean straw, with a little feeder and waterer right next to them.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 10

Good morning to all of you, and a heartfelt fuck you to Reflect Orbital and the FCC.

A view across bright green, rather flat fields of wheat, with a very dramatic tiny thunderstorm dumping rain on the flat horizon.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 9

New grass parade!

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 9

Ooof. Won't need a heat lamp for the chicks over the weekend. The full weather report predicts a heat index of 45 for Sunday. We really do get every kind of weather in Saskatchewan: +45 heat index to -50 windchill. Wild.

screenshot of the weather forecast for the next 4 days, peaking at 38C on Sunday.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 9

I moved all the eggs from the turners to the hatching baskets this morning. And WOW a lot of the eggs are peeping already! (Yes, it is very strange to hear peeping from an egg) I think the hatch rate is going to be good, though they are slightly early which […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A view of the incubator: a large plastic box with a red door, a digital display at the top, and a window in the red door. It's sitting in a room in a farm building. Inside the window a couple of yellow baskets can be seen. It looks like there's light on the inside, but it's just a weird reflection on the plastic window on the front of the incubator.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 9

Notice that when the goose (who's a total jerk, in case that's not obvious) comes and bites the goat, the goat doesn't even react, she just keeps chewing! Ineffective angry goose. (Usually the geese and goats are in different pens, but they are temporarily sharing for a couple hours.)

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 8

I had 3 hours straight of back-to-back intense meetings on various aspects of satellites destroying astronomy with different groups of people. This dishcloth I knitted during the meetings expresses my sentiment perfectly.

A purple knitted dishcloth sitting on a purple surface, with the word FUCK spelled out in the knitting pattern.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 8

There was even a tiny bit of visible auroras happening at my zenith at the peak of the show. And my barn looked very nice gently lit by the half moon with the Milky Way above. Shit-tons of satellites, of course, across the whole sky at astronomical midnight […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Looking nearly straight up at the Milky Way stretching across the sky, with some faint purple and green from auroras, and the tops of some silhouetted trees.

An old yellow barn with the Milky Way stretching diagonally away from the roof peak. There are a lot of satellite streaks.

Looking straight up at the Milky Way, with lots of satellite streaks.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 8

As predicted, I did not sleep well last night (see my previous posts... which I declare comment bankruptcy on...) Fortunately there was a surprise fantastic aurora show at 1am! Even with the moon in the sky, and low fog in places, it was good (the fog+moon […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Some silhouetted trees on each side of the photo, with multicoloured auroras in the sky low on the horizon. Above, the Milky Way is visible. There's low fog in the distance close to the flat horizon that seems to be reflecting the colours above.

Silhouetted trees with green and purple auroras above a flat horizon.

Purple and green auroras over a farm road, with silhouetted trees on one side of the photo. There's also an obnoxiously bright light that's lighting up some of the closer patch of fog and actually looks pretty neat.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 8

I did way too much yelling and not enough goat-sharing today. Here, have a goat nose boop from Unicorn, a real sweetie.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 7

[food, grumpy rant] WOW that came out amazing!! Layers!!!

View from above of a rectangular pizza cut into 12 square pieces. The cheese is perfectly browned, as is the crust.

A close-up side view of one piece on a plate, showing the flakey layers inside underneath the perfectly browned cheese. Mmmmmm.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 6

Gosh these predatory journal invites for my April Fool's Day Cow-culation paper https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.29324 will never stop being completely hilarious

Screenshot from a predatory journal invitation email:

Cow-culation: Reentry Impact Risk to Livestock in the Satellite Megaconstellation Era

Physics | DOI: 10.37871 | Impact Factor: 4.99
Index Copernicus ICV 2022: 83.03

Dear Samantha M. Lawler,
This journal welcomed you earlier; but because we didn't hear back from you, we're reaching out to you once more with this request. Would you mind giving us a minute to talk?

We kindly encourage you, on behalf of the Editorial Board Members, to submit a paper (such as your prior publication: “Cow-culation: Reentry Impact Risk to Livestock in the Satellite Megaconstellation Era”) for the next issue, as we are currently accepting high-quality articles. We believe your research would be an excellent fit for our journal. We guarantee that the journal effectively satisfies the author's main requirements for publication through transparent, ethical, and high-quality peer-review procedures.

If you have a manuscript ready, are currently writing one, or plan to prepare one soon, we sincerely invite you to consider this opportunity as a priority submission.
If your response is "YES," kindly share your acceptance within 24-48 hours. If not, we completely understand your busy schedule and appreciate your time.

Submission Deadline for the June Issue: July 20, 2026.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 6

Happy aphelion day from the grumpy-looking barn swallows who are about to fledge

A close-up of a barn swallow nest made out of mud and straw, stuck to the side of a support beam right by the ceiling of a barn. There are 4 rather grumpy looking baby barn swallow heads peeking up over the side of the nest, most of them looking at the camera.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 5

Potatoes. PO - TAY - TOES. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. (I will sleep well tonight! And dream of potatoes. Or a potato-hilling machine.)

A long row of potato plants in a very flat garden bed, with a few other rows of veggies but mostly fallow soil nearby. The greens on the plants are very high above the soil, oops. The sky above the flat horizon is bright blue.

Exact same view as the previous photo, a little later in the day, after I've hoed a bunch of soil up over most of the leaves, so the plants will grow more potatoes higher up where it's easier to harvest them.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 5

Need some ridiculous baby goats using rolled up shade cloth as a scratching post? Yes, you do.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 4

I finished setting up the fence this morning and now the goats are happy. They are impatient! (Bonus: barn swallows almost ready to fledge)

A whole bunch of mostly baby goats waiting behind a metal gate. They are all looking expectantly through the gate (they were yelling a lot too).

A view of a large pasture full of bright green grass, with perfect puffy white clouds in the blue sky. Off in the distance are many goats of many different colours happily eating.

Looking up at the rafters of a farm building, where there's a nest on the side of a horizontal support beam. The nest is made out of mud and sticks, and there are multiple baby barn swallows just barely visible. Mostly it's tails, but one head with its silly baby bird wide mouth.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 4

Dang there are apparently very good auroras happening! But it won't be dark for an hour and a half. I may have to go to bed and set an alarm for 1am... I'm so tired...

An aurora forecast map, showing lots of red over Canada, indicating high probability of visible auroras

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 4

Mammatus! Goodnight.

Mammatus clouds beautifully lit from underneath by the setting sun. They look like scoops of ice cream or round cotton balls. There are some spruce trees in the lower part of the picture.

A view of a different patch of mammatus clouds, these ones have more linear features to the puffs. They are lit up orange from the setting sun.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 4

Cool!! (It hit quite far away, did not hit the barn like this picture implies)

A view out into a farmyard, with a farm building on one side and a large yellow barn on the other side. There's a huge curvy lightning bolt hitting the ground somewhere way behind the barn.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 3

Poor goats. I did not get the fence set up before I got a tornado warning on my phone and decided it was time to go inside. The tornado warnings in Sask often cover a ridiculously huge area...I could clearly see there was no tornado. But there was thunder […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A view looking across a large grassy area with some scrubby trees around the edges, with dark, dramatic looking clouds above the flat horizon.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 3

Muddy but beautiful neighbourhood bike ride. Critters use the roads almost as much as us: I saw footprints from deer, moose, and lots of coyotes (or maybe foxes? I don't know enough to tell the difference from a moving bike)

A view over the handlebars of a bike, looking down a very flat, straight muddy dirt road with bright green wheat on one side and trees on the other. There are lots of clouds in the blue sky.

A view down another flat straight muddy dirt road toward a flat horizon. On one side of the road is a bright green wheat field, on the other is a bright green canola field. There are lots of trees along the flat horizon. The clouds march off to infinity in a blue sky.

Looking across the dirt road toward a canola field and other fields beyond, to a very flat horizon. Everything is green. There's patchy sun and shade all over the fields from the fluffy clouds above in the blue sky.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 3

Sending peace (and goats)

2 black goats with long white ears, wandering through a farmyard with a yellow barn on one side and a rail fence on the other, with a bright rainbow descending to the flat horizon behind them.

A large old yellow barn, with a rainbow above it, and 4 goats walking toward the barn through a grassy area next to a tall wooden fence.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 3

The poor dog is trying to hide from the incoming thunder ☹️ I wish I could explain it to him.

A large yellowish dog, who has dug a small hole in the middle of a bunch of tall green bushes, and is hiding, while a bunch of goats walk by.

Another view of the hiding dog. He looks really worried, poor guy.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 3

Have to follow the awful post with positive photos. Because even while awful things are happening, there is incredible beauty in the world (also cute dogs) and that should be shared and celebrated

A large yellowish dog, sitting in very tall grass that's full of bright pink flowers. There are some trees in the background, and clouds above. He's happily panting, looking right at the camera.

A floofy white dog, laying in tall green grass full of bright pink flowers, looking happily directly at the camera.

A hill covered with grass and bright pink flowers, under a cloudy sky with blue sky peeking through the clouds in a few places.

A large yellowish dog sniffing flowers as he walks through tall bright green grass full of yellow and pink flowers. The sky above is blue with lots of clouds.

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 2

An extremely talented graphic artist (who is here on the fediverse but wishes to remain anonymous, THANK YOU FRIEND) helped me put these space-junk-for-kids pamphlets together! Here's the version that shows the page order as you would read it

Panel 1 says "Did you find SPACE JUNK?" with a photo of a black and white dog sleeping next to a piece of space junk from the 2024 Ituna SpaceX debris fall.

Panel 2 says "Today, there are thousands of satellites in space going around the Earth. Satellites help us know the weather, get internet access, drive tractors and cars, and learn more about how our planet works. When satellites are old, they get burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. Once in a while, pieces fall on the ground, and we call that space junk. Saskatchewan is a great place to look for space junk because of all the big farms we have here." There is an image of crowded dots in orbit around Earth.

Panel 3 says "Farmers found many pieces of space junk near Ituna and one piece near Hodgeville in 2024. Space junk might look like a melted piece of a car, or a
piece of melted metal with burned black cloth attached. It’s much more likely to be space junk if you find it in the middle of a field far away from a road, possibly on top of snow or growing plants." There's a picture of several large pieces from the Ituna debris fall with the text "Can you spot the kitty?" with a brown cat hiding among the debris pieces.

Panel 4 says "If you are young and think you found space junk, first tell a grown-up. If the grown-up thinks the space junk might not be safe for any reason, call the RCMP non-emergency number: 306-310-7267
If it’s safe, take a photo and send it to: spacejunk@outerspaceinstitute.ca
We are curious astronomy teachers, and we will help you learn about what you found, and get in touch with the proper authorities.
Learn more about the Outer Space Institute here: outerspaceinstitute.ca"

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets· Jul 2

The neighbour's 8 gignormous Clydesdale horses were all staring at me from the fence-line while I was moving the goat fence, so I had to go say hi. They are SO BIG. 3 of them let me give them gentle nose pats this time (even though I did not give them any […] [Original post on mastodon.social]