Will the world end in 2012?

  Happy New Year. Are we all going to die? Yes. That was certain as soon as we were born. But is the whole world going to end? No. Well there’s always the small chance that some crazy person will do something incredibly stupid with nuclear weapons, but that’s about the same every year. Is the Earth going to collide with planet Nibiru? No. If there was anything that big…

January 3, 2012
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Shooting Stars Tonight

Perseid meteor
August 12, 2011

Tonight is the biggest meteor shower of the year, the Perseids. In Spanish, they’re called the tears of St Lawrence, because St Lawrence’s day is the 10th. Astrotour will be at La Polvacera basketball court. From 8 – 9 pm they’ll hold workshops and from 9pm to 11:30, observation with telescopes. If there’s low cloud, you’ll get a better view up at one of the astronomical viewpoints. Enjoy!

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Mercury at maximum elongation

Nasa image of the planet Mercury
July 19, 2011

Mercury is the planet nearest to the sun. In fact, it’s so close that it whizzes around its orbit in just under 88 days. Because it’s closer to the sun than we are, we always see it close to the sun in the sky, making it difficult to observe. But tonight (Tuesday 19th July) it will be at its maximum distance, 27º away. Look for a small star in the…

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A Blood Red Moon

June 16, 2011

A Blood red eclipse of the moon from Llano de la Venta viewpoint La Palma has beautiful dark skies, so I was hoping for a really good view of last night’s lunar eclipse. But looking at the low cloud along the horizon, I decided to drive up to the star party at Llano de la Venta, one of La Palma’s astronomical viewpoints. In practice, an astronomical vciewpoint means parking space,…

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