Every year La Palma holds an astrophotography contest, and the winning entries from the 2013 contest are now on display in the island’s museum. The inauguration was held on Friday night, and the winners received their prizes. It’s well worth a visit, because the photos are wonderful, and the rest of the museum is interesting too. The museum (and the exhibition) is open from 10 am – 8 pm…
This is wht the MAGIC webcam is showing tonight. Very Christmassy, don’t you think?
Happy new year. We started 2014 with a new moon. Here it is setting on January 2nd from La Palma.
< It looks like comet ISON has broken up. I’m disappointed, but I’m not surprised. The comet’s closest approach was just 1,165,000 km (724,000 mi) from the surface of the sun. This is not a safe place for a snowball. The image above shows just how close it got. The black disc in the centre of the picture is called a cronograph. It covers up the sun so that...
This was photographed from a plane flying at 13,300 m going 800 km/h, 960 km southeast of Bermuda. In order to get the eclipse to one side of the plane, they flew across the path of totality, rather than along it. This required split-second timing, since the shadow on the moon moves across the Earth’s surface at 12,800 km/h. The photographer, Ben Cooper, isn’t sure whether this is totality…
UPDATE: There are two places where you’ll be able to observe the eclipse safely. Astrolapalma will hold a free event at Llano de las Brujas from 10:30-1:30 pm, and Astrotour will hold an event costing 2€ per person at the ecological banana plantation EcoFinca Platanologico from 11 am – 1 pm. Do NOT look directly at the sun. You might go blind. On November 3rd 2013 there will be…