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…
STARMUS is a unique scientific, artistic and musical event taking place mostly in Tenerife this week, with a truly stellar line-up of speakers and performers. I wanted to go, but I couldn’t afford the time or the money. I say “mostly in Tenerife” because on Thursday Jack Szostak, Brian May, Richard Dawkins, Kip Thorne, George Smoot, Jill Tarter, Alexei Leonov and Neil Armstrong are coming to the Roque de los…
Today I showed two Buddhist monks (plus three of their friends) around the biggest telescope in the world. The senior one is the professor of Buddhist Philosophy at the University of Varanasi, in India. Unfortunately I can’t remember his name since it was so exotic to me. I did a bit of a double take when I saw that the university professor was wearing Tibetan robes, like the Dalai Lama….
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,…
The Parador on La Palma is just outside the village of San Jose, in Breña Baja. (Paradors are a national chain of posh hotels, and very nice they are too.) Tonight (April 22nd ) at 8 pm they’ll be hosting the first public dinner with a new menu, inspired by astronomical bodies. A professional Starlight guide will be there to talk about the planets, and afterwards, there will be stargazing….
The castle on the hill above Santa Cruz (to the north) gets its name from the five-yearly festival where they bring the statue of the Virgin Mary down from Las Nieves into Santa Cruz. It’s not much used in between fiestas, but Wednesday 20th April is The World Night in Defence of Starlight, and Astrotour will be holding a Star Party there from 9 pm to 1 am. You’ll be…