I made time to go and see the conjenction of Jupiter and Saturn. I’d originally planned to drive half an hour from home to Llano del Jable, on the island’s spine, but the observatory webcams showed that the clouds were higher than usual, so I went all the way up to the observatory. I haven’t done that for quite a while, but it was worth it. The longer drive meant…
Well, I saw it! It was cloudy at low altitudes, so I was glad I’d joined the bus going up to Pico de La Cruz with a group of about 16 people from Astrofest. Since buses get a lot more expensive after midnight, the organiser was persuaded to have the bus drop us off shortly after 11 pm, so it would be “home” by midnight, even though it meant a…
Total Lunar Eclipse April 15th 2014, as seen from the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter. SkyCenter.Arizona.edu In the early hours of September 28th the moon will plunge into the Earth’s shadow and turn blood red. It’s a perfectly normal event, produced by the combined orbits of the earth and moon and the effect of the Earth’s atmosphere bending the sunlight like a lens, but it’s dramatic and spooky, and if you didn’t…
This amazing picture of stars being born inside a nebula was taken by Daniel Lopez using Grantecan. Near the centre of the picture is a dark red spot – that’s the new star which shines mostly in the infrared. The butterfly shape is a large disk of dust and gas orbiting the star. The gas near the star shines because it is ionized (like the inside of a flourescent…
The Big Dipper over Santa Cruz de La Palma I got up early to try to see comet ISON (which is low in the east just before dawn). There was only one cloud in the starry sky. Yup. Right in front of the comet. Since I was up anyway, I decided that I may as well practise a bit of astro-photography. I need the practice after all. So here is…
Partial Lunar eclipses are quite common. Photos like this aren’t. It was taken by Ana Garcia of AstroLaPalma.com, who offer observations (tours or private), telescope rental, the “Los Indianos” tour in Santa Cruz de La Palma and tailored astronomy travel packages.