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Just posted a blog for the Guardian website about the Isaac Newton Telescope.

CLICK HERE TO READ IT

And here's the video which inspired the blog.



And below are some pictures of the telescope from my recent visit to La Palma.

ORIGINAL SITE IN SUSSEX (Pic by David Brander)

NEW HOME ON LA PALMA

WHO LEFT THE LIGHT ON?

IN USE AT NIGHT

BRADY AND THE DOME

FULL MOON

ON THE RIDGE

HIGH ABOVE THE CLOUDS

FILMING TIMELAPSES (it was windy, needed the rocks!)

My final sunset on the volcano at La Palma, and this will be my final blog entry before jetting back to England.

In the afternoon I filmed at the SuperWASP facility and learned a lot about exoplanets.

Then to the Belgian-owned Mercator Telescope and a discussion about the Andromeda Galaxy.

I will be leaving La Palma with 14 tapes and a few memory cards full of video and photos.

The videos will be starting in January on Deep Sky Videos (more links below for Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Finally I must say a word of thanks to the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes which made this visit possible.

And especially the ING's public relations officer, Javier Mendez (right).

Javier went beyond the call of duty driving me all over the mountainside and arranging incredible access to many facilities - both at the ING and other telescopes.

He seemed to be working 24 hours a day and had an incredible knowledge about the science and technology across the observatory.

Thanks Javier.

Roque de los Muchachos Observatory is run by The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. I am being hosted by the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes. The videos from this trip will appear on Deep Sky Videos: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Click here for diary day one.
Click here for diary day two.
Click here for diary day three.
Click here for diary day four.
Click here for diary day five.
Click here for diary day six.
Click here for diary day seven.
Click here for diary day eight.

I've come to my final day and night on the mountain.

Everything is becoming bit of a blur.

I've seen so many telescopes, so many remarkable things - and had so little sleep.

Last night I went for a walk and saw perhaps the most amazing sight of the trip... the Geminids meteors.

These meteors appear each December as the Earth barrels through the dust and debris of an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.

The first meteor streaked across the entire sky for about 10 seconds, burning up in spectacular fashion.

The sky here's so clear - you see so many stars and the Milky Way.

The meteor initially looked like an emergency flare, moving quickly but also gently (perhaps because of the eerie silence).

I've seen meteors before, but this one looked so foreign I didn't know what it was.

I initially thought one of the telescopes had fired a flare skyward (to check the weather conditions, perhaps)?

But its strange trajectory across the sky then made me realise how daft that was!

More meteors appeared at a steady rate and of course I went to fetch my various cameras, but didn't have the equipment, skills or luck to catch them.

And none matched the first one I'd seen.

Earlier in the day I visited yet more telescopes and filmed various bits and pieces for upcoming Deep Sky Videos.

These included the formidable MAGIC telescope, a pair of huge machines which detect gamma rays from the depths of space.

They are among the most striking sights on the mountain (below) because their huge mirrors and exposed day and night, not concealed within a dome.
 

Today I will see I couple more telescopes and spend a final night on the volcano.

Then home at last - which I am looking forward to.

Roque de los Muchachos Observatory is run by The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. I am being hosted by the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes. The videos from this trip will appear on Deep Sky Videos: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Click here for diary day one.
Click here for diary day two.
Click here for diary day three.
Click here for diary day four.
Click here for diary day five.
Click here for diary day six.
Click here for diary day seven.
Click here for diary day eight.

Below is the galaxy M74, imaged about an hour ago.

It is not the prettiest image of M74. Not a composite of many exposures with various filters.

But it's something more pure - more real.

And it's a far better example of what astronomers really see when they use professional telescopes.

The image was created with the Isaac Newton Telescope, on La Palma.

Astronomer Rafael Barrena (right), from the IAC, was kind enough to image it (I don't know how to use a telescope, do I?)

It's a two-minute exposure using a so-called R-Filter - essentially it is the red light coming from the great spiral galaxy.

This is the image as it appeared on the INT's screen.

It is unprocessed and has not yet been corrected for the CCD and mirror's idiosyncrasies, etc - that comes later.

But I wanted to share the image for that reason - because it's still untreated.

They will be plenty more stuff like this in the upcoming Deep Sky Videos series, which will be about showing astronomy as it really is.

I should point out the image was created in the twilight hours, here at La Palma.

That's because the telescope has a heavy schedule of science through the night (and every night).

But during twilight there was a brief window of opportunity for us.

Meanwhile, below is an apologetic video I just posted from La Palma for Sixty Symbols.



Roque de los Muchachos Observatory is run by The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. I am being hosted by the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes. The videos from this trip will appear on Deep Sky Videos: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Click here for diary day one.
Click here for diary day two.
Click here for diary day three.
Click here for diary day four.
Click here for diary day five.
Click here for diary day six.
Click here for diary day seven.
Click here for diary day eight.