astroGC

The 16'' handmade telescope project has been completed successfully. Yesterday night, it has been used for the first time in a conventional workshop at astroGC. This time it worked perfectly. A highlight of the telescope is it's rigidity and precision. We checked the collimation right after mounting it in Cruz de San Antonio (Gran Canaria). The mirrors remained perfectly aligned despite of the route from Maspalomas. And they remained perfectly aligned while moving the telescope from zenith position to the horizon. This does not happen with this kind of telescope available on the market. The rigidity of the structure, along with excellent quality of mirrors and focuser provided fantastic images of planets and deep sky objects. The Hercules globular cluster (M13) appeared very bright, clear and sharp. Most of our guests expressed a "Wow!" exclamation observing this massive cluster of stars. For us this is the completion of a 2 years long project. We will tr

Bennu is a 60 million tons asteroid orbiting around the sun in the nearby of the Earth orbit. It is a potentially hazardous object. Size of Benny compared to Playa del Inglés. OSIRIS-REx is a spacecraft launched in 2016 to analyze Bennu asteroid and return sample to Earth. Bennu may contain important information about the origin of life on Earth. Moreover, knowing the physical and chemical properties of Bennu may come in help in the future if we want to intend a mission to mitigate an impact with the Earth.  OSIRIS-REx spacecraft After about 2 years travelling, OSIRIS-REx recently took a first photography of the asteroid and began the final approach to it. This will be in December. Photography of Bennu, by OSIRIS-REx