I was supposed to be using a telescope at the observatory in La Palma, Canary Islands this week, but the volcano on the island had other ideas. Here’s why volcanic ash is so damaging to both telescopes and the images taken with them.

To find out what we were planning to observe with the telescope check out my previous observing vlog (where the snow scuppered us): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrxGe… or listen to this month’s Supermassive Podcast: podfollow.com/supermassive

That 2010 paper on risk to observatories from seismic and volcanic activity (free to access): https://arxiv.org/pdf/0904.0140.pdf

Watch a live stream of the eruption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bdqF…