Ben Godson

Ben Godson

Observational astronomer and PhD student in Extragalactic Transients

Posts

2026

A Love Letter to Tajinaste

4 minute read

Published:



Anybody who has been lucky enough to visit the Roque de Los Muchachos during the late spring will be familiar with the towering pink flowers known locally as tajinaste. I fell in love with these plants during my year living on the island, as have many other astronomers and visitors to the island before me. Read more

Observing on La Palma

20 minute read

Published:


Since starting my PhD in 2022, I’ve spent quite a lot of time at observatories, just over 100 nights. Most of which were at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma. I’m often asked about the experience of travelling to, observing at, and living on La Palma and so I wanted to summarise some of my thoughts in an easy to share way. Read more

2025

GOTO Mirror Cleaning

3 minute read

Published:



In the ~5 years that GOTO has been operating, the primary mirrors have picked up a lot of dust, debris, and volcanic ash which scatter light and reduce the performance of the telescopes. Slowly, we’ve been seeing a decrease in our limiting magnitude and an initial test, cleaning one telescope, showed that most of this could be attributed to the dusty mirrors and correcting lenses. Read more