An exhausting, productive day

TV Interviews outside Gran Telescopio Canarias, Roque de Los Muchachos, La Palma
April 26, 2017

Yesterday I left home at 8 am for the observatory. The first group was routine, including overrunning by 10 minutes so I only just had time to eat a banana before the next group. I’d just started the second group when a car pulled up and the driver said, “We’re the crew from Canary TV that the island council organised.” Excuse me, WHAT? One frantic phone call later, I did…

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Bikers

Today’s visit to Gran Telescopio Canarias was a bit different. Most of the group were bikers from Gran Canaria. It made for a good photo op as they left.

September 9, 2016
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Disappointment and consolation

ME and the EMIR spectrograph
June 10, 2016

Some time ago I was asked to keep June 11th free for an excursion with a VIP visitor. Then on Monday I saw on the internet that Stephen Hawking was coming to La Palma on the Britannia on Saturday June 11th. My heart started pounding. After a bit I decided it was silly to eat my fingernails, so I phoned the travel agent. Well the plan had been for me…

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Filming in the GTC

Sheila Crosby and a 38,000 € camera inside GTC, La Palma
August 10, 2015

On Wednesday, after watching la subida de la virgen, I had a fun job, helping to film an advert for Jaguar inside the GTC. They’re going to digitally add Stephen Hawking into the ad later. My part was much less glamourous than it sounds. All I did was remind people of the safety rules and liase between the film crew and the telescope staff. Well, I also answered a bunch…

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Sunset at the Roque

Venus (left) and Jupiter (right) over the dome of GTC, the biggerst optical telescope in the world, Roque de Los Muchachos, La Palma
July 4, 2015

  For the last few days, Venus and Jupiter have been very close together in the evening sky. I wanted to take photos on Wednesday and Thursday, but it was cloudy. I wished I’d asked to go up to the observatory, above the clouds. Lucky me, I got permission to go there on Friday evening to take photos. I’m really glad I made the effort.

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A new instrument for GTC

May 31, 2015

  Gran Telescopio Canarias has a (sort of) new spectrograph. The HORS spectrograph is very high resolution, and of course GTC’s huge mirror collects a lot of light from even the most distant object. Put them together and you can measure the abundances of the chemical elements in stars, determine the masses of black holes in binary systems, and the composition of the atmospheres of exoplanets. I say it’s a…

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