Tuesday was great too. I took the journalist, Tim Johnson, into Santa Cruz, where he bought a T shirt. Then we went to Las Nieves and thence to San Andres (via the usual viewpoints) to stuff ourselves at Restaurante San Andres. I love their fishballs! After that we did a short hike in Los Tilos, and went round the north along the Mimbres road to Hoya Grande, and up…
On Monday and Tuesday I showed a journalist around for the Tourist Board. On Monday night we went stargazing with Astrolapalma. I loved it. Agustín was very enthusiastic, and now I understand why people enjoy my enthusiasm so much. We started off just after sunset, and we had a lovely view of the old moon in the arms of the new. That’s the poetic name for when you can see…
Tuesday night is the best meteor shower of the year, the Perseids. Of course it should be visible all over the planet, but La Palma’s astronomical viewpoints will probably be a particularly good place to see shooting stars. Unfortunately the full moon will spoil the show quite a bit. Cielos La Palma will be in La Polvacera basketball court from 9 pm – midnight with telescopes. Toño will also…
The Big Dipper over Santa Cruz de La Palma I got up early to try to see comet ISON (which is low in the east just before dawn). There was only one cloud in the starry sky. Yup. Right in front of the comet. Since I was up anyway, I decided that I may as well practise a bit of astro-photography. I need the practice after all. So here is…
On Wednesday night in Santa Cruz there will be a talk on astrophotography by Babak Tafreshi and Christoph Malin (two of the most prestigious astrophotographers in the world). They’re on La Palma to teach at Astromaster LA PALMA 2013, an advanced course on image processing and landscape photography timelapse and night which will be held in Los Cancajos this week, between July 26 and September 30. The talk will…
The astronomical viewpoint at Fuencaliente has three (modern) standing stones, where the shadow of the setting sun points to another stone at (respectively) the summer solstice, both equinoxes, and the winter solstice. Tomorrow night (Wednesday) there will be a free activity run by Cielos La Palma at the viewpoint, starting at 6:30 pm to watch the sunset, followed by astronomical observations including another chance to see comet PanSTARRS through…