The Spanish version of “A Breathtaking Window on the Universe: A guide to the observatory at the Roque de los Muchachos” has gone to the printers. It will be on sale as soon as the books arrive, in about 2 weeks. There will be extracts on the Dragon Tree website very soon.
The files for “Una ventana espectacular al universo” have been sent off to the printers. At last. They should be on sale in 10 – 14 days.
Carnival traditionally ends with a funeral for a sardine. Lots of places hold sardine’s funerals and they’re all deliciously silly. Even better, many of them are held well after carnival, on a vatriety of dates, so you can go to several of them without collapsing from exhaustion. The most famous one on the island is at Los Sauces tonight, starting at 9pm. Tazacorte’s sardine is also tonight, starting at (I…
On Thursday I sent the final corrections for the Spanish edition of the observatory book off for layout, and then we celebrated. I spent the first half of Friday morning nursing a hangover, and then I went to the water mine to collect water. It’s not really worth doing economically, but it’s a nice little trip. There’s something very relaxing about standing around in the woods filling up 5 litre…
Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland on February 19, 1473. From the ancient Greeks, everyone in Europe believed that the Earth was the centre of the universe. The great work of Copernicus De revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), published in 1543, showed that the sun was at the center. You can see evidence of this yourself with binoculars or a small telescope. Both…
A barraquito is something between coffee and dessert. It takes a while to prepare one, and there are lots of variations. This is how the kiosk in San José makes them. First, a good layer of condensed milk followed by a sizable glug or “43” liqueur or brandy. Then coffee from the expresso machine followed by hot milk, and froth. Finally, the barraquito is topped off with a sprinkle of…