La Palma holds a festival of astronomy, Astrofest, with activities for all ages and knowledge levels. One of the highlights is “The big turn off” (El apagón) where town halls turn off the street lights for an hour so that the stars are visible. The Island Council provides amateur telescopes and starlight guides to each municipality. I used to really enjoy being one of the starlight guides.
The closing ceremony for this year’s astrofest was last night.
I got a participation trophy, which was kind of them considering how inactive I’ve been for the last three years.
It says:
In recognition of her valuable contribution to the development and promotion of astrotourism on La Palma, highlighting her entrepreneural spirit, inovation and dedication to excellence.
It makes me want to go back to doing exactly that next year.
