Tourists sometimes go nuts trying to find the village of Breña Baja, or Fuencaliente. There’s a really simple reason why they can’t find them. They don’t exist. Breña Baja and Fuencaliente are municipalities, and their town halls are in the villages of San Jose and Los Canarios, respectively. It like driving all over the south east of England, looking for the town of Sussex. The map shows the 14 municipalities…
Early morning photography.
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…
Puntagorda Market
This weekend, Puntagorda market has a special attraction. Astrotour will be offering free astronomical observations of the sun, together with workshops and games for children. And on Sunday morning, there’s a workshop on solar energy. There will also be nighttime astronomical observations on the Avenida Almendos near Cafe Itaca. Puntagorda is a village and municipality in the north west of the island. Every Saturday and Sunday, they have a farmers’…
Comet ISON is visible to the naked eye
As comets approach the sun, they warm up and the head and tail grow bigger and brighter. ISON is now visible, in the constellation Virgo, near the bright star Spica. That’s in the east before dawn. There’s a finder chart at http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2012S1/2012S1.html and more informationa at Phil Plait’s blog. Please excuse the rush. I’m trying to finish a book of children’s stories about La Palma’s amazing night sky. Cuando los…
The Rum Factory
Rum Distilling Equipment La Palma has a small rum factory, at Puerto Espí,ndola, in the borough of San Andres y Sauces. Unlike most rum factories, they start with sugar cane rather than molasses. After all, La Palma had commercial sugar cane plantations in the 15th century, before the West Indies had them. At harvesting season, the factory’s south building smells of sugar cane being crushed and fermented. Distillation happens in…
A lovely calendar
Vanessa Sancho is originally from Barcelona, but she’s been living in La Palma for the last 18 months. The island’s amazing skies inspired her to produce very good pastel paintings of nebulae. She’s crowdfunding a calendar of her paintings, and I’ve already signed up for one. The calendar is A4 (opens to A3) and each month includes a colour painting, an explanation of what it is an where you can…