The patron saint of Barlovento is Our Lady of the Rosary (la Virgen del Rosario). The Christian victory at the battle of Lepanto in 1571 is attributed to her, soevery two years, Barlovento stages a re-enactment of the battle as part of the annual fiesta. This year, it happens on Sunday 11th at 6 pm. Here’s the fun part: the original sea-battle involved 80,000 men, and the re-enactment consists of…
The William Herschel Telescope
The William Herschel Telescope at sunset. . The William Herschel Telescope was for many years the biggest and best optical telescope in Europe (until GranTeCan opened in 2009). The main mirror is 4.2 m across (165″, or 13′ 9″) which astronomers call “a good light bucket”. It’s rather old as world-class telescopes go, since it opened in 1987, but it still produced excellent science. In fact data from the WHT…
Don’t read this if you’re eating…
Are you eating? Because you’d probably prefer to read the next bit when you’re not. I made a big cake for my husband’s belated birthday party which I’d planned to decorate with “Felicidades” in chocolate letters. Only I opened the packet of letters and found – (You’re not eating, are you?) Maggots. About 10 of them. Yuck! Eugh! Gak! I’m quite a bit less squeamish than average, but believe me,…
A (mostly) Fish Restaurant – Casa Goyo
Casa Goyo mostly serves fish that was swimming around last night. The décor isn’t posh, although they’ve gone upmarket since I arrived on La Palma and swapped the earth floor for a concrete one. Most of the tables are in little concrete or wooden booths. The restaurant itself is at the end of the airport runway, which means that conversations have to stop when a plane comes into land. That…
The IAC has a new director
Francisco Sánchez, the founder of the Canarian Astrophysics Institute has resigned at the age of 77. Rafael Rebolo is the new director. Rafael Rebolo is an internationally known astrophysicist who has published over 150 scientific papers, mostly to do with exoplanets and cosmic microwave background. Francisco Sanchez is a hard act to follow. Francisco Sánchez, fundador del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias ha jubilado a la edad de 77. Rafael…