The copies of “A Breathtaking Window on the Universe” have arrived on La Palma. For a list of outlets, see the Dragon Tree Publishing site.
Meeting the Puppets
Yesterday was busy. I decided to reward myself for all my hard work on the translation with a theatre break. One of my Starlight guide teachers was giving a talk for schoolchildren, but with a twist. He played the straight man while two naughty children (the puppets) kept interrupting, setting light to balloons filled with hydrogen and so on. It was a great laugh, and I was very glad I…
A Talk on Plant Fossils
I always thought that I was the only fossil on La Palma. Geologically speaking, La Palma is a baby island. The very oldest rocks here are just two million years old. Most of the north of the island is 1.5 million years old. Most of the south is about 700,000 years old. And the very southern tip is just 41 years old. I always through that was far too young…
The MAGIC telescope
Click on the image to read an extract of the book “A Breathtaking Window on the Universe: A guide to the observatory at the Roque de Los Muchachos” on sale December. The recommended retail price is €15, but books bought through the publisher’s website will cost just 12€ + P&P.
Reasons to be Cheerful
Yippee! 200 copies of my book have shipped from Seville, on their way to La Palma. The printers say they should be here in two weeks, although it wouldn’t astonish me if it took a few days longer. And I’m halfway through the first draft of the translation. And the postman brought a nice cheque for my story “Scream Quietly” which will be in a time travel anthology shortly. (Yes,…
Science Week
It’s science week and the astrophysics institute is organising events all around the Canaries. On Monday 26th at noon in the teachers’ centre there’s a workshop for 6th form students on atmospheric turbulence, and how astronomers compensate for it On Monday 26th at 6pm Ovidiu Vaduvescu will give a talk on near-Earth asteroids (in Spanish) in the San Fransico convent, Santa Cruz de la Palma On Tuesday 27th, there’s a…