Even La Palma we have bad weather sometimes. Usually it’s in winter when a big depression rolls in from the Atlantic, bringing wind and rain for a day or two. I’m philosophical about it: you can’t have the rainbbows and lush forests I love so much without rain sometimes. But it is a pity for holiday makers, especially when they come here to escape the cold. Yesterday La Palma had…
100xCiencia
100xCiencia was a conference about scienec journalism and outreach. I’d have loved to go to the public talk, but I was so busy catching up after Astrofest that I didn’t hear about it until afterwards. On the other hand, I did get two days guiding work out of it: one trip to the observatory pon Thursday and one to the north of the island on Sautday. The trip to the…
The big scrub
I was mad busy before and during Astrofest, and I pretty much ignored the house. Ten days is a long time to ignore housework, and it was pretty terrible at the end of that time. For a while now I’ve joked that my house keeping (or rather lack of) is an act of charity. Any other overworked person who sees my house immediately feels better about hir own. But by…
Thieving Ravens!
On Saturday I was in the Roque car park selling books from the boot of my car, when the ravens turned up, begging for food. That’s why I keep cat food in the car, specially for them. Then they got curious about the boot of my car and the books. I started to get a bit nervous when s/ze took an interest in my pot of change. That’s the black…
Watching the Super Lunar Eclipse
Well, I saw it! It was cloudy at low altitudes, so I was glad I’d joined the bus going up to Pico de La Cruz with a group of about 16 people from Astrofest. Since buses get a lot more expensive after midnight, the organiser was persuaded to have the bus drop us off shortly after 11 pm, so it would be “home” by midnight, even though it meant a…
Tonight’s Lunar Eclipse
The Canarian Tourist Board will be live streaming tonight’s lunar eclipse at http://www.thebestclimateintheworld.com/geminidas Just to remind you, the moon is at almost its closest approach to the Earth, so it’s will be a supermoon – noticeably bigger than usual. There are two parts to the Earth’s shadow: the penumbra is the outer part, and the umbra is the much darker inner part. Penumbral Eclipse begins 28 Sep, 00:11:47 The penumbral…