Friday 31st is a full moon. It’s also the second full moon in August, which makes it a blue moon. There will be a Star Party on Friday 31st in La Polvacera, Breña Baja. It starts with a talk (in Spanish) from 6-7 pm The astronomical observation runs from 7-11:30 pm in the basketball court. If you’ve got a telescope, please bring it along. If not, come and look through someone…
The Perseids are usually the best meteor shower of the year. The peak will be on Sunday, with perhaps as many as 100 shooting stars per hour (although any meteor shower is best after midnight). In Spain, this shower is known as las lagrimas de San Lorenzo (the tears of St Lawrence) because it happens near the feast day of St. Lawrence the martyr. Fuencaliente town hall and island’s government…
On Wednesday August 1st there will be free astronomical activities in Puntallana. At 4:30 pm you’ll have the chance to see the sun safely outside the Casa de Cultura. At 6 pm there’s a talk in planets inside the Casa de Cultura. And at 9:30 pm there’s a chance too see stars at the Salto de Enamorado viewpoint (near San Bartomome’s church.) Come and have fun!
Manel Soria, who gave a talk on night photography at FotoNature 2012 now has amazing photos of La Palma on his website at www.frikosal.net The photo above was taken in the observatory, looking north. From left to right you can see the empty dome of the Swedish 60 cm telescope, MAGIC II (on the horizon, some distance below), the Superwasp Follow-up Telescope (closer), the Liverpool telescope (peeking from behind the ridge),…
There is a new astronomical viewpoint above Mazo at Las Toscas. Like the others, it has parking space, level ground suitable for tripods, a signpost pointing to the pole star, and an information panel. This one has information about noctural wildlife on La Palma: bats, owls and crickets. It’s well away from street lights, although it does give a great view down to the island’s airport. To get there,…
La Palma has lots of lovely viewpoints, and I just discovered a new one, at Montaña de las Toscas above Mazo. It has wonderful views up to the central ridge, and down towards Santa Cruz and the airport. If you think you can see a long way during the day, come back at night! This is one of the island’s astronomical viewpoints, so there are information panels explaining the night…