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),…
The Italian National Telescope (the Galileo) is getting a new scientific instrument to look for planets outside our solar system. I remember a childhood astronomy book which said that we would never know whether there are planets outside our own solar system, because they are much, much too small and much much much too far away. That’s all changed in the last few years. There’s a class of instruments called…
This is the cover design for my ebook, “A Breathtaking Window on the Universe: a guide to the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory”, which should be on sale by late summer or autumn of 2012. It explains why the observatory is on La Palma and how a telescope and its instruments work, and gives details of each telescope, plus many anecdotes and over 60 photos. I’ll be posting full details…
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,…
A Happy Valentine’s day to all my readers. I hope you all have someone to hug.
La Palma’s tourist board has released this video about astro tourism on the island: Turismo de las Estrellas