Painting a telescope
Yesterday I showed a group around the WHT, and I noticed that the Swedish Solar Telescope is being repainted. (Follow the link for more about the telescope.)
astronomy
“Astrofest La Palma” opens the doors for registration.
From 25th September 2015 to October 9th, the island of La Palma in the Canaries will host Astrofest, a festival of astronomy, with activities for all ages and knowledge levels. There will be an international conference for astrotourism professionals, a spectacular total eclipse of the moon, an international conference for nightscape photographers, and a night photography masterclass. You can find more details and register for all these events at…
Izaña part 2: stargazing
Since I got there early, I got a chance to try to photograph the nearest star – our Sun, through a small telescope with a filter which lets through a wavelength called H? (pronounced H alpha). It was tricky. I’m pretty short sighted, and I can’t see well with my glasses squdged up against the viewfinder. For normal stargazing, I take my glasses off and refocus the telescope, but…
Pluto and Google Deep Dream
Deep Dream is all over the internet lately, but for those of you who heaven’t come across it, Google have invented an ‘artificial neural network’ which finds patterns in images, and then matches them with other pictures stored in its memory. The result is seriously weird. I recently learned that some people suffer from a phobia of objects with irregular patterns of holes (Trypophobia) and they find some Deep…
A visit to Izaña: part 1 Solar laboratory
I was lucky enough to be able to join the belated Solstice dinner held by the Association of Starlight Guides on Tenerife. It was great to meet so many of my collegues, but best of all, the dinner as held in the Teide Observatory. I’ve been wanting to have a look inside for at least 5 years. It meant an early start. I needed the car to move around,…
StoryStellArt Calendar 2016
I bought a wonderful calendar for 2014 with pastel paintings of nebulae by the local artist Vanessa Sancho. I like the paintings so much that I still have the calendar. Alas, there wasn’t a 2015 calendar, but there will be one for 2016. Actaully make that October 2015 – March 2017. The caldendar is bilingual (English-Spanish) with gorgeous pastel paintings, plus moon phases, and dates for equinoxes, meteor showers…