Fitting another mirror segment to MAGIC II The MAGIC gamma ray telescope is getting a twin. MAGIC II will work together with MAGIC 1 as a two-telescope array. The first thing you notice about MAGIC is that it’s huge. The mirror is 17 m (55ft) across. This is because Gamma rays never reach the earth (unless they come from an atomic bomb). What the telescope is looking for is something…
The first church on this site was built in the 16th century, when this was the centre of the village. Since then, the population moved uphill, leaving the church rather isolated, and the church has been rebuilt twice (the current building dates from the 19th century), and finally fell into disuse and ruin. It was replaced with a newer one, in the new centre of the village, in 1951, but…
Wednesday was the Fiesta del Carmen, which is celebrated in Santa Cruz and Puerto Tazacorte. They have a special mass, and then they take the statue of the Virgin of Carmen out for a procession. So far, so much like most fiestas on the island. Only in this case, they take the statue of the virgin out on a boat parade, to bless the fishermen.These photos are fromPuerto Tazacorte. The…
For some time rumours have been circulating around the island’s that Brian May‘s going to give a concert here for the inauguration of the huge, new, Spanish telescope, GranTeCan. Today, the IAC announced that Jean-Michel Jarre has visited the observatories here and at Teide, and will be playing too. My goodness, I think it’s really going to happen. More details at http://www.alphagalileo.org/index.cfm?_rss=1&fuseaction=readrelease&releaseid=530918
For some time rumours have been circulating around the island’s that Brian May‘s going to give a concert here for the inauguration of the huge, new, Spanish telescope, GranTeCan. Today, the IAC announced that Jean-Michel Jarre has visited the observatories here and at Teide, and will be playing too. My goodness, I think it’s really going to happen. More details at http://www.alphagalileo.org/index.cfm?_rss=1&fuseaction=readrelease&releaseid=530918
This is one photo I didn’t take myself – I wish! As you probably guessed, it’s a NASA photo, taken from the Space Shuttle. If you want to see the high-resolution version, together with some text about the geology of La Palma, and how the image was taken, click here.