When I first heard there was a banana museum in Tazacorte, I laughed. But since about 40% of La Palma’s population works works in the banana industry (growing, packing shipping etc.) it makes sense. Besides, bananas are the 4th most important crop in the world, (after rice, wheat and maize), and this is the only museum about European bananas in the world. The museum contains lots of information panels in…
Galaxy M 83 Want to learn about amateur astronomy on La Palma? Well, at last, my new website is open for business. Star Island is designed to be a window on the universe, and a show case for astrotourism on La Palma. In future, I hope to sell advertising on the site, but for now, it’s just for people to enjoy. The Cat’s Eye nebula
Two of the fourteen telescopes at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory are solar telescopes — highly specialised to observe our own sun. This is the Swedish Solar Telescope, which was one of the first telescopes built on the Roque. It’s currently the best solar telescope in the world since they added the new adaptive optics in 2005. (Adaptive optics compensate for air turbulence.) It can resolve details of the…
La Palma has lots of spectacular viewpoints, (mirador in Spanish). Most people’s favourite is the at El Time, which is perched on the northern edge of the Angustias ravine in Tijarafe. It’s easy to find. Coming from Los Llanos, you drive down and down and down, round some pretty steep bends. After you cross the river, almost at sea-level, you drive up and up and up and up and up,…
La Palma’s new airport terminal finally opened today, and so far it’s gone really well. All flights were on time, and the passenger flow was absolutely normal. The old terminal officially closed last night, although a few businesses are still moving out. The airport code is still SPC. Just make sure you don’t wind up in Palma de Majorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria or Santa Cruz de Tenerife by…
Today I formally graduated as a Starlight Guide. They held the ceremony at Palacio Salazar in Santa Cruz de la Palma. We had short speeches from the president of the Cabildo (the island government), the head of the Instituto de Astrofisica (the Institute of Astrophysics) and the head of the course, and then they called us up one by one and gave us our diplomas and ID cards. After the…