My trip to the UK went very well. We didn’t get to the hotel until late Wednesday night, but it’s posh. Most of the group were mad keen to go explore London on our free morning, but I went in search of makeup for redheads (successfully) and then went to the National Gallery which was largely shut due to industrial action. Apparently they have new management who want everyone to…
Tomorrow is Corpus Christi in Mazo. That is, they’ll be making the archways and carpets tonight, and most people will go and see them tomorrow, but they’ll stay up until Sunday night. Also on Sunday they’ll hold a special mass in the church followed by a procession around the archways. The archways will stay up until Sunday. If you miss this, you can see some examples from previous years…
At long,long last, the Spanish second edition of my guide book to the observatory, “Una espectacular ventana al universo” has gone to the printers. I’ve been trying to put it to bed for weeks, but it kept wandering downstairs asking for another drink of water. Here it is, finally tucked in with its favourite bookmark. In other news, Padwon needs a new home. I’m told he’s very well behaved and…
Gran Telescopio Canarias has a (sort of) new spectrograph. The HORS spectrograph is very high resolution, and of course GTC’s huge mirror collects a lot of light from even the most distant object. Put them together and you can measure the abundances of the chemical elements in stars, determine the masses of black holes in binary systems, and the composition of the atmospheres of exoplanets. I say it’s a…
Saturday is Canary Day. It’s a big thing here, and the celebrations have started already. On Friday, most schools will have a party for the second half of the morning. They’ll serve traditional food (probably lots of gofio) and play traditional folk music. Some will have Canarian sports, like the Shepherd’s Leap. And the real celebration is still to come. Most shops will be shut, except in tourist areas.
The most recent eruption in the Canary Islands was Teneguía, in 1971 (see Thursday, 21 February 2008 Which Planet Are You On?). It’s a nice place to visit, but you have to be fairly fit. St. Antony’s Volcano (Volcan San Antonio) is nice in a completely different way. For one thing, it looks like a volcano should look, and you can walk halfway around the spectacular circular crater. You…