A small rock in the Atlantic: 19/07/09

Friday, 24 July 2009

The Inauguration of GranTeCan

Oddly enough, nobody invited me to meet the king of Spain at the official inauguration of GranTeCan (Gran Telescopio Canario or Big Canarian Telescope) so I had to watch it on the TV.

I learned something new. The main mirror is accurate to 15 nanometres (a nanometre is a millionth of a millimetre). So if you scaled up the mirror to 10,400 km (and the radius of the Earth is 6,400 km) then the height difference between the highest mountain peak and the lowest valley would be 15mm.

Labels: GranTeCan, La Palma, observatory, Roque de los Muchachos

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Tuesday, 21 July 2009

Footpath from Charco-Azul to Puerto Espindola

Map showing location of Charco Azul,La Palma, Canary Islands

La Palma has a nice, new seaside footpath, which runs from Charco-Azul to Puerto Espindola, in the municipality of San Andres and Sauces. It's been under construction for some time. My friends in Franceses went along to see how it was progressing, and found themselves in the middle of the official opening.

Seaside footpath at Charco Azul, La Palma, Canary Islands

Seaside footpath at Charco Azul, La Palma, Canary Islands

Footpath from Charco Azul to Puerto Espindola. Photo: Helen Bennett

Charco Azul has salt-water swimming pools, rather like Piscinas la Fajana, although they're still not open after a rock slide during the winter. At one time, Puerto Espindola was a working port, mostly exporting the agricultural produce of the borough. Now it's mostly a fishing port.

The walk also goes past an old lime kiln. Lime was important, because everybody used it to whitewash their houses and water tanks.

Lime Kiln at Charco Azul, La Palma, Canary Islands