Another full family trip after 3 3-year long gap. Besides the wellness for the rest of the family, my main goal was to make the first steps in the telescope hosting project. Indeed, the meetings with the president of Ponta do Sol and Calheta municipalities took place. The next steps are to prepare the project of the planned facility and to get the permission of the Secretaria do Ambiente e Agricultura.
In my free time, I made 567 visual estimates of variable stars. Included is the visually covered eclipse of the dwarf nova GY Cnc during the outburst. During this time, no observation was made in the Kolonica observatory in Slovakia due to the bad weather. Also, several events took place on the top of the island in Paul da Serra. In the following photo gallery, one can see that the sky was not optimal. Humid, hot air from the south was always present. So instead of beautiful images, the gallery demonstrates the influence of the light pollution. Pictures especially focused on the lamps of Ponta do Sol are included. The effect of new LED lamps is visible. These lamps are well shielded, so they are not visible from above. But the scattered blue light strongly affects the sky.
https://rajce.net/dpv44/album/madeira-2023-astro
The second gallery is about “normal” life on the island as seen by us non-typical visitors.
https://rajce.net/dpv44/album/madeira-2023
The following are some daytime and nighttime time-lapses: