Travelling

Madeira 2024

I visited Madeira 2 times this year. First visit was with my colleague from Vihorlat Observatory – Robert Adam. The main result was the installation of a dome on the terrace of the Madeira University in the Penteada campus. The Meade telescope was installed inside as well. In addition, the allsky camera was transported to UMA. The team of Marko Radeta is working on its deployment to Achada do Teixeira. For now, it is operating on the terrace by the dome.

In November visit from an international group of astronomers was organized. The goal was to present the possibilities for observational astronomy on the island. The meeting with astronomers at the UMA university was, in general, promising. For example, Prof. Sobrinho agreed with the idea of installing a scientific telescope on the platform in Achada do Teixeira. He doesn’t care who installs the instrument there. Everything is better than the actual situation – an empty platform.

But unfortunately, the general impression was not good. The weather was not favorable. The participants didn’t experience an example of a night with good transparency and seeing. Contrary, a lot of light pollution was visible very well. Moreover, just after the expedition, we got images from the allsky camera, which operated on Pico Arreiro in 2022 and 2023. The results are shown in the menu item “statistics” on this webpage. The number af clear nights was only slightly higher than in Slovakia, and those clear nights are even more concentrated in the summer period. The conclusion is that the island is not a good place for a telescope hosting project. However, Achada do Teixeira can still be considered for the deployment of a scientific telescope of 1 meter in size.

Missing from the photo: Veronika Dubovská, Janík Dubovský, and Janka Kolomazníková.

Madeira 2023

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:

Madeira 2020

A holiday full of catastrophic events. Forest fires, generally extremely dry weather, demonstrations against fish farms, an earthquake of 5.3 degrees and the virus SARS-CoV-2. The last one was the reason of the record-breaking long stay in Madeira Island. The final report can be found here.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4H17bXWCHFv8R1pL8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/t2TkjVS886n61t9CA

Madeira 2019

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wNQuh1DtUAXtcPpP7

Fuerteventura 2019

https://photos.app.goo.gl/nJdwwA9vug23HDCt6

Porto Santo 2018

https://dpv44.rajce.idnes.cz/Porto_Santo/

Madeira 2018 vlny

4.rajce.idnes.cz/Madeira09_vlny/

Madeira 2018

ps://dpv44.rajce.idnes.cz/Madeira08_dokumentacia/