Saturday, June 21, 2014

Summer is here!

Pamplona´s Planetarium  held today the summer solstice ( in the northem Hemisphere)  commenting different observaciones and creating several workshops.  The general public has the opportunity to learn the history of different Constellations, Planets and the Universe as they are explained by astronomers involved in this activity. Is not only fun but for free!

Pamplona Planetarium

Pamplona´s City Hall has distributed 25 cans, thanks to an ingenious system as they will act like cameras to capture during the next six months unseen images of different parts of Navarra and record the passage of the Sun across the sky of Navarre.
As explained by Javier Armentia, Director of the Planetarium, this "marcianada" (playing with the words as in Spanish “Marciano” means alien) is part of a global initiative called 'Time in a can' ('Weather canned') and in 2014 Navarre Center joined.
These cans, that only weight 13 grams with a look like or been a bit longer than the usual ones of 33 cl, have been modified by hand in the Institute of Materials Science of Madrid so the light could filter through a small hole of 0.27 mmdiameter, and remain collected in a special photo paper placed therein. Therefore, each can become a pinhole camera, recording an image similar to that obtained with a wide angle (170 º).


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