Brian May to Write Music for Tenerife Telescope

Brian May
Originally uploaded by t.klick.

As ABC report that the Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC) at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma - one of the most important in the northern hemisphere - is about to begin it's countdown to "Day One" (a period of trials and calibrations), this article in the Guardian says that Brian May was in the Canary Islands recently, on a tour of the huge, soon-to-be-finished observatory.

Bet you didn't know that May binned a PhD - his thesis was on something called "zodiacal light" - to tour with Queen. (Somehow, I don't think anyone would ever accuse May of having made a bad decision there.) The Guardian also report that May has been invited to write and perform a piece of music for the grand opening of a telescope in Tenerife, which when completed will be the biggest in the world.

Add our updates to My Yahoo!, Bloglines, Feedster, Google Reader or More options ...

2 Comments:

Anonymous wrote (on October 25, 2006)

Sad that the people from the Guardian couldn't guess the island correctly, isn't it? "grand opening of a telescope in Tenerife". Mmh...

Pamela wrote (on October 25, 2006)

Yes, I suspect that you are correct and May will actually be writing and performing for the GTC opening in La Palma, but even I'm not certain on this.

There was a time when the La Palma telescope was being heralded as the largest in the world. That claim has now been reduced to "one of the most important in the northern hemisphere" and, if you check the list of large telescopes at Wikipedia, there are now two listed that will be larger.

Now, is the Guardian refering to the now outdated claim and, as you suggest, couldn't even guess the right island, or is Tenerife going to get yet another telescope (not that I've heard) that is not only larger than the GTC, but also bigger than it's two successors?