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The Inaugural Euclid Spain Meeting

So here I am at the Institut de Ciencies de L’Espai (ICE-CSIC) which is on the campus of the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) for the first ever Euclid Spain Meeting. This involved a 40-minute trip on the S2 train from Plaça de Catalunya, which is a short walk from my apartment, then a short walk from the railway station at UAB through the campus to the Institute.

I was able to speak at this meeting because I happen to be in Barcelona right now. I mean that I was able to attend because I was in Barcelona anyway, not that the meeting was held because I am in Barcelona!

Anyway, I gave my talk early on this morning, so have been able to enjoy the rest of the day having got that out of the way. There are about 50 people here. It’s great to see the sizable Euclid community in Spain getting together and sharing their work.

The Inaugural Euclid Spain Meeting

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P.S. My surname always causes some amusement in Spain, as “Coles” means “Cabbages” in Spanish…

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In Praise of the Public Thesis Defence

Posted in Barcelona, Education, The Universe and Stuff with tags Barcelona, Doctorate, ICCUB, PhD, PhD examination, Thesis Defence on April 12, 2024 by telescoper

The ICCUB is quite large, which means that there are quite a few talks to go to, including seminars and colloquia but also thesis defences, such as one I attended this morning. The format for these events is a talk by the candidate in the presence of a panel of experts, who ask questions at the end, but the whole thing is open to the general public. After the panel questions there is an opportunity for questions from the audience, but only from those who have a doctorate. I was tempted, but didn’t put my hand up.

Anyway, this morning’s talk was well attended and of very high quality and, as usual, the whole event lasted getting on for two hours. It’s a very different experience from the form of viva voce examinations used for PhDs in the UK and Ireland.

I like to attend these public thesis defences because they’re a very good way of finding out about the research going on in areas away from my own specialism. In physics the people who are really working at the coal face are the PhD students so one often learns more about the details from such talks than from colloquia from senior folk, which are usually cover a wider area but at a more superficial level.

Another nice thing is that there is a little gathering afterwards (on the right) with a selection of food and drink available to celebrate the candidate’s success. In fact it was a double celebration as the candidate was offered a postdoctoral research position just two days ago. I abstained from the champagne as alcohol at lunchtime usually sends me to sleep in the afternoon, and I have a lot to do in the rest of today.

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Presentation of the BAO DESI results at ICCUB Uni Barcelona – by Licia Verde & Héctor Gil Marin

Posted in The Universe and Stuff with tags Barcelona, baryon acoustic oscillations, Cosmology, Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, DESI on April 8, 2024 by telescoper

Last week, when I wrote about the new results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) I mentioned that there would be a seminar here at ICCUB about that very topic. Well, the seminar, by Licia Verde & Héctor Gil Marin, was recorded and here it is:

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L’aigua no cau del cel

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical with tags Barcelona, drought, L'aigua no Cau del Cel on March 26, 2024 by telescoper

It has rained more in the past 24 hours in Barcelona than it did in the three months I spent here before Christmas. In fact it rained so hard last night that it woke me up. More precipitation is forecast in the next few days too, but it will take a lot more than a few days of rain to fill up the empty reservoirs. The drought emergency is still a thing and water restrictions are still in force.

I’m doing my bit for the situation by only drinking wine.

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Diumenge de Rams

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical with tags Barcelona, Diumenge de Rams, Domingo de Ramos, Palm Sunday on March 24, 2024 by telescoper

Walking about yesterday I noticed that, not far from my apartment, on the Rambla de Catalunya, there was a street market offering a variety of curious merch. I was a bit confused until I realized that today is Palm Sunday, which is Domingo de Ramos in Spanish or Diumenge de Rams in Catalan; both mean “Sunday of Branches”. The long branches, some festooned with sweets and/or ribbons, are meant to be held by boys, while girls carry the smaller stems with intricate woven crosses. There is a procession called La Borriquita (“The Little Donkey”) which goes around the town today. It involves a statue rather than a real donkey, in case you were wondering.

Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week (Semana Santa), leading up to Easter Sunday, which lies on March 31st this year. There are no lectures for students next week at the University of Barcelona, though I believe the Faculty of Physics will remain open up to Thursday; Good Friday (Viernes Santa) is a public holiday, as is Monday. I think these holidays are more strictly observed here than in Ireland; most stores are closed on Sundays anyway, and this will be even more the case on Easter Sunday. Having said that, Barcelona is by no means the most religious Spanish city. I have been in Spain at Easter a few times before, and the ceremonies vary considerably from place to place, some sombre and some celebratory.

In practical terms this all means that I have to remember to get some serious shopping in on Thursday. Although stores will be open on Saturday, I think they will be very busy!

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The Vernal Equinox 2024

Posted in Barcelona, The Universe and Stuff with tags Barcelona, Spring Equinox, Vernal Equinox on March 20, 2024 by telescoper

Loughcrew (County Meath, Ireland), near Newgrange, an ancient burial site and traditional place to observe the sunrise at the Equinox

Just a quick note to mention that the Vernal Equinox, or Spring Equinox, (in the Northern hemisphere) took place today, Wednesday 20th March 2024, at 3.06 UTC (which was 4.06am CET, where I am at, though I was sound asleep at the time). Many people in the Northern hemisphere regard the Vernal Equinox as the first day of spring; of course in the Southern hemisphere, this is the Autumnal Equinox.

The date of the Vernal Equinox is often given as 21st March, but in fact it has only been on 21st March twice this century so far (2003 and 2007); it was on 20th March in 2008, has been on 20th March every spring from then until now, and will be until 2044 (when it will be on March 19th). This year the equinox happened before dawn, so sunrise this morning could be taken to be the first sunrise of spring. It felt more like summer, sipping coffee on my terrace in Barcelona:

This reminds me of a strange conversation I had on a plane recently. I was chatting to the person sitting next to me, who happened to be British. When he asked what I did for a living, I replied that I was an astrophysicist. He then complained that he preferred the old days when the Spring Equinox was on March 21st, and that now that Britain was out of the European Union he hoped it would change back…

Anyway, people sometimes ask me how one can define the `equinox’ so precisely when surely it just refers to a day on which day and night are of equal length, implying that it’s a day not a specific time?

The answer is that the equinox is defined by a specific event, the event in question being when the plane defined by Earth’s equator passes through the centre of the Sun’s disk (or, if you prefer, when the centre of the Sun passes through the plane defined by Earth’s equator). Day and night are not necessarily exactly equal on the equinox, but they’re the closest they get. From now until the Autumnal Equinox, days in the Northern hemisphere will be longer than nights, and they’ll get longer until the Summer Solstice before beginning to shorten again.

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Not in Not-Barcelona

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical with tags Barcelona, Casa Battlo on March 18, 2024 by telescoper

So here I am, after far too long an absence, back in Barcelona. I had to get up at silly o’clock (i.e. 3am) to get the bus to Dublin Airport to get a flight this morning. If that weren’t bad enough, the airport was littered with people clearly the worse for wear after Paddy’s Day yesterday. Today is a public holiday in Ireland, but some folks decided to travel rather than recuperate.

There was some drama on the flight too. About halfway through, the cabin crew asked if there was a doctor or a paramedic on board. I feared that someone had been taken seriously ill, but it seems it was just someone suffering the aftermath of yesterday’s indulgence. I didn’t see what happened as it was at the rear of the aircraft, and I was in row 10.

After that we were delayed landing by about 20 minutes as there was fog at Barcelona Airport that had slowed operations down; we circled for a while waiting for the mist and the backlog to clear. When we did land the fog was barely perceptible. The rest of the day has been very nice – a mild 19 degrees and sunny.

I made my way by bus from the Airport and thence on foot to the apartment in which I’ll be spending most of the time until the summer. It’s very nice, in a central location on Rambla de Catalunya. I’m on the top (6th) floor, with a nice terrace overlooking the street. I’m only 2 minutes from the Metro station at Passeig de Gràcia and Gaudi’s Casa Batlló; there was a crowd outside this afternoon as there has been every time I passed this place!

Anyway, I found my way back to the same office I was in last semester, where I await yet another Zoom call*. After that I’ll get a few essentials for the flat and have an early night. I’m looking forward to not travelling for the next several weeks.

*More excitement – the fire alarm went off, so we had to evacuate the building, but it seems to have been a false alarm.

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Among the Travellers

Posted in Biographical, Cardiff, Education, Maynooth with tags Barcelona, Cardiff, Maynooth, RAS Club, Royal Astronomical Society, Travel, Wales on January 7, 2024 by telescoper

With Nollaig na mBan yesterday that’s the festive season over for me, and time to resume my sabbatical. Joining the crowd of post-Christmas travellers at the airport, today I took my first flight of 2024, complete with last-minute change of gate, apart from which all went perfectly to plan. I won’t be returning to Barcelona immediately, however, as I have a things to do in various different parts of not-Barcelona.

I’m in Cardiff now, where it is fine and dry but very cold, and spending a few days in Cardiff to start with. After that I’ll be taking a train to London to attend a meeting at the Royal Astronomical Society, followed by dinner at the R.A.S Club on Friday 12th January.

Coincidentally, Friday’s dinner is rather appropriately at the Travellers Club, rather than the usual Athenaeum (which is unavailable for some reason). I couldn’t attend any of these occasions between October and December as I was in Barcelona, and for a couple of years. In fact I haven’t been able to attend much at all since the bicentennial dinner in 2020 because of the pandemic and subsequent workload issues. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go to any others this year either, so I’m looking forward to Friday (despite having to pay the arrears on my subscription) because it is the Parish Dinner, when new members are elected. Owing to the arcane complexity of the rules, and the fact that it all happens after the consumption of a great deal of wine, this usually makes for an amusing occasion.

Meanwhile, in Maynooth, preceded by a few days of revision lectures and tutorials, the January examinations start on Friday 12th January too. Students will therefore be returning from their breaks, swapping the Christmas decorations for the austerity of the examination halls. Although I’m not involved in examinations this year, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all students at Maynooth and elsewhere all the best for the forthcoming ordeals, and the same for all academic staff whose ordeal by marking will come in due course…

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Hasta la vista, Barcelona!

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical with tags Barcelona, Barcelona Airport, Europe, Spain, Travel on December 22, 2023 by telescoper

I’m reliably informed that Spanish people don’t really say “hasta la vista” very often, but it seemed an appropriate title. I’m writing this post in the Departure Lounge at Barcelona Airport, having got here in very good time for my flight. Last time I checked in here the check-in staff were so slow that it took two hours to drop my bag at the desk and I only just made it to the gate in time for my flight. This time I arrived three hours ahead of time and it only took about 15 minutes to get processed so now I’ve got ages until I leave.

Yesterday, my last day in the office, we had a “Christmas Toast” in the foyer of the Physics Faculty building which consisted of a couple of inaudible speeches, followed by drinks and snacks in the company of a Grubb Telescope, an Atwood Machine, and many physicists.

This morning I said goodbye the flat I’ve been in for most of the past three months. I’ll be back in Barcelona in 2024, of course, but I’ll be in a different apartment when I return. Although my time in Barcelona is not over, I’d like to thank my hosts – especially Licia and Raul – for what has been a very enjoyable stay so far.

I’ll be back!

P.S. The last arXiv mailing before Christmas brought news of the accepted version of a paper for the Open Journal of Astrophysics, so I’ve just made the overlay and published the paper. That means that we finish 2023 with a half-century of articles in Volume 6. Roll on, Volume 7 (2024)!

UPDATE: I arrived safely in not-Barcelona and am looking forward to spend the next couple of weeks very lazily.

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Museu Picasso

Posted in Art, Barcelona with tags Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, Joan Miro, Museo Picasso, Pablo Picasso on December 13, 2023 by telescoper

I was delighted to receive from a certain person an early Christmas gift in the form of tickets to the Museo Picasso in Barcelona. I took this morning off so that the two of us could visit the exhibition. As well as the permanent collection, including many early works of by Picasso, we saw a special exhibition juxtaposing works by Picasso and Joan Miró (who was a great admirer of Picasso). The influence of the former on the latter is very clear when you see the works together, though they remain stylistically very separate. This part of the exhibition is shared between the Museo Picasso and the La Fundación Joan Miró, which is a clever way of getting people to visit both museums. Some works by Miró included The Farm shown in the gallery below – have been moved to the Picasso Museum in the centre of Barcelona and some works by Picasso have been moved to Montjuic where the Miro Foundation is located; my visit there will have to wait until I return after the Christmas break.

The permanent collection in Museo Picasso seems like an exhibition of work by many different artists. It starts off with paintings and drawings he did while still a teenager (like the one I posted here), an art student, and then many works done when he had moved to Paris at the end of the 19th Century. These show him absorbing many influences and mastering many techniques before he found his own original approach. Most of paintings he made becoming famous are elsewhere, but there are examples of later work (including ceramics) in this gallery. The evolution of Picasso’s art is amazing to see.

Here is a selection of what can be seen