Imorgon bitti åker jag ner till Kanarieöarna, närmare sagt till ön _La Palma_, för att använda teleskopet NOT under två nätters tid. En kollega från Stockholm och jag ska observera ett par stycken galaxer.

Jag kommer att blogga en hel del därifrån för att ge ett närmare intryck om hur det går till. Alla inlägg om detta kommer dyka upp här under

"http://thomasmarquart.net/observationer":http://thomasmarquart.net/observationer

och det finns även ett eget "RSS-Flöde":http://thomasmarquart.net/observationer/rss.

For a long time, I have been wanting to make a list of all my trips, just to keep track for myself. This is a good place to do it.

• April 30 - May 5, 2008, Alicante, Spain
• January 19-28, 2008, Tenerife, Spain, Conference
• December 30 - January 9, 2008, Berlin, Aschaffenburg region, Germany
• September 20-27, 2007, Kiruna, Sweden, astronomy meeting and some holidays
• July 22-28, 2007, Åland and Finland
• May 16-20, 2007, Kiev, Ukraine
• April 10-16, 2007, Berlin
• March 14-26, 2007, Canary Islands, observing on La Palma, then at IAC, Tenerife.
• December 28, 2006 - January 2, 2007, Germany, Aschaffenburg region.
• September 13-14, 2006, Lund, southern Sweden, Conference/Workshop.
• September 3-11, 2006, Tenerife, Spain (Canary Islands), guest at Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.
• August 13-21, 2006, Prague, Czech Republic, IAU General Assembly
• July 29 - August 3, 2006, Trondheim, Norway, and Vålådalen, northern Sweden.
• May 10-14, 2006, Germany, Aschaffenburg region.
• March 26 to April 3, 2006: La Palma, Canary Islands, Observing at the NOT.
• September 9-12, 2005: Berlin for a weekend.
• June 15-20, 2005: France (Marseille and Montpellier), then onwards to Germany (Aschaffenburg, Würzburg).
• May 20-22, 2005: short trip to Heidelberg.
• April 18-29, 2005: La Palma, Canary Islands, Observing at the NOT and some holydays.
• New Year 2005: Berlin and a small trip through Germany
• Mid November 2004: Heidelberg for a few days.
• November 1-14, 2004: Chile, first to the VLT at Paranal for some work, then travelling for nearly a week.
• September 2004: Cambridge, UK, conference
• End of August 2004: Germany, over the weekend
• Mid July 2004: Germany, a friend's wedding, holidays
• End of June 2004: Gryt Archipelago, one week

I finally got around to sort some older pictures and upload them to my gallery archive. In particular these are

• A short excursion to Ulva Kvarn.
• A quick portrait session at home.
• More images from my trip last week.
• Party images from last Friday.

Have a look!

Here is another image from La Palma that I like:

For the time being, I am on La Palma and carry out astronomical observations at the Nordic Optical Telescope.

The image below shows part of the mirror of the nearby MAGIC telescope. The other images that I have taken so far can also be seen and this gallery will grow with time.

Vi har haft gäster från Frankrike senaste dagarna och de ville åka skridskor på en sjö här i Uppsalatrakterna. Det enda stället som verkar hyra ut utrustning är dock Fjällnora - och dit är det omöjligt att komma med buss. Nu har de åkt vidare till Stockholm och kommer nog försöka samma sak där, men efter internet-sökandet och elaka tanter i telefonen ser det ut som det blir inte lätt där heller. Har någon missat denna marknadslucka?

For the last three days, we had six French from Lyon as our guests - of course via the HospitalityClub. Since it would have been very tight with eight people in our flat, we billeted out two of them to a neighbouring friend. But we had two very nice dinners altogether around our not-so-big table and had great fun. You even can have a look at some photos.

Why do HC-guests always come clustered? If all that asked during the last days will show up, then I'll host 4 people over this week-end. On the other hand, the show-up fraction is far from 100% since people usually ask several hosts at the place they want to visit.

Finally the bad ones are thrown away and the newer ones made it in, so here it is: the Berlin Gallery.

I'm back home. The connection with Germanwings from Berlin-Schönefeld to Stockholm-Arlanda is excellent: I left Christian's place in Berlin-Moabit at 8.40am and was at my office in Uppsala at 1.30pm. I just fixed the messy previous blog-entry. As a conclusion of our eventful week-end in Berlin, we went to a movie theatre yesterday evening and watched Broken Flowers - Bill Murray at his best!

As said previously, we returned to Zosch in the evening, after having barbecue at Christan's ex-girlfriend's place. Zosch's cellar that contained the stage and a rather smallish room for the audience was a comfy place to have a few beers and talk to the people that were performing. First, a guitar player, Ijen Martin, played three or four songs (very enjoyable), and then Kitty Solaris was on. Christian had told me of her before and had given me a copy of the album that he bought from her, so I knew roughly what to expect - and I liked it, too. At last, Emmy Moll played for quite a long time. It was less experimental than what I expected from the flyer that said "Experimental Pop from Hamburg", but very likeable nevertheless. All that for 5 EUR. Unfortunate for the performers, the place was far from being full, but we did not mind.
After the Zosch had closed, we had a look inside the nearby independent art-centre Tacheles, which was an interesting experience, especially the dark bar at the top with an open side towards a huge storefront onto which surreal images were projected. Finally (around half past three in the morning, I guess), we made it to a bar called "Subito" where we had the funniest conversation with Uwe about his bike and a Biedermaier bureau.

Strolling through Berlin yesterday afternoon, we went to a small exhibition by a Finnish photographer which was good but not overwhelming. At Cafe Zosch, where we sat down afterwards, we met the band Emmy Moll which would play in Zosch's cellar in the evening. We helped them push their broken-down band bus aside and promised to come back for their concert. Then we went on to see the Holocaust Memorial, right next to Brandenburger Tor. I took some pictures, too (not sorted yet, though).
OK, we're heading off again. Continuation follows...

We went to the "LoveLite", a nice little club in an old garage in Berlin-Friedrichshein. We went there at midnight and came back at around 5 am. There were two atmospheric live-acts and the general mood of the place was a pleasant one. I am always impressed by the public transport here in Berlin: the underground and S-Bahn go in intervals of 10 minutes around the clock for the whole weekend, which is of course very nice because one never has to wonder about timetables and times.
Now, we're heading for one or two photo exhibitions in Berlin-Mitte and probably will walk by the new Holocaust Memorial.

I'm in Berlin right now, visiting a friend. I like Berlin, it's a pleasant place. It's warm right now, too - about 28 degrees centigrade. After lying on the "beach", a lawn along Spree river in Moabit, for a while and reading newspaper, we are back at Christian's place and will go out later this evening.

Apart from the most known ones like Ryanair and EasyJet, there have come up many more cheap airlines in Europe during the last years. I focus a little on the ones that fly to Sweden and leave out the ones that do not have international flights. So let's make a list:

Ryanair, EasyJet, Germanwings, HLX, FlyNordic, Snowflake, Condor, Sterling, flyDBA, VirginExpress, AirBerlin, GermaniaExpress, SkyEurope, bmibaby, Blue1

There is another list of airlines, sorted by country/region, here (in German). In addition, there is a djungle of websites that offer searches over various airlines and of course everyone claims they give the cheapest prices. I think I have gotten the best results by looking at the individual airlines' websites so far. Therefore, if you have any addition to the list, please comment...

I'm going to visit a friend in Berlin over the weekend. Luckily, Germanwings has introduced a direct flight from Arlanda, the airport that is only about 25 minutes from here. I'm looking forward to this short trip. I haven't been drunk in a long time ;-)