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Quinta das Alagoas participated win two activities of the VIII Festival Birdwatching and Nature Activities, held between October 4 and 8, 2017.
- Megalithic Sunset | Illuminated Night Walk | Mythological Birds & Astronomy:
A 3-km night interpretive tour in about 3 hours along the megalithic itinerary of Pedra Escorregadia in Vila do Bispo. The tour was conducted by the archaeologist Ricardo Soares (Town Hall of Vila do Bispo) and Fernando Pimenta (European Society for Astronomy in Culture) of Quinta das Alagoas. Along the way, various information were transmitted about the megalithism and the remote cultures responsible for the monumentalization of these landscapes in Prehistory. The decorations inscribed on the menhirs were observed by the technique of directed light, revealing secrets that daylight can hardly glimpse. The relation of the menhirs with the astronomy was also approached.
Already on a celestial stage, participants had the opportunity to take a walk through the sky and discover some mythological stories about the birds of the deep sky and some notes on astrophysics.
(photos courtesy of Ricardo Soares)
- Light – Experiments with Light | Bird orientation by the skylight polarization, the sun, the movement of the stars and paramagnetism | Sun Watching
What color is the sun? Why is the sky blue? Why is the sunset red? Why are the clouds white? How to form a rainbow? What is the skylight polarization? How do birds orient themselves with the sun, the sky and the stars?
During this session we made several experiments and heard some answers to these questions!
The activity ended with a safe Sun observation by projection and through a solar telescope:
Photosphere and sunspots (observation in visible light, by projection)
Chromosphere, filaments and protrusions (observation by emissions in the alpha Hydrogen band).
(photos courtesy of Ricardo Soares)