Almost a year after the disappearance of the Blas Cabrera Cultural Scientific Center due to a "political" decision by the Island Council, its former director, Francisco González de Posada, expresses his desire that at least the Arrecife City Council resume the Astronomical Observatory project promoted by the Center, which operated in the San Gabriel Castle from 1997 to 2001.
The purpose of the Observatory was educational, so that children and young people from the island's schools and institutes would become interested in Astronomy. Professor González de Posada is convinced that this objective was achieved acceptably, since many schools passed through the emblematic Castle. In addition, the Observatory was an indisputable promotion of Astronomy among amateur groups on the Island. "The Lanzarote Astronomical Association was created and all astronomical events were very successful," he recalled. Whenever there was an eclipse or the rings of Saturn were seen, the Observatory was especially visited.
The tourist attraction of the Observatory, without being extraordinary, also had its results. In the recent memory of Lanzarote, there are still excursions that were organized for tourists to "contemplate the sky from the Castle". González de Posada admits that the tourist function of the Observatory did not meet the expectations that were had in this regard. However, the Observatory was a pilot project in the capital because it perhaps combined the educational function with the tourist one for the first time on the Island.
Sundial, a real scoop
González de Posada, who is a professor of Physics at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, also believes that a sundial as authentic as the one we can see in the San Gabriel Castle, which has even been cloned 18 times, would be envied by any city in the country from a scientific point of view, but also as a great tourist attraction.
The Blas Cabrera Scientific Center made the first sundial with the new system that allows you to tell the time according to the day and month of the year, and simultaneously what is known as winter time, summer time and mean solar time. "This clock, which is in the Castle, is a world first. What we contributed was believing in the revolution introduced by the author, Juan Vicente Pérez Ortiz, a Spaniard from Alicante," commented González de Posada. Once the Arrecife clock was given scientific blessings, it was patented and now there are 18 identical reproductions. Among them, there is one in the Port of Alicante, another in the University of Santander and one more in the Terra Mítica theme park in Benidorm (Alicante).
Awareness of what we have
The idea that Francisco González de Posada wants to convey is that Lanzarote is aware that there is a globally original sundial, and that the scientific project of the Observatory is not forgotten and that above all it is recovered. "For me, it would be a great wish that the Arrecife City Council and Lanzarote turn the Castle into a center for the dissemination of Astronomy," the professor stressed. "As citizens of the city, we hardly look at the sky," he added.
Task in oblivion
Since October 2004, the doors of the Blas Cabrera Cultural Scientific Center have been closed, and of course the Casa de Los Arroyo ceased to be the headquarters of the extinct organization. Gone are the "beautiful" speeches of many representatives of public administrations who praised without limits the educational and investigative work of the Center. Also for the memory are the photos that politicians took leaving floral offerings in front of the image of the Lanzarote scientist Blas Cabrera in the Ramírez Cerdá park, while praising
the work that Francisco González de Posada carried out as director of the Scientific Center. With the disappearance of the Center, the Island also lost the Blas Cabrera Museum and the Summer University courses.
In the Casa de Los Arroyo, the archives of Blas Cabrera and the instruments with which the scientist achieved international fame must still rest, among them, his precision balance, the small electromagnet, the polar pieces of the giant electromagnet and a telescope with which he looked at the small deviations in the weights. There are objects from Blas Cabrera found in Mexico, France and Spain. The person responsible for everything is the Cabildo and it will be the First Island Corporation that must protect that valuable material.
The work of the Blas Cabrera Scientific Center has been so important that the National Museum of Science and Technology has for many years claimed all that heritage that it protected. However, González de Posada has been a staunch defender of keeping it on the Island as long as there is a responsible institution in Lanzarote that bears the name of Blas Cabrera. The Blas Cabrera Cultural Scientific Center began its journey in 1995 and concluded in October 2004. The political instability of the Cabildo present in recent years also destroyed said institution.
