Category: La Palma

The ParaTi magazine on La Palma published a lost-infinity.com article

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Orion Nebula (M43) - 2014/02/07

Recently I had the chance to contribute an article about astronomy to the La Palma Para TI magazine. In this article I write about my impressions and emotions when I was visiting Roque de Los Muchachos at night. “El Roque” is the highest point on La Plama (2426m).Up there the Roque de Los Muchachos Osbervatory is situated. The title picture of the article is the Great Orion nebula (M42) which is one of my favorite pictures. I imaged it back in February 2014. If you are on La Palma, I recommend you to visit “El Roque” in a clear and moonless night (see also my previous article) – you will be surprised 🙂

Last updated: June 16, 2022 at 19:11 pm

Visiting the Tacande Observatory on La Palma

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Tacande Observatory, La Palma, Spain

Last night I visited the Tacande Observatory on La Palma (link) to do some observations and to exchange about some technical topics. It’s owner is Joan Genebriera who built this observatory back in 2005 – right beside his house 🙂 He worked at the KVA Telescope on La Palma for several years before he retired. His observatory is located close to El Paso at a height of about 765m.

The observatory holds three telescopes on one custom made mount:

  • Cassegrain Relay 400mm f/6.5 = 18′ x 12′ (arcminutes)
  • R120S 120mm f/6.6 = 1.28° x 0.96° (arcdegrees)
  • R80 80mm f/6.0 = 2.65° x 1.76° (arcdegrees)
Inside the Tacande Observatory - the telescopes, La Palma, Spain

Even though I was in Spain communicating in English was no problem. After I got an introduction to the equipment we decided to image the Sombrero galaxy since it was in a quite good position.

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Visiting Mirador del Jable on La Palma

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Mirador del Jable - Looking down to El Paso and Los Llanos

This afternoon I visited Mirador del Jable (28°37’02.6″N 17°50’54.9″W) – a place from where one has a very nice view down on El Paso and Los Llanos. It is also a good starting point for a hiking tour to Pico Birigoyo.

Furthermore Mirador del Jable is quite good suited for astronomical observations and astrophotography. Beside the fact that Polaris is visible it usually takes less time to get there than driving all the way up to Roque de Los Muchachos and it does not get so cold. Of course the conditions on Roque de Los Muchachos are usually better – so it depends on what one plans to do and on what one is willing to invest 🙂 Two things I like about this place is that it usually is no problem to get a parking place and that the stones and the ground are warmed up by the sun. Some of the heat is stored and released slowly in the evening.

My conclusion: Even if you are no interested in astronomy and the stars it is worth to go up here – just to watch the sunset over the sea 🙂

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 17, 2022 at 21:03 pm

Star-gazing at Casa Victoria on La Palma

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Casa Victoria La Palma

The second part of my La Palma holiday I spent at Casa Victoria (28°41’31.3″N 17°57’20.0″W). It is also a kind of cottage but a bit more modern than Casa La Chirlaca. However, compared to Casa La Chirlaca it has a little less canary atmosphere and the garden is not so nice in comparison. The house is a few hundred meters lower than Casa La Chirlaca and so it is a few degrees warmer. Especially when having breakfast outside in the morning this was very pleasant. Unfortunately Casa Victoria has no internet connection. The view on the sea is great and Polaris is visible from the garden. The owner only spoke Spanish but for just handing over the keys it was not a big problem.

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 17, 2022 at 21:04 pm

Sunset on Roque de Los Muchachos on La Palma

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William Herschel Telescope (WHT) after sunset, Roque de Los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain

To me, sunset at Roque de Los Muchachos creates a special atmosphere which is hard to describe. Probably this is something what especially people addicted to astronomy can understand. When the sun crosses the horizon the different telescope domes open up and the first stars become visible. While many people are sitting at home in front of their TV great things happen up here – far off the world 🙂

Many different telescopes from many different nations are located up here at Roque de Los Muchachos. Here is just a subset of those I recognized so far:

As far as I experienced, the northern part of the observatory is not reachable by car – at least there are some “Staff only” signs on the road. However, there is a small path which leads up to the Puente Nueva peak. If you park the car at 28°45’46.5″N 17°52’29.1″W right beside the road, walking up there takes only about 15-20 minutes. From there one has a great view on this part of the observatory!

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 17, 2022 at 21:07 pm