Stargazing time on La Palma – Casa Las Flores

21st July 2017 / Carsten / Leave a comment

It’s stargazing time on La Palma again – this time from Casa Las Flores. The little house is located in Aguatavar – close to Tijarafe on a height of about 580m. You have a power supply outside the building, free view to Polaris from both terraces and in July the bright part of the Milky Way is perfectly visible between 22:00 and 4:00 local time. Furthermore you have a coffee maker, a table, chairs, a fast WLAN internet connection and a barbecue. What else do you need? 😀

The image is a single frame recorded with an Canon EOS6D in combination with a Samyang 2.8/14mm lens (15 sec. exposure time, ISO4000) . The post processing has been done with rawtherapee.

Tonight I only test my equipment – for tomorrow I plan to record the bright nebula M8 in the milkyway. So stay tuned for the result!

Last updated: June 16, 2022 at 12:10 pm

A new star-gazing location on the west side of La Palma

8th March 2017 / Carsten / Leave a comment

Since the last astro-tour the moon still has left the scene. However, unfortunately Mirador del Jable and Mirador Llano de Las Ventas are covered in clouds and there is quite some wind up there. I am happy that hdmeteo tells me that in advance. Luckily, it also tells me that the west-side of La Palma looks pretty good for tonight. I just have no idea where exactly I should drive to with my equipment. It should be a quiet place with no wind and no traffic but it should still be reachable by car…

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First time astrophotography on La Palma with my own equipment – failed

28th February 2017 / Carsten / 1 Comment

Astrophotography on La Palma

Weather forecast - Clear sky on La Palma.

Well… I like the moon… but… YEAH! He is gone! Time for astrophotography on La Palma 🙂 For this purpose I rent a VW Caddy here on La Palma. The plan: Put all the equipment and my girlfriend into the Caddy and drive up to Mirador del Jable – a quite popular place for watching the stars. One last look at the weather forecast from aemet… Looks quite promising! Even though it is almost impossible to predict the weather on La Palma. Furthermore, hdmeteo can be helpful to get an idea of the current weather conditions on the island. And last but not least the NOT webcam can give another impression. The decision has been made – tonight will be astro-night!

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Visiting Mirador del Jable on La Palma

22nd April 2015 / Carsten / 1 Comment

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 🙂

Mirador del Jable - a good spot for star-gazing on La Palma

Mirador del Jable - free view to polaris

Clear skies!

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

Star-gazing at Casa Victoria on La Palma

22nd April 2015 / Carsten / Leave a comment

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.