Observatorio del Teide

Backblip

This morning we travelled to the nearby Teide Observatory, situated on a ridge at 2300m, and had an excellent tour. Europe’s best solar telescopes are situated here - including the two in the image. They are tall to distance them from ground level - warming of the ground surface can create air turbulence, not a good thing for astronomical observation. There are also nocturnal telescopes at the site, as well as “weird” microwave telescopes monitoring the cosmic background radiation, the afterglow of the Big Bang. We were also taken into the Carlos Sanchez observatory - he was Brian May’s first supervisor when the future Queen drummer commenced his astrophysics thesis (its completion interrupted by the band’s huge success).

The afternoon was spent ascending up the side of Mount Teide by cable car, well layered as it can be -1°c up there. No chance of ascending up the top cone of the volcano, access is restricted and requires a medical examination first.

The evening was spent stargazing outside, a guide brought two fantastic portable telescopes. Absolutely freezing, but also great fun. He took us around the constellations, and then we viewed Venus, Saturn and Jupiter, and lastly the Andromeda Galaxy, through the telescopes. Magical seeing Saturns rings and Jupiter’s bands and big spot. The extra features Orion and Jupiter (and much else).