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Bin to heaven and back :)


Tweedledee

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I'm not sure what sort of clement autumnal atmosphere you are enjoying back in the east midlands, but maybe you could have some sympathy for us poor souls suffering a blistering 30 degree heatwave in Tenerife ;) The only solace is forcing quantities of ice cold San Miguel down the throat and frequently jumping in the pool :D

Three years ago, here in Tenerife I went on a guided stargazing coach trip 2.5 kilometres high, above the cloud level to pristine skies inside the caldera on Mount Teide with zero light pollution. So I booked it again, 55 Euros including a delicious four course dinner and wine, with a tour round a working vineyard half way up the mountain.

Mount Teide has a couple of magnitudes on Belpers best, and the 20C night time temperatures are a bonus. In fact it is renowned for having some of the darkest skies in the whole world.

We started our meal at the vineyard before sunset and just prior to the dessert, it was announced that we might want to go outside to see the setting sun. Well, it was a glorious sight and here it is setting between the islands of La Gomera (left) and La Palma which are poking through a layer of cloud...

Posted Image

Another ear popping hour climbing even higher and we were approaching our stargazing lay by on a deserted road in the lunar landscape of the gigantic volcanic caldera.

Imagine looking out the coach window on the way up and observing both the Lagoon and Triffid nebulas naked eye, then it swings around a 180 degree corner and the double cluster jumps out and smacks you in the eyes! These objects were not far above the horizon and seen from a moving vehicle with some (blue) interior lighting!

When we got out of the coach, the Milky Way was so dazzling and detailed right down to the horizon at both ends. Bear in mind that from this far south, just 28 degrees north of the equator, it is possible to see an extra 25 degrees of southern hemisphere stars that are never visible from the UK. It was also very odd to realise that the bulk of Ursa Major including the UK circumpolar pointer stars, Dubhe and Merak, were actually below the northern horizon!

It was quite difficult to recognise some familiar constellations with so many stars. I was a bit disorientated initially, trying to make out an upside down Cepheus in the north, with its big triangle pointing downwards to the northern horizon. The moon was thankfully below the horizon, but Venus at full beam was definitely to be avoided.

The rest of the party gathered round the guide who was enthusiastically showing them the stars and constellations with a laser pointer and some mythology. He was very good, and enthralled everyone by explaining about light years and vast distances etc., but I wasn't there for that.

I went off out of the way and laid on my back and pointed the 15x70's towards the North American Nebula, and WOW, there it was with Mexico, Florida, and even Canada, no need for averted vision. Both sides of the Veil Nebula were seen but were slightly less apparent than NAN.

M31 just stood out naked eye, and the galaxy filled more than half of the binocular field showing off its two satellite galaxies, never seen it so big. I even saw a hint of a darker dust lane to one side of the nucleus.

The Helix Nebula in Aquarius was an easy find, and stood out half the size of the moon as an unmistakable circular slightly ragged ghostly glow. I kept going back to the Helix, since I had only seen it a couple of times before from the UK, as it is always low in the haze.

I could pick out constellations I had never seen before like Corona Australis, Grus, Indus, Phoenix and Pisces Austrinus.

Looking around the Sagittarius teapot, the centre of our galaxy was just incredible. Not a single binocular field was devoid of fuzzy blobs and usually there were several in view at the same time. Ptolemys Cluster above the scorpions tail and the smaller Butterfly Cluster were particularly impressive and resolved into many stars. The Lagoon Nebula is a stupendous sight that would possibly outshine Orions offering if they were both visible at the same time. Lots of detail could be found in this massive gas cloud, and structure and shape was also clearly visible in its smaller neighbours, Triffid, Eagle and Omega. The Sagittarius Star Cloud M24/NGC6603 was a large and unmistakable sprinkling of stars with a glowing nebulous background of brighter milky way. The whole area is just strewn with very obvious open and globular clusters, whose catalog numbers just didn't matter, during the enjoyment of this vista.

The above are just some highlights of viewing over fifty DSO's that I quickly listed in my notepad from memory on the road back down.

This was my most enjoyable night ever under the stars (and I've had a few). Got dropped at the apartment at 1am this morning and just couldn't get to sleep till after 3am, my head was buzzing so much going over all the incredible views :D

If you go to Tenerife, get booked on this trip, I've never experienced anything like it. I could get used to stargazing in a t-shirt, which was a bit more pleasant than at Belper glacier earlier this year. Next time, I would like to drive up there myself, and spend all night using something like a home built 6" airline compatible richest field telescope :)

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Glad you enjoyed it


I went up but not with the guided tour, best skies I have ever seen


The drive back down in the darkness is quite interesting and it is highly recommended you don't do any stargazing while driving :o  better yet do as you did and get somebody else to drive.


 


I do so want to go back there armed with a small scope.


Edited by Ibbo
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Guest foundaplanet

:o I was almost drooling over my keyboard reading that. You had one hell of an evening.


 


I have seen the night sky from a small yacht in Biscay and a true dark sky does definitely blow ya brains out.. Are you going again tonight.. :D


 


Ed; if not why not..:D


Edited by foundaplanet
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Cracking report Pete, thanks for sharing :)


 


I think we have found a location for our pig farm venture Daz :thumbsup:


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Guest devil74

OMG Peter thats sounds amazing. Weird i was just looking at these trips in Tenerife the other night, defo one for the bucket list. Actually i looked at some on La Palma too...think the place was called Roque De Los Muchachos...again about 2.5km up. If you zoom right in on google maps you can see all the observatories up there.


 


Great read Peter, thanks for sharing  :thumbsup:

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I think we have found a location for our pig farm venture Daz :thumbsup:

 

Will you be taking monkey's too..wink, wink?

 

It depends on what funding we manage to secure. We will release details of how to apply and where to send CV's in due course :lol:

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It depends on what funding we manage to secure. We will release details of how to apply and where to send CV's in due course :lol:

erm :facepalm:  I know tenerife very well and they dont keep pigs there :P  most of the midland has very dark skies, even on the coast.  It is

wonderful  just a pity you cant easily take all your kit with you :(  The drive down the volcano is pretty scary, especially if you are driving yourself :o

 

i have had loads of very nice weekends there and always clear skies :)

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That's the idea Sheila, fill a void, all those Brits abroad with no bacon, I think we are on to a winner there, as for monkeys, there ain't no room for primates on our pig farm!

Edited by Daz Type-R
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Guest peepshow

Imagine looking out the coach window on the way up and observing both the Lagoon and Triffid nebulas naked eye, then it swings around a 180 degree corner and the double cluster jumps out and smacks you in the eyes! These objects were not far above the horizon and seen from a moving vehicle with some (blue) interior lighting!

Luvly blue skies during the day here and big clouds at night..........

..........you can easily see them from a coach's windows. :D   :D    :D  

 

  Cumulus, Cirrus, Nimbostratus, so some amazing views for you to see soon when you return to the UK, Pete.  :D

 

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Smashing report Pete - sure wish we could see Sagittarius from the UK - we only get the teapot peeping over the horizon around autumn time. Nice one :)


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Did a daytime trip up Teide about 3 years ago. Top covered with fresh snow. On 1st May... Couldn't go up the cable car due to wind; one was being bought down with large chunks of ice falling off of it. May have been a bit less than 20C, then... Brilliant write-up Pete, and that's a definite if I go back there! Pic of Teide taken from the hotel (which had a lovely view of La Gomera and Los Gigantes as well)


1kn4.jpg


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Thanks for the comments everyone. You seemed to enjoy reading that nearly as much as I enjoyed the experience. Seriously, you have to think about booking a holiday here and enjoying the beautiful weather combined with the best stargazing ever. You don't even have to worry about clouds spoiling the view. Tenerife generates it's very own weather system and the clouds only form about a kilometer below the stargazing site, half way up the mountain. So pretty much every night is cloudless and the clearest you can imagine.

Never mind the pig farm, we should set up a telescope hire company on the mountain. Imagine looking through a big dob on Mount Teide :)

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Never mind the pig farm, we should set up a telescope hire company on the mountain. Imagine looking through a big dob on Mount Teide :)

 

The pig farm comes from a discussion we had at Kelling. Daz and I decided we should get a pig farm somewhere very dark so we could build an obs. The pig farm is to ensure a constant supply of bacon sandwiches :D

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The pig farm comes from a discussion we had at Kelling. Daz and I decided we should get a pig farm somewhere very dark so we could build an obs. The pig farm is to ensure a constant supply of bacon sandwiches :D

Ok Mike, bacon sarnies are good whilst stargazing, but we better make sure to keep the pig farm the other side of the mountain and downwind of the observing site :)

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I've been looking for a suitable stargazing holiday location, this seems to fit the bill. Will have to have a look into it :)


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  • 2 months later...

Excellent read Peter. Sounded marvellous. I would like to experience that one day. I think the whole mix of experiences - vineyard, meal, star gazing, seeing all the volcanic stuff etc, would have made a marvellous day and night. Derek

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  • 1 year later...

Thanks Derek.

If you go to Tenerife, don't hesitate to get booked on the stargazing trip. I can't wait to go again on the trip and maybe to drive up there myself on different night for a longer session with a grab n go scope.

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