Holiday in Spain - observing groups??

[QldLiz]

Am heading to Spain and Portugal for 6 weeks next month (October 20th), and would love to join up with a local club to observe the Northen Hemisphere night skies.

Am hopeless trying to distinguish the constellations, apart from the easy ones like Orion. Kinda crane your neck in an upside down position!!

New Moons closest to a Saturday are October 29, and November 26.

I will be in Ponferrada (Nw Spain) on 29th (Salamanca before that for 1 night, and Segovia before that for 4 nights) .... then Santiago for 2 nights 30/31st.

On the 26/11 I will be in Zaragoza for 3 nights, with Valencia the 3 previous nights.

Does anyone know of the local clubs in these areas, or a person who could take me under their wing for an hour or 2.

Thanks for thinking about it.

Liz

[ollypenrice]

I don't know any clubs but I do know Spain from doing about 12,000 miles of cycle touring there, and as long as you get out of the cities the skies in the Cantabrians can be really excellent. I remember a 25 mile descent into Ponferrada (to its west) so if you drove out east to the top of that, for instance, you'd have a great sky, I'm certain.

Olly

[Dougie]

You say that you are also going to Portugal.

I stayed in a remote place in Portugal last year that was 15 miles north of Faro and on the side of a valley.

The dark skies were fantastic, but all I had was a small pair of binos, which were better than nothing.

I did pass an observatory on the south coast and I wish I had booked a visit for the night.

It is:

COAA Centro de Observação Astronómica no Algarve

Poio, 8500 Portimão, Portugal

It may be too far south for you.

Have a good trip.

[QldLiz]

Gracias for that Olly and Doug. Alas, am using train and buses .... bit worries about the wrong side of the road thing.

Hoping to tag along with a group viewing to check out the N.Hem skies ...... with explainations.

[swag72]

Hi Liz,

The issue I think you will find with Spain is that many of the groups speak only spanish. Also, in some of the city associations (unless they differ widely from Valencia) they hold their meetings in the city and then only go off to their observing site (over 100km out of the city) on a Saturday.