Thinking about doing this in Gran Canaria - thoughts?

[greglloyd]

First of all I was looking at the picture thinking "what is he on about - it's a holiday resort pic?" - then I noticed the dome! Nice to have you own observatory in the Canaries ;-)

[Peter Drew]

I've just returned from Tenerife and can confirm that the objects listed look great from the Canaries. Planetary images seem best just after sunset and as mentioned it gets dark very quickly. There was a fair amount of Saharan dust in the air early on which made the sky slightly hazy but that has now eased. Have a good time. 

[laser_jock99]

Greetings

I found this little place many years ago in Fuerteventura sol gorriones http://www.melia.com/en/hotels/spain/fuerteventura/melia-gorriones/activities-and-entertainment.html if you look in the picture header you can see a familiar shape

in it is quite a nice 14" tracking scope a make I did not recognise but it was very nicly setup although it is a few meters from one of the main play areas the main lights go out at 11pm leaving just the little knee high path markers lit for the guests

the use of the scope is an extra charge but not sure what it is now as I've not been for over 7 years 10 euro is for a few hours but after the first few times the guide lets you get on with it he even gave me the key to lock it at one point as there was only me using it.

Andy

I could probably even talk my wife into going there!

[starman1969]

Sounds pretty good. Anywhere in the Canaries is excellent for astronomy.

Omega Centauri should look pretty awesome.

[greglloyd]

Well, as promised here is a review of my stargazing night in Gran Canaria with AstroGC. To recap, I found this small little company on Trip Adviser by accident. They offer to take you to a dark sky location in SW Gran Canaria and then let you view objects with a 16" scope.

The little company is run by a guy called Gauthier. He comes and picks you up from your hotel at about 8:30pm and then you arrive at the viewing site by around 9:30pm. Viewing then is from 21:30 to approx 23:30.

The weather in Gran Canaria had been hit and miss all the week I was there. In fact, all evenings from Sat 14th when I arrived through to the day I had asked to go observing were partly to completely cloudy. There was also a calima at the time which causes a lot of high level Saharan dust in the atmosphere. I was more than a little worried that I was never going to get observing!

Thankfully, on the Thursday I intended on going the sky became very clear during the day and the transparency became superb. At 20:30, Gauthier arrived at my hotel in a small van with the 16" Lightbridge packed into the back. We chatted on the way to a resort called Taurito where we picked up to other guests (who had never looked through a telescope before). Gauthier said that because I was very familiar with the sky already I could skip the presentation he would give to the other guests and I could spend some time viewing through his telescope - bonus!

The drive to the dark sky site was very interesting. The place he has chosen is 3000ft above sea level. Once we arrived there it was a spectacular view with volcanic landscapes. You are surrounded with small hill tops in every direction with just little trees dotted on the top and a valley off to the south where you can see the full 3000ft down to the sea. It was like some totally ideal place form a planetarium software or something!!

The sky darkened very rapidly from 21:30 onwards. Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn were all visible at this time. Mars and Saturn were very high in the sky but the view through the scope was poor. I think some factors came to play here: Scope had not cooled down, atmospheric turbulence as the heat of the day was escaping, and possibly some collimation issues with the scope. To be honest, I was really interested in the planets as I get superb views of them already through my own scope and the max power Gauthier uses with his eyepiece collection is 200x. About the same as I do here in the UK.

Gauthier took the guests for the presentation, so I got to work on the real stuff! The sky was getting very dark now and I could clearly see Centaurus to the south. Before I chased after any of the objects I had really come to see, I decided to check out M13 in Hercules to compare the view with my 8" back at home. At the low power of 56x the cluster was very well resolved and bright. I would say it was amazingly different at the power though, just slightly better resolved. The main difference came when I bumped up the power to 200x. Now the cluster looked a lot better than in my scope at the same power. It continued to be very bright in the eyepiece and resolved right through the core!

I had done a little homework the evening before and located a quick naked eye star hop to where Omega Centauri should be from the hotel. From this mountain top location though, the view to the south was nothing short of stunning with inky black, totally transparent sky all the way to the southern horizon. By this time the sky was jet black and littered with stars. We're talking beyond magnitude +7. M13 in Hercules could be clearly seen with the naked eye if you knew where to look.

The constellation Centaurus was so clear and visible even at it's low altitude and Omega Centauri was a very clear naked eye object. I swung the 16" scope towards Omega Centauri and then looked at it with the 54x eyepiece. Wowee! I actually gave out an audible giggle to myself as I say it in the view. It was huge and super dense compared with M13. Yet well resolved across the cluster. It's just in another class of size and density! I stuck the 200x eyepiece in and the cluster filled the entire eyepiece view with well resolved stars. But even at 200x I was still amazed at the density of this cluster! Such a great moment to finally see it for real. And through a big scope too!

I then decided to swing the scope around to M51 Whirlpool galaxy. My goal here was to detect spiral structure as I have vaguely spotted it from home in the 8". I got the galaxy in view and then took a peek at 54x. The spiral structure was obvious with direct view! The two main arms could be clearly seen swirling around in the main halo with clear dark lanes visible too! The view was amazing! The other guests got involved now and we bumped the power to 200x. This boosted contrast of the arms and gave close up view. The arms were obvious with direct view. I spent a few more moments just studying away at them :-) I was great to finally see the spiral structure so clear and without doubt :-)

We then observed a few other objects: M3, Ring Nebula, etc before I noticed some bright clouds in the SE. This was the Sagittarius region climbing into the sky. It was so clearly visible due to the amazing clear views to the south. I could see the Sagittarius star cloud, various Messier and NGC clusters, and the Lagoon Nebula all with the naked eye. Just glowing brightly int he sky - it was a beautiful sky at this stage!

Gauthier hadn't much experience with this region of the sky. He doubted the object I was pointing to with my naked eye was the Lagoon. But I swung the scope around and there was the bright nebula in the eyepiece. With a nice dark rift going through it. Gauthier got his brand new OIII filter which he had never used yet and we used it on the Lagoon. Oh my! What a difference that made. We got a photographic quality view of the Lagoon nebula. It looked just like the photos you see (but in black and white obviously).

Finally, we saw Cygnus rising in the NE and had hoped to maybe try for the Veil nebula, but unfortunately that part of the constellation just wasn't up over the hill yet - and it was time to pack up and head home.

All in all it was a brilliant time. The sky was the super star. It was an amazingly dark and clear night with more stars than you can imagine. The location was spectacular too - 3000ft up in the volcanic mountain landscape where it was super slient. Our summer skies here in the UK cannot compete at all due to the brighter skies at this time of year. I always think the winter sky is more impressive, but I must say that down there in the Canaries the summer sky is really awesome. Especially with the amount of treasures you can see naked eye in the Sagittarius region. The only thing I'm not sure about is the scope collimation which may have been out slightly. I'm not entirely sure whether is was the choice of eyepieces with the fast scope or collimation. He was using Skywatcher SWA 70 deg eyepieces with an f4.5 scope. But you could see slight seagulling on stars.

I'm so glad I decided to go on the tour!!

If anyone is interested the website is www.astrogc.com

Finally, the 16" was surprisingly portable when collapsed. It's got me rethinking about whether to eventually switch up to something similar in size! ;-)

[robbie c]

Sounds like you had a great time and it was well worth taking the chance of going, when you think of the LP skies we get here and you get the chance to do some viewing 3000ft up a volcanic mountain you'd be mad not to go. Great report on your trip as well 

[greglloyd]

The skies were some of the best I've ever seen Robbie. Really black after 9:30pm (on the 20th June that is too!), full of stars, and crisp clear right to the horizon. So many stars visible to the naked eye towards the southern horizon too. The milky way was vividly glowing. Bright DSO's clearly naked eye. And the local scenery spectacular. I thought I had dark skies here (which I do in winter with greater than +6 magnitude limiting magnitude) but the summer sky down there in the Canaries is in another class to what we have here in June.  

[greglloyd]

The is a photo of us at the workshop on Facebook here :-

https://www.facebook.com/Astrogc

[greglloyd]

Some photos from the AstroGC astronomy workshop I went to in Gran Canaria earlier this week. One photo shows the location. This shows the sky condition when we first arrived shortly after sunset (The sky was darker in reality as the camera brightened the image). The sky became jet black within 20 minutes of this shot. The other two shots show the 16" Lightbridge we used for observing :-

[laser_jock99]

Great write up- sounds like a better excursion than the usual "flamenco & cheap wine" offerings!

[Paul M]

Really great report. 

I get to Tenerife a couple of times a year but have never made the trek out of town for dark skies

Now I know what I'm missing! 

Maybe next time

[greglloyd]

The difference in the sky conditions from the resort in south Gran Canaria to the viewing site in the mountains was incredible! I went out on the balcony back at my hotel when I got back and it was like a totally different sky. Only tens of stars visible compared with thousands at the viewing site!

[Paul M]

The difference in the sky conditions from the resort in south Gran Canaria to the viewing site in the mountains was incredible! I went out on the balcony back at my hotel when I got back and it was like a totally different sky. Only tens of stars visible compared with thousands at the viewing site!

There is a lot of humidity and grime trapped below the semi-permanent inversion over the Canaries. It's very obvious when flying into or out of the islands. Sometimes it looks quite dense and discoloured! But its quite shallow. Just a few hundred feet of elevation get you through the worst of it.

Coupled with the burgeoning light pollution, I've found the skies at sea level in the resorts to be little better than at home!

[greglloyd]

I would say worse than my home certainly! But at Altitude in summer it is far superior!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Mark at Beaufort]

Greg thanks for doing the update a very enjoyable read. Although I have been to the Canaries many times I have never undertaken any observing. I have always wanted to view Omega Centauri so I really must revisit Gran Canaria and use the services of Gauthier.

Did you mention SGL to him and tell you were going to produce a report?

I think I will book a holiday next year to Gran Canaria and I think I will take my 15x70 binos which I can use at the star party as well as the 16" scope. So thanks again Greg you have done a good service for many members on SGL.

[greglloyd]

Hi Mark,

Yes I did. He was not familiar with SGL, but I did explain that there was interest from members and that I was the first to try the tour.

Some background on Gauthier:

Originally from NW France, he has lived in Gran Canaria for 17 years in a tradtional Canarian village on the east side of the island. He was an engineer by trade, but had a keen interest in astrophysics and studied this I believe to degree level. His primary interest is mathematical study of the universe with the practical observing side being secondary. The 16" scope he owns is his first and was primarily bought for AstroGC so that he could share the universe with others.

He takes pride in his presentation which explains redshift and the size of the universe. I skipped most of the presentation and used the scope whilst he showed that to the other guests. It would be a good idea to try and get him to agree on a solo tour with no presentation so that you can just observe the whole time with dark adaption preserved. The projected display obviously can affect your dark adaption and I purposely looked away from that area as much as possible.

I had the option of going solo with him the night before my actual tour but couldn't go due to plans with the family. 

I would definitely recommend this tour to any SGL member. The sky alone was worth the money. If you can, try and go solo with him and get agreement to have control of the scope as much as possible and skip the presentation (although he likes to do the presentation because it represents his primary interest). 

One other tip would be to possibly bring your own 2" eyepieces. He has two eyepieces - a Skywatcher SWA 32mm and a 9mm (forget the brand). That gives you 54x and 200x with the 1.8M focal length. There was seagulling on the stars that I could not get rid over. It was bad, but not as tuned as my scope is certainly. This may be collimation or it may be that the eyepieces are not ideal for the f4.4 scope. I mentioned collimation to him and he says he has each truss marked so that collimation is preserved, but he didn't do a collimation there and then.

The final factor to consider is that the scope needs cool down. He has a fan on the back of the mirror to assist with this, however he chose to view the planets first. I'd have probably done it the other way round and went for DSO's first and finished up with the planets. That way dark adaption is maximized and the scope has a good chance to cool before trying to view planetary details. There were very few planetary details to be seen. My own scope does much better with Mars for example. Some of the reasons he went for the planets first was because Jupiter was dropping fast in the west and also because the other guests had never seen anything through a telescope before and he wanted to show something familiar first.

Taking all things into consideration though, I throughly recommend this tour as the scope views of DSO's was spot on. It's primarily the extra light capture we want to see which was superb for M51. Also the southern latitude allowing a great view of Omega Centuari (my first ever view) was just spectacular. And the OIII filter worked an absolute treat on the Omega Nebula giving an amazing photo like view at 54x.

[greglloyd]

Sorry! Typo above!! Should have been :-

There was seagulling on the stars that I could not get rid of. It wasn't bad at all, but not as tuned as my scope is certainly (where stars are pin sharp).

[greglloyd]

Finally, the amount of objects in the Sagittarius region was min boggling. The view through the scope was mesmerising. Just an incredible amount of stars, clusters, and nebulae. It may even be worth bringing a spotting scope along as well if there are other guests so that you can scan that part of the sky with a wide field.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Thanks Greg that is useful additional information. So its the 21mm and 13mm Ethos in the hand luggage

At home my east/west horizon has no LP and the other night the views in Sagittarius with the 20x80 binos was fabulous. These binos are a bit large so I think I would take my 15x70 binos and my new Vixen SG2.1 x40 (great for star hopping).

[greglloyd]

I must make a point of going to somewhere other than my back garden to get a better view of the Sagittarius region from here. I have houses 50 feet away which block my southern horizon. Obviously I'm further north too than Southern England - but I did once get a good viewing from an upstairs bedroom. So certainly worth a short trip to get a better view!

[starman1969]

I must make a point of going to somewhere other than my back garden to get a better view of the Sagittarius region from here. I have houses 50 feet away which block my southern horizon. Obviously I'm further north too than Southern England - but I did once get a good viewing from an upstairs bedroom. So certainly worth a short trip to get a better view!

I'd really like to get a half decent view of the Teapot this year if I can too. Not much chance from Blackpool because I have to look south, towards the many northwest towns that create a big light dome. Even if I wait until it is in the southwest, it will be lower down, as well as being over the huge light dome that rises above Merseyside.

[Paul M]

I'd really like to get a half decent view of the Teapot this year if I can too. Not much chance from Blackpool because I have to look south, towards the many northwest towns that create a big light dome. Even if I wait until it is in the southwest, it will be lower down, as well as being over the huge light dome that rises above Merseyside.

I'd have more chance of seeing it if you lot in Blackpool turned your lights off!

[starman1969]

I'd have more chance of seeing it if you lot in Blackpool turned your lights off!

Blame it on the Pleasure Beach. The LP from those roller coaster floodlights is scary.