Tips for La Palma trip

[Tommohawk]

Hi all.

Am off to La Palma next week partly just for R and R but also taking EQ3 and 300mm lens + guider. Hoping to image Rosette nebula, maybe Witch head, and possibly California. Also I think Comet 2P Encke should be visible, - no space for the Quantum bins sadly!

I've just totted up the weight of my kit and even with the camera and lens and guidescope in the cabin bag, it looks like 18kg. Hoping for shorts and sandals type weather, cos no space for clothes!!

We're staying in Santa Cruz which isnt ideal cos probably pretty bright, but I'm bringing a 12V inverter which will power everything from the car, so probably head south and set up al fresco - will make a change from sub-zero! I've checked the inverter and it powers everything just fine.

If anyone has any tips or thoughts I'd be grateful. We hope to visit the observatory, and maybe do some walking. I've got a decent contour map - just need to remember theyre 50m not 10m as on OS maps!!

Thinking about airport security - bit nervous about what I can get away with in my cabin bag - the ADM dual mount is a bit of a lump, so could be construed as a weapon, so thats in the hold. Cables is a bit of a worry - I have a 15m extension lead so I think I better put that in the hold. But also laptop and mount power supply have longish cables. Any views or experiences of this??

Regards, Tom

 

 

[laudropb]

I have just returned from Tenerife and the weather was lovely for the 10 days of my visit. Never below 24C. The only suggestion I have is if you intend going up the mountain to the observatory you will need some warm clothing and a woolly hat. I did have a little problem with security on the way back. I had to unpack my hand luggage and show that my spotting scope and bins were not lethal weapons lol. Also if you have electronic gear in your luggage remember to unpack it and put it into a tray before it goes through the scanner. I forgot my IPad at Glasgow airport and had to go through twice. Enjoy your trip.

[Tommohawk]

Hi and thanks - glad you had a good trip.

I think I will have my 20 tog UK departure clothes with me, so will remember to don those before going up the hill!

As it stands I plan to take the camera, laptop, and mount power supplies as hand luggage, together with inverter and input cables. Its quite a lot of wires to get in and out for the scanners!

Trouble is, if I pack too much heavy stuff in the hold bag I wont have enough weight left for clothing - apart from any sartorial concerns I plan to use clothes for padding out the heavy stuff.

 

[James]

They didn't even blink at the huge amount of photography/astro equipment I was carrying when I went 18 months ago... but I was ready to explain what everything was.. I put cables in the hold.

Santa Cruz itself won't be ideal but if you have a car head up the road to the observatory - it's a very switchbacked drive but you gain thousands of feet very quickly and even if it's cloudy in Santa Cruz it'll often be clear near the top. Alternatively head across the island through the mountain ridge in the middle, on getting to the other side there's a road to the left which heads up to the volcanic bit... If you do go up on of those roads at night make sure you're not too tired on the way down, the roads are in good nick but you can get pretty tired coming back down them. Red Bull about 30 mins before I went back down worked for me.

You'll probably find that just getting up 2000 ft from Santa Cruz is all you need

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Tommohawk]

Hi James and thanks for that.

Looking at the map the road does look pretty wild - TBH I've not tried Red Bull - maybe my big chance!

We'll go up to the observatory for sure, but as you say don't need to be too high hopefully to get some clear air without getting too chilly. It won't be the same not having to scrape the frost off!

 

[James]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not really a red bull fan but I was warned by an island resident to take something... after the first night at the top I hadn't bothered and drove down. Bad mistake! Next time I was ready, had a red bull at about 6.30am and drove down happily at 8am (it gets light later there as the Canaries are physically further west than the UK but use the same time zone..)

That said, I couldn't sleep until the afternoon...

[Tommohawk]

LOL.

So sounds like you spent the dark hours at the top? That's brave - I think the obsy is shut at night so were you imaging /observing with your own kit?

Re the Red Bull - I'm more the Red Barrel generation, but sounds like a plan!

[Mick J]

Book the observatory tours in advance and it's a long drive (worth it even without a tour), the island is a bit of a steep wedge and getting above the cloud in the northern half is not to difficult, don't flatten the car battery or park on a slope just in case.  Roads are good and little traffic all quite slow.  The walking can be like the driving, steep & slow but well marked.

Red Barrel - did I really drink that stuff !!  the power of advertising, if you do drive west across the island past Los Llanos and head north you can climb very quickly on that twisty road, great views from El Time and a walk back to sea level if you like!  Just north before Tijarafe a bar restaurant with some nice home brew beers -we were lucky to be staying near El Jesus.   Link  

[James]

I spent a couple of nights up there in the dark quietly moving around, with no light, time lapsing with my camera's. I didn't see another person at all although I heard the odd technician in the observatories cursing at their PC's  It was August though and was a pleasant 18c. Of course, for all I know there were loads of us, all being quiet with no light

 

[Tommohawk]

Hey Mick thanks for that.

The brew bar looks good - need to remember to get my wife to pack her driving license. My gear should only use about 5A so good for a few hours hopefully, but thanks for the tip about parking on a slope - looks like I wont have trouble finding one!!

[Tommohawk]

3 minutes ago, James said:

It was August though and was a pleasant 18c. Of course, for all I know there were loads of us, all being quiet with no light

 

18c - ooh that sounds good. Maybe I'll have to pop back later in the year. Wasnt daytime temp roasting though?

[James]

2 hours ago, Tommohawk said:

18c - ooh that sounds good. Maybe I'll have to pop back later in the year. Wasnt daytime temp roasting though?

It was, we were there for two weeks and the first week it rained, was dusty and stormy, the winds were coming from the Sahara and the ten was about 36c during the day, the second week was much clearer and nicer and the temps dropped to 26-28c during the day

The second week we were staying at a much higher place at about 3500ft so it was a tad cooler.

[recceranger]

Dude,

both myself and Jayne have been a few times.  You don't need to drive far from SC to get to a dark location.  However, take a drive up to to Observatory.  The images you'll get up there wait the Telesopes in the foreground are simply spectacular.

I ain't got any night images left but attached a few of our trip

 

[Tommohawk]

Hey thanks - some nice pics there!

Interesting that it seems cloudy lower down. The weather next week looks pretty cloudy - which is standard stuff when I book an astro trip. So I'm hoping I can maybe pop up through the clouds higher up. Fingers crossed!

As I type this my wife has just booked the trip to the obervatories.