My visit to Tenerife

[JamesC]

Here are some snaps from my recent (June 2009) holiday in Tenerife. Before you get too excited, no I didn't take lots of deeps sky photos or use the giant dob at the Parador. It was just me, my Orion Starblast 4.5 and my point-and-shoot!

First let me apologize about the images. I just couldn't work out how to embed them and get them a reasonable size. Also I was trying to resize them in photobucket, but not having much luck there either.

This is me racing up El Teide from Puerto de la Cruz. Before you comment, yes Puerto de la Cruz is on the coast and it was a totally crazy choice of location as it is a long and winding route up Teide. I'd originally wanted to book a place in Vilaflor but left it too late. I felt the Parador was a bit too pricey.

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad283/theendisnigh2012/Tenerife/P1020107.jpg

This is me set up in one of the miradores (Mirador del Tabonal Negro I think). It was just a bit East of the turn off for the cable car station and had excellent view to the South. A little bit exposed to the wind and the headlights of passing cars, but pretty good really.

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad283/theendisnigh2012/Tenerife/P1020109.jpg

I was pleased to be joined by a German astronomer who arrived shortly after taking the last photo. He had a light-weight truss-tube 10" Newtonian to my 4.5" Starblast and a big SLR to my point-and-shoot. I think he also had a lot more experience. He thought the transparency was very good, but the seeing was poor to start with, improving after mid-night. I wondered if it was the lava radiating heat, but he said he had been over near the observatory the night before, where there is more vegetation and the seeing was not particularly good there either.

Sagittarius and Scopius made a fine pair in the South. Unfortunately I took this photo later on when some high cloud was beginning to push in, lit up from bellow by light pollution. My camera doesn't pick up the milky way, except for the very bright spot near the spout of the teapot of Sagittarius (you can also make out M7, M8 and perhaps even a hint of M24?). My camera doesn't do the scene justice. I think it might partly be because my dark adapted eyes will have been more sensitive to blue than the rather orange light pollution. The milky way was very clear to the naked eye. I packed up not long after taking the photo because of the high cloud.

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad283/theendisnigh2012/Tenerife/P1020114.jpg

This is a snap of the summer triangle - again the milky way is refusing to show up. I took this on my second observing night where I observed from something like 3 until dawn. This time I observed at a mirador to the west of the Parador because I was mainly wanting to look East and I thought it would be a good idea to get as much distance between me and the Orotava Valley (where the worst light pollution was coming from) as possible.

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad283/theendisnigh2012/Tenerife/P1020133.jpg

Annoyingly the last night before I flew back to Bristol was probably the best night of the lot and I'd already packed up my telescope for the return trip. I went for a dawn hike - here is sunrise in Teide national park:

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad283/theendisnigh2012/Tenerife/P1020140.jpg

The previous photo and the first photo show the trade wind inversion. The main reason I went in June was because the Hadley Cell will have moved North and strengthened and be pressing down on the island. I went in June rather than July because I thought perhaps Saharan dust outbreaks might be less likely earlier in the season - although I've got nothing to base that on! I found it helpful to check these websites before embarking on the journey up from Puerto de la Cruz:

• http://sirocco.accuweather.com/sat_mosaic_640x480_public/EI/isaehatl.gif
  

• IAC Weather Satellite Images
  

• West Cheshire College - Weather - Meteosat 8 Images
  

This is a typical summer satellite image of the Canaries, with Von Karmen vortices in the stratus cloud after passing the islands.

• Canary Islands: Earth Image of the Week
  

Here is an example of a Saharan dust outbreak:

• Untitled Document
  

That shadow's me that is. International man of mystery!

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad283/theendisnigh2012/Tenerife/P1020145.jpg

I couldn't resist visiting the observatory on Tenerife, which is mainly devoted to studying the sun. All the main astronomical 'scopes are over on La Palma. I chose Tenerife over La Palma mainly to avoid disturbing the professional astronomers, although probably there's room for everyone! This is the IAC-80:

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad283/theendisnigh2012/Tenerife/P1020152.jpg

This is the dome of ESA Optical Ground Station:

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad283/theendisnigh2012/Tenerife/P1020165.jpg

The telescope is on a beast of a mount - presumably it needs to be strong so it can move the telescope rapidly to track satellites in low earth orbit.

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad283/theendisnigh2012/Tenerife/P1020167.jpg

James

[JamesC]

I'll just add that I was very impressed by the German guy's telescope. Got me thinking about whether I could build something like this:

http://www4.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~stenzg/reisedobs.html

In the end I decided no! IMHO there is a bit of a gap in the market for really compact travel newtonains. The Heritage-130p looks an interesting development, although I'm not sure how easy it would be to pack the supplied base.

Packing my Starblast was not easy as you might think, but I somehow managed to come in under 20kg for my checked baggage. I left the counterweight at home as it was just too heavy and I find the EQ1 works adequately in alt-azimuth mode without it.

[Talitha]

Thank you James, i feel like i've just returned from hols.. that was quite an enjoyable and educational read! It's too bad the best night was your last, but TBH it sounds like the rest of your time was well spent. Thanks for sharing your pics, they all look just fine.

[Jayla]

Hi JamesC,

The link you posted about the German travelscope, would that not get completely wrecked if you were to travel anywhere by plane? The way I've seen them "shotput" luggage I'd be worried!

[PH-R]

The Sunset shot is fantastic thxs for sharing.

Paul

[JamesC]

The Sunset shot is fantastic thxs for sharing.

Paul

Thanks. I think I improved the image quality this morning. I'm having a total nightmare with photobucket. I don't think the problem is photobucket, but perhaps my ISP caching images, so it's kind of hard to tell what I've got on there. I'll probably do a sneaky check from work tomorrow!

[JamesC]

Hi JamesC,

The link you posted about the German travelscope, would that not get completely wrecked if you were to travel anywhere by plane? The way I've seen them "shotput" luggage I'd be worried!

You are correct. I can confirm that baggage handlers do throw luggage around. I packed my starblast in a fairly tough plastic box (supposed to be used for storing CDs) inside my hardshell suitcase. The big metal head of my EQ1 mount not only put a hole in the jumper I wrapped it in, but put a hole in the plastic box! Luckily there was no damage to the telescope.

I think the idea with the german telescope is you make it so all the boxes nest inside each other and the whole thing passes the size and weight limits of hand luggage. I think it would be really difficult to achieve and there's always the worry that security will think the main mirror is some kind of Al Qaeda discus.

Another serious problem will be packing the trusses. Obviously it would be easier if they split in 2, but then I can't really see the telescope being sufficiently stiff.