The Darkest Sky I've Ever Seen | Astronomy Vacation in La Palma | A Giant Telescope
🌌 Astrophotography Paradise: La Palma, Canary Islands 🌌 In this video, I take you to La Palma, one of Europe’s premier destinations for stargazing and astrophotography. I’ll shar...
My favourite place on Earth! I'm heading back out there in May for the 3rd time, can't wait! I have some vlogs from there myself on my channel if you want to check them out. The place you stayed looks awesome with the Observatory decks on the roof! 🌌
I plan to go back again this year as well, though I haven't booked anything yet
@the_space_koala it's a stunning place! Did you head up to mirador de los andenes and do the caldera walk during the night? It's unbelievable! I'm hoping to visit there twice this year, in May, and then hopefully book to go in December for the Geminids Meteor Shower. Alyn Wallace did the Geminids there and he's a big inspiration for me.
You pick the best vacation destinations! Thanks!
Great astronomy channel! I really like the content of your videos and even more the way you present it. I am originally from La Palma but living in Norway. I can confirm that the skies of La Palma are exceptionally clear.
thank you and wow lucky you!
Awesome
✌️
We attended StarMus on La Palma in April this year. WOW. Managed an observatory visit too, hope to return with more astronomy equipment and stay at Athos Star Campus next time
I only recently found out about the StarMus event - it seems amazing!
If you are intested in the Dark Skys of La Palma, check out the "Casa Rosabel". A villa with its own telescopes. Been twice, it is a pure joy.
oh this looks cool, thanks!
it's truly sad that the "darkest skies of europe" as the video is captioned are actually in Africa and some of the darkest skies belong to a European country thanks to its colonial past.
Looks amazing, I want to go as well. Thanks a lot for the nice video!
You should!
Hi, I've been there 3 times now, and just love it, going again as soon as possible,this time with more equipment
have fun, I hope to go back soon as well!
So can go there without bringing your own gear and rent everything? The apartments with an observatory on the roof looks really interesting :) and to even have access to a 25” telescope would be amazing.
yeah that's exactly the case! I happened to bring my own equipment but met many others who brought either nothing or mostly just a camera and maybe a camera control system and they rented everything else there!
@ That is so convenient:)
Your smiling muscles must of gotten exercised all the time there.
muscles are still in recovery! :)
How were the views there through a 25" scope? Could you see galaxy features, etc? How much better was it than a say a 11-14" under normal skies?
I’m not a very experienced visual observer but the difference was significant. Incredible details in M31, and for some NGC galaxies you could make out their central dust lanes very clearly too! I also saw the horsehead nebula with a H beta filter 😍
Wow! This place is on my todo list!
What a fantastic place to see and photograph the heavens. I'd love to bring my 380mm F/4.5 Dob there! I can only imagine how dark and clear the skies are there. I was in western Oklahoma within sight of the Rockies on three occasions. It was so dark there Venus casts shadows and the Milky Way shines with a yellow hue. It must be like that at La Palma if not even darker. With skies that dark and a telescope like that the entire NGC and IC catalog of objects is visible through it. It was like that for me with the 380mm in Oklahoma.
La Palma is dark, but it's not one of the darkest places on Earth. in Europe sadly there is nothing as dark as some of the skies in the US, so you're lucky! The darkest sky I've ever had a chance to experience (though only momentarily so it doesn't count - as there was just 1 hour of observing time between moonset and sunrise) was just outside of Bryce Canyon in Utah. La Palma is amazing, however, as it has very stable, reliable weather, usually great seeing conditions, this is what makes it an ideal astro vacation destination.
Looks amazing - id be interested to see some of the frames you took there :)
I’m slowly processing them - I’ve posted many on my social media and astrobin :)
Great video, planning to visit La Palma this year and test my Dwarf 3 under this perfect dark sky.
Enjoy!
wonderful video; checking out to go there right now!
Glad I could inspire you 😁
Certainly politically Europe but so far south i'd say geographically Africa?The Maderian archipeligo too?Not sure about the Azores as they are further north.Unlike the Pacific islands where many are called Oceania all Altantic ones geographically belong to a continent.
Yes it’s clearly Africa geographically speaking. Where it’s not volcanoes it’s sand dunes 😁 but for us as Europeans I guess the fact that it’s Spain makes travel a lot easier!
Great video. Been to Athos a number of times and fondly remember the stunning views the 25" delivered (no everyday objects, though). Nice to see the mirror has been recoated. Keep up the great work. Best wishes from Appenzell.
thank you so much! Who knows maybe we'll run into one another once in La Palma or on a Swiss mountain top :D