La Palma is one of the most beautiful of the canary islands and one of its main attractions are the hiking paths. One of the most visited parts of the island is the top of the mountain where there are amazing views, lots of hiking paths and also a lot of telescopes (among these the worlds largest telescope).
This attracts hikers amateur astronomers and also hundreds of astronomers. I've had the chance to go here now and had some time to look around and since I have started to turf a lot in Uppsala, I miss it now while visiting down here. Their for I decided to use all of my 3 suggestions this month at places where I thought that they would be fitting.
All of the zones are placed where there are good reception for cellphones and GPS. Other things I thought of when making my suggestions were the following:
- Places where everyone that comes here should go due to both the amazing view and also to have a good view of the telescopes around.
- Open wireless network connections (since tourists might not want to use data traffic in a foreign country).
- Close to the mountain tops (in 2 of 3 cases)
The three zones I suggested were the following:
- SSTsunview
Outside the Swedish solar telescope. This is close to the northern mountain top, close to a hiking path and is the place where you can see most of the northern telescopes. The telescope itself is the worlds leading solar telescope (with the best resolution). The zone is fairly easy to access once you are up on the mountain.
- NOTstarview
On the parking lot outside the Nordic Optical Telescope. This is a really impressive telescope. It is the telescope with the highest altitude of all the telescopes on La Palma. It is also very close to the mountain top and to a hiking path. From here you can also see the worlds largest optical telescope and down the valley of the mountain. This one is also easy to access and strongly recommended.
- AstronomyRes
This zone is located at the parking lot of the hotel (Residencia) up here where most of the visiting astronomers stay. It is easy to access and have a lot of visitors both for accommodation and good food if you just want to eat. From here you can see the Magic I and Magic II telescopes which are very huge telescopes. Since they are observing gamma ray radiation, the mirrors doesn't have to be covered with a dome, so it is a very nice way to be able to see the mirrors.
All the 3 zones would take about 3 hours to get if are the average hiker and stop to take some pictures and so on, so I feel that they are far enough apart, but still at places that you would want to visit.
I hope that these zones seem good, and that you might add them here.
If you have any questions about the zones or want me to go look for more good zones around here, feel free to comment.
Thanks!
// Cyoor
La Palma (Canary islands - Spain)
Re: La Palma (Canary islands - Spain)
I´m going to the Canary Islands in november. It would be realy nice if there were more zones on the island of Gran Canaria. Today there is ONE on the beach in Playa del Ingles.
To be able to turf there must be more than one zone on this big island otherwise it is not worth the effort to visit one zone now and then. So please several more zones would be appreciated on the south coast of Gran Canaria. Suggestions; Puerto de Mogan, The beach Amadores, Puerto Rico, Patalavaca, Arguineguin.
To be able to turf there must be more than one zone on this big island otherwise it is not worth the effort to visit one zone now and then. So please several more zones would be appreciated on the south coast of Gran Canaria. Suggestions; Puerto de Mogan, The beach Amadores, Puerto Rico, Patalavaca, Arguineguin.
Re: La Palma (Canary islands - Spain)
More zones there would be nice, yes!
Turf member since: 2013-01-26 00:37:51
Re: La Palma (Canary islands - Spain)
No plans to extend the number of zones abroad at the moment
Mobile: Samsung S7| Location: Västerås / Stockholm
Re: La Palma (Canary islands - Spain)
Unfortunately it's as SunYour says. I was in Lisbon just last week and there wasn't a single zone to be found, so at least you have one zone to play with and do revisits
Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy shit, what a ride!"