These visits, which focus on astronomical observation, are one of the most important activities for anyone visiting the island of La Palma.

The Great Telescope of the Canary Islands (GRANTECAN)

The Grantecan is one of the largest optical and infrared telescopes in the world, with a primary mirror of 10.4 metres in diameter. Consequently, this light-gathering capacity allows astronomers to explore the cosmos with unprecedented clarity, revealing the mysteries of stars, galaxies and other celestial bodies.

Since its inauguration in 2009, Grantecan has been at the centre of important scientific discoveries, such as the detection of exoplanets and the study of the dark matter and dark energy that make up the Universe. Every night, the telescope’s eyes turn skyward, exploring the far reaches of the cosmos and expanding our understanding of the universe we inhabit.

Visit Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory

The visits proposed by AstroLaPalma are guided tours during the day, in which the facilities are shown, including the interior of the Grantecan. This type of visit is only permitted for people over 6 years of age and, if you are over 70 years of age, it is advisable to consult a doctor prior to the visit.

The approximate duration of the visit is around 1:30-1:50 hours, and visits are offered in both English and Spanish. As mentioned above, this type of visit is led by a certified Starlight guide, so it is essential to book in advance.

Furthermore, this type of activity is subject to weather conditions and/or the operation of the Observatory, as there may be cancellations or date changes due to weather conditions or telescope operation.

For further information related to notices and conditions, or to make a reservation, please access the following link on our website: Visit Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory

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The Tajogaite volcano, the new volcano on the island of La Palma, is open to restricted visits and only with guided accompaniment. This offers the possibility to get approximately 1 km closer to the cone and to see the effect of the eruption, the volcanic cone, the lava flows and how the surrounding vegetation is recovering. In addition, the guides during the visit to the Tajogaite volcano offer detailed information to help you understand the volcanism of the Canary Islands in a simple way. Reservations for visits (in English from 1st October): visits to the volcano.

Foto del Volcán Cumbre Vieja, erupción 2021.

To access the volcano you have to walk 2.5 km (5 km total) with 4 explanatory stops. The experience is unique and memorable. There is no similar experience in the whole country. It is an experience not to be missed….

Volcán Tajogaite.

The Tajogaite volcano, originally called Cumbre Vieja, is a volcano located in the municipality of El Paso on the island of La Palma, Canary Islands. It originated in the eruption that started on 19 Sept 2021, after an initial phase of 25 000 small earthquakes that hit the island for eight days. It stopped on 13 December of the same year, after 85 days of activity, being the longest historical eruption recorded on La Palma and the third longest in the Canary archipelago, and the most recent volcano in the Spanish terrestrial geography.

The volcano has a height of 1120 m above sea level, but the main cone is approximately 200 m high. Apart from this main mouth, the Tajogaite volcano complex has 6 aligned craters. The main crater has a major axis of 172 metres and a minor axis of 106 metres.

* This is how the volcano’s lava flows appear now. They have affected 10% of the island’s territory. Full Drone images of the lava flows here: https://lapalma.maps.arcgis.com/apps/StorytellingSwipe/index.html?appid=e81adc67019244f599dd5abe6c3ec9bd#

* Reportaje del National Geographic durante la erupción: https://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/naturaleza/dia-a-dia-erupcion-volcan-cumbre-vieja-palma_17551

Reservations to astronomy tours here.

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The Roque de Los Muchachos Astrophysical Observatory on La Palma island is a prestigious research centre with one of the most advanced professional telescope arrays in the world. Here is a video with spectacular images of the night sky over La Palma and of the sky at the Observatorio de La Palma at night (see note below*). In the video you can see the William Herschel Telescope, the Gran Telescopio de Canarias and other smaller telescopes.

The Roque de Los Muchachos Astrophysical Observatory offers daytime visits to its facilities (Reservations: here) but night time visits are possible during working hours.

However, do not dispair as La Palma is a Dark Sky Reserve (an Starlight Reserve) and stargazing is possible on the whole island. Here is a list and map of the astronomy viewpoints and astronomical sites of interest if you wish to stargaze. But if you need a little bit more: explanations, use of telescopes and a guided tour of the sky, you may consider joining one of our astronomy tours.

More information about the Observatory on its official website: iac.es/orm

Video by Vikas Chandler. Observatory Roque de Los Muchachos (La Palma) at night.

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If you want to get the Observatory Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the Canary Island of La Palma for a visit or just to enjoy the fantastic views, here we explain how to get to the Observatory. There is only an access road, the LP4 road, that goes from Santa Cruz de La Palma to the municipality of Garafía. This road is a mountain road as the Observatory is virtually on the highest point of the island, at an altitude of 2400m. From Santa Cruz on the LP4, there are 36 km of road of sinuous curves. However, the road is beautiful and offers spectacular views, but since it is a mountain road, you have to climb slowly and carefully. It usually takes between 1:15h to 1:30h to get up with a few minutes to rest and to take pictures.

The access by Garafía has a shorter patch on the lp4 road, but first you have to get to Garafía, on the north of the island via the LP1 road. From Los Llanos de Aridane to the Observatory, on the west of the island, it takes about 1:30h without traffic and, from Santa Cruz de La Palma, by the LP1 to Garafía and then to the Observatory (12 kms on the LP4) it takes approximately 2 hours (on the east of the island). Also the road is very beautiful. We recommend to access the Observatory via Lp4 road from Santa Cruz and then leave the observatory via Lp4-Garafía-Lp1 to Los Llanos or to Barlovento.

Once in the Observatory you may access the Roque de Los Muchachos summet (inside the National Park). This last stretch of road is open during the day. At night, the road is closed to the public.

If interested on a guided visit to the Observatory (mornings only) , please book in advance on the link (limited places) here.

For more information about the Observatory please access the official website here.

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• the darkness of the island
• a stable atmosphere
• the low air and light pollution
• the observatory being above the cloud level for more than 300 days on a given year
• the sky of La Palma is also protected by law from 1989 (Law of the sky), enforcing the control of light pollution by regulating street lighting and air communication routes.

Visits to the Observatory can be booked here: Daytime Visits.

New telescopes at Observatory Roque Muchachos

The newest incorporation to the Observatory facilities in recent years are 23 Cherenkov telescopes which will be part of the International Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). La Palma will be the northern site for this network. The largest Cherenkov telescopes will have 23 m in diameter. In 2016, the fundation has been laid for the 3rd Cherenkov telescope in La Palma.

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy at very-high energies. With more than 100 telescopes located in the northern and southern hemispheres, CTA will be the world’s largest and most sensitive high-energy gamma-ray observatory. This network will be capable of observing the whole of the sky, inside and outside our galaxy as it will have 120 telescopes between both hemispheres. It will also cover a very wide range of energies ranges from several dozen Gev to 100TeV (1 TeV = 1012 eV) seeking to understand the origin and role of relativistic cosmic particles, probe extreme environments and explore physics frontiers.

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is very possibly another incorporation to the Observatory. It is planned to be located on Mauna Kea (Hawaii) but its construction has been temporarily halted due to protests by Native Hawaiian americans. In 2015, the State Supreme Court of Hawaii invalidated the TMT’s building permits and it is likely that the telescope cannot be built in Hawaii. Hence Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma is the alternative site. At the end of 2017, the final decision of the site for TMT will be decided.

The TMT is much larger than existing telescopes (although the E-ELT telescope is still bigger) and it is designed to observe from near ultraviolet to mid-infrarred (wavelength 0.31 to 28 μm). It also have adaptive optics which will help to correct errors caused by Earth´s atmosphere helping the telescope to reach its maximum resolution.

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History

After years in the drawing boards of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, in 1994 GRANTECAN SA when it was founded, with the aim of designing and building the world’s largest telescope: the Gran Telescopio Canarias. Subsequently, agreements were signed with the Government of Mexico, for two of their universities to participate in the project and also joined as a partner the United States, through the University of Florida. The telescope cost no less than 130 million euros and has an annual budget of nearly 9 million Euros.

The construction of the telescope at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos on the island of La Palma, began in 2000 and the start of the science phase began operating in March 2009. The telescope time is shared by Spanish scientists (90%), Mexico (5%) and the U.S. (5%), the same percentage who contributed to the initial project.

Curiosities

• We can compare the power of sight of the telescope to four million human eyes. It could distinguish the headlights of a car at about 20,000 miles away.
• The metal structure of the dome is assembled with screws 16,000 and 43,000 metal nuts.
• The mirrors are cleaned with powdered snow made of carbon dioxide. There are 6 spare mirrors.
• GTC employs about 65 people or so (about 45 on the island of La Palma alone). There are 4 working groups: maintenance, science, management and development.
• Any day between 10-20 people are working on the telescope, the rest work in offices remotely. However, at night, despite its size, the telescope requires only 2 people to run observations: an astronomer and a technician. It’s all computerized.

Results

The Gran Telescopio de Canarias studies the nature of black holes, star and galaxy formation of a very young Universe. A fairly booming field developed here is the study of distant exoplanets (Planetary Transits) and very energetic events such as: very distant supernovae & black hole collisions.

See scientific publications derived from the Gran Telescopio de Canarias data by clicking here.

More about the other telescopes at the Observatory Roque de Los Muchachos can be found on the official website of the Observatory or at Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and William Herschel Telescope.

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