Two Telescopes at Minas de San José: Watching and Photographing

Two telescopes work at once on this one. The first is for looking through: Saturn with its rings, Jupiter with its moons, then nebulae, galaxies and star clusters. The second does nothing but astrophotography, capturing the objects in real time, and those images are sent to you afterwards. Teide National Park is reckoned one of the three best places on Earth to look at the sky. Over 2,000 metres up, more than 300 clear nights a year, and almost no light pollution. The evening opens with the naked eye, before any glass is involved: the constellations, the bright planets, the Milky Way, and the mythology attached to each figure. The telescopes come after that. Groups are kept small, so everyone gets time at the eyepiece and the Starlight-certified guide can answer questions one at a time. The operator has been running this for more than 20 years.