Astro Workshop 19 – Day 4

Tuesday May 27th

We met with Alyn in the afternoon for a tutorial on the use of star trackers.  Then an early evening meal so we could leave at 18:00 for the Mount Teide Cable Car. We went up to the top of the Mountain (not quite the summit) and there are some spectacular views of the extinct volcano crater Pico Viejo next to Mount Teide.  Due to the altitude 11,663 ft or 3,555 metres, I could only make it halfway along the trail (problems breathing being totally unfit) but managed to get some spectacular shots of the crater.

After taking the cable car up Mount Teide. As the sun goes down, the shadow of Mount Teide lengthens.
The shadow of Mount Teide touching the peak of the mountains opposite.
The tour party continuing along the trail to see the sunset around the corner. Due to the altitude, I had great difficulty breathing and waited here rather than going on.
Mount Teide is a volcano that is still smoking since it’s last eruption in 1909.
The spectacular caldera of Pico Viejo next to Mount Teide.
The golden sunset light falling on the walls of the Caldera.

Following the cable car ride back down, we had a talk on the night sky by some astronomers and looked though some telescopes at some of the planets, stars and galaxies in the night sky.

Using telescopes to view the night sky at the bottom cable car station (photograph by Alyn Wallace)

After we finished at the cable car station, we then went on to find some more Tajinaste flowers to set up another set of Milkyway shots with the flowers in the foreground.

The milkyway above some Tajinaste flowers. The flowers were light painted from the left hand side.

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