La Concepción Viewpoint

One of the activities on La Palma is the astronomic tourism, due to the fact it has one of the clearest skies in all of Europe, which permits scientist to observe the stars with great clarity. They’ve been recently inaugurating stellar observation points in distinct places throughout the island, like those found in Los Llanos de Jable (in El Paso), or Llano de la Venta (in Brena Baja), the have information panels to help casual observers identify the starts and constellations.

We went to an astronomical observation accompanied by an expert from the AstroTour Isla Bonita association and their telescope. We went to Risco de la Concepción, an observation point 300 meters about the city of Santa Cruz, where they taught us how to identify the Big and Small Dippers, and the North Star.

An AstroTour in La Palma is, without a doubt, one of the ten things you must do while in La Palma. We’re talking about one of the best places in the world for stellar observation. Up in the mountains you’ll find the Roque de los Muchachos Astrophysics Center, just to give you an idea.

We were a group of 20 people plus the guide and his fantastic telescope (worth 5,500€). The guide accompanied his fantastic explanations with a super powerful laser pointer that helped identify the countless marvels of different stars, constellations, etc.

If you like photography, don’t forget to bring your tripod (which I forgot), you’ll be very happy you did. It’s a perfect place for nocturnal photography, with La Palma at your feet, covered by a fantastic sea of clouds.

It’s also called La Concepción lookout point and it has the best view of the capital, Santa Cruz de La Palma, from up above. You can make out the entire city, with the sea in the background.

We went up for astronomical observations with Elena Nordio, an astrophysicist that works in Astrotour.es, an agency specializing in astronomical tourism. Don’t forget that La Palma is home to the Roque de los Muchachos, one of the most modern astronomical observation centers in the Northern hemisphere.

We couldn’t see many stars because the moon was full, but Elena gave us great explanations