The urban environment
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Nowadays, truly dark
observing sites are almost inexistent in Europe. I live in a city called Valencia, whose metropolitan
area gathers 1.5 million dwellers. It is a coastal city, heavily light‑polluted,
having a typical Mediterranean weather (few rains concentrated in autumn).
Poor transparency in the first mountain ranges is not uncommon when the winds
blow from the sea, but northern or western winds tends to clean all wetness,
and leave crystal skies, perfect for deep sky. The picture below shows the
Planetarium and the Science Museum, part of what is called "Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias"
(=City of Arts and Sciences) complex,
that also includes a large aquarium and an opera house.
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Valencia is a medium-size city with a
rather large sea harbor, very active. During the night the artificial lights
are really intense, and to worsen the panorama, the minimal presence of coastal
fogs intensifies severely their effects. Thus, when you raise your eyes to the
firmament, you see the worst awfully light-polluted skies you can imagine. It
is often hard to see 3rd magnitude stars from the place where I live, and
detecting deep sky objects is, well, usually science fiction. Only under
western winds regime, some bright deep sky objects can be spotted, and one has
to limit oneself to observe the Moon, planets and bright double stars. Some
kilometers away the harbor area the problems with light pollution are less
dramatic, but the conditions for practicing deep sky are demanding. What to do?
Run away...
The rural environment
Fortunately, moving to the inlands to
find acceptably dark places only requires taking your car and an hour travel, most
by highways. My usual observing place is the area close to a small village
called Barracas, in the border of the central plateau
in Spain, 1000 meters high and ca. 70 Km far of the coast. In transparent days
the Mediterranean Sea can be glimpsed from there. The horizon in Barracas is
rather dark, and when the dominant winds blow off the coastal dew, is possible
to observe objects at the same horizon, such as Omega Centauri. This giant
cluster is only 3º high at the meridian from Valencia, but can be partially
resolved; I cannot imagine how splendid Omega would look at the zenith.
Near Barracas there is a very good place
called the Salada Peak, from which one can observe without any
moisture interference in winter nights, since fogs tend to lay below, in the
plateau. Nevertheless, the temperature usually falls below zero degrees and
even the weakest wind may make hard to resist the low temperatures.
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The Salada Peak, looking at the East (Palancia valley
and Mediterranean coast), is a typical mid mountain place 1600 m above the
sea level, very good for observing in foggy nights. |
Another good observing place close to the Barracas area. This is an isolated hill spotting in the plain with good visibility
in all directions, although more susceptible to moisture. |
My secondary house is within a small
village (800 inhabitants) called Algar de Palancia. Years ago it was an acceptable place for
practicing deep sky, but not anymore. It seems incredible how a so small place,
that should have dark skies, can waste so much light, ruining the firmament.
For this reason, years ago I abandoned Algar in favor of more distant places.
So my usual strategy consists of taking the car and driving to Barracas,
introduced just above.
Some months ago I updated the telescope
and purchased a Meade Deep Sky Imager, which has opened new possibilities. Now
I can observe again from Algar with the Meade LX200, taking shots that show
easily objects beyond the eye capabilities from a much better sky. I am not
interested at the moment in spending all the night in taking one or two
long-exposure shots. Instead, I prefer observing as if my eyes were the deep
sky imager (less perfect images, but more deep sky objects). Some images
showing my learning curve can be seen here.
The perfect place for
a deep sky observer: the Javalambre Peak
At 30 Km NW from Barracas it is located my
best observing place: the Javalambre Peak, almost 2000 meters high, which means
it is the highest peak around Valencia, and almost a dark spot in light
pollution maps (such as that on the top right). Javalambre and Salada peaks are
the southern elevations of the Iberian
System Range (the wide dark area in the map).
This picture was taken near a viewpoint
close to the Javalambre apex, looking at the East. The transparency was
exceptional. That night was able to catch some globular clusters in Scorpius at
the same horizon.
The naked-eye limiting magnitude is
usually well above 6.5, sometimes reaching 7.0. With my 10" LX200 for
instance I have been able to observe 8 globular clusters in M31 and very faint
planetary nebulae.
As you can see, the place is a typical
high mountain landscape. In this case, it looks very dry because of the summer.
The road at the center leads to the nearest village, 500 meters below, called Torrijas.
The Iberian System in the Javalambre
region is north‑to‑East split by a long valley crossed by the Arcos
creek. The valley is a particularly beautiful place to spend some days enjoying
the nature, with recreational areas, fountains and forests.
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An
August
dusk before an observing night.
The peak projects its own shadow in the valley below. The twilight is coming
and in a couple of hours Sagittarius will lay just in front this place. |
Javalambre in December. A close area of that pictured on the left now
covered by snow, which makes the road to the summit rather risky even to 4x4
cars. |
This is a picture taken in the before
mentioned viewpoint, once the night had covered Javalambre. It is a very good
place, although the west remains partially hidden by the summit. In the
picture, my favorite combination for practicing deep sky: the 25 cm Meade
LX 200 assisted by Celestron Skymaster 25´100 binoculars. The binos are fantastic
for star hopping. Its field is, however, often too narrow (2.5º) to allow
locating the exact place or take references, so I have coupled a 9´50 finder. Once explored the field, I
use the telescope to examine the object in depth. That night I was not using
the electronics for pointing and tracking the telescope, and it was one of the
best I have ever enjoyed. See also the Instruments
& Books section.
So, these are the places for deep sky in
the nearby. In the next sections I will present articles, reference material,
catalogues, tools, software, pictures, observation reports and a lot of more
stuff. All the material here is offered to you with the most altruistic
intention, to promote deep sky observing, the most wonderful hobby.
Enjoy it, and clear skies.