Roque De Los Muchachos, La Palma

[Coast]

The Roque de los Muchachos is a rocky mound at the highest point on the volcanic island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. The rocks are at 2,426 m above sea level, not far from the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, where some of the world's largest telescopes are situated; the altitude and the dryness of the climate here give rise to excellent observing conditions. The rocks are contained with the Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente.

The observatory started with the Isaac Newton Telescope, which was moved to La Palma from the Royal Greenwich Observatory site at Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex in 1979. The move was beset with difficulties, and it is widely recognized that it would have been cheaper to have built a new telescope rather than moving an existing one.

The site features the following important telescopes:

1. Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC)
   
2. The William Herschel Telescope
   
3. Telescopio Nazionale GALILEO
   
4. The Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT)
   
5. The Isaac Newton Telescope
   
6. Liverpool Telescope
   
7. The Swedish Solar Telescope (SST)
   

Here area few snaps I took last week: