Ritchey-Chretien reflector1.52 m
The workhorse. Spectroscopy and photometry on anything from exoplanet transits to supernova follow-up.
Alt-azimuth, active opticsDARK SKY RESERVE / OPEN TO VISITING PROGRAMMES
Two hundred and nine clear nights
A working research station above the inversion layer, with three domes, a permanent staff of eleven, and a sky that is genuinely dark. Time is allocated twice a year and we keep a quarter of it for programmes nobody else would fund.
APPLY FOR TIME04 instruments
In the domes
Cassegrain reflector0.90 m
Survey and time-domain work, run robotically most nights against a queue set the previous afternoon.
Equatorial, roboticRefractor, 19110.31 m
Restored, still on its original clock drive, and used for double star measurement and for teaching.
German equatorialAll-sky monitor6 x 85 mm
Continuous all-sky cloud and transient monitoring, feeding the queue that decides what the robot observes.
Fixed, six cameraCurrent programme
| Programme | Title | Principal investigator | Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|
| P26A-011 | Transit timing of warm Neptunes | R. Oyelaran | 18 nights |
| P26A-024 | Spectroscopy of Type Ia progenitors | H. Lindqvist | 12 nights |
| P26A-031 | Occultation survey, trans-Neptunian | M. Takahashi | 9 nights |
| P26A-047 | Long-baseline double star astrometry | Station staff | 24 nights |
| OPEN | Unallocated, held for targets of opportunity | Director's discretion | 22 nights |
Site conditions
209
Photometric nights in the last calendar year
2,396 m
Altitude, above the winter inversion layer
21.9
Sky brightness, magnitudes per square arcsecond
0.68″
Median seeing across the observing season
The next allocation closes in March.
- Telephone
- +34 922 405 118
- Site
- Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma
- Position
- 28.7543 N / 17.8850 W / 2396 M