OBSERVATORIO DEL TEIDE

The Teide Observatory is located at 2,390 m above sea level on one of the heights adjacent to the Teide National Park. It is accessed by a specially-run road. This observatory is a little special since for the most part dedicated to observation of the Sun. It enjoys very favorable weather conditions with an important annual sunlight and a great stability of its atmosphere conducive to stable images. Its history began in 1964 when a first telescope was commissioned to study the zodiacal light, i. e. the light of the Sun diffused by visible interplanetary dust from Earth as a weakly luminous arch rising above the east or west horizons. Since then, many international instruments have been built like the famous THEMIS telescope, an instrument that concerns us in particular… The Heliographic Telescope for the Study of Magnetism and Solar Instabilities is the result of cooperation between the French national research agencies (CNRS/INSU) and Italian (INFA). It's a solar telescope of 90 cm in diameter currently the third largest in the world. Its design dates back to the 1970 s when the solar pole of the Paris-Meudon Observatory launched the project to establish a telescope in the Canary Islands dedicated specifically to observing the solar magnetic field. 20 years later, its construction begins and THEMIS' sees' its first light in 1996. It is then open to the international community from 1999 onwards. On the spot, unable to miss it with its building of about thirty meters high, an immaculate white, overcome with an astonishing dome totally hermetic (the telescope, placed in vacuum, point the Sun through an optical lock). Site visits are possible via Volcano Teide Experience. Several programs are proposed… Visit to the day including explanations of the observatory itself (in several languages including French), the discovery of a telescope used for night observations (other telescopes being operating during the day), and observations from the Sun using glasses taken for the circumstances by the facilitators. Other formulas are offered, more complete, including the discovery of the Parque Nacional del Teide. For those who want to observe the night sky, two benefits are possible, a simple delivery centered on a "short" evening of observations, and a much more complete delivery, which has our preference, which is also spread over the day with the visit of the Observatory del Teide and observations in the evening.