Transcript

INSTRUCTOR:

By now, I hope you're all getting used to using Stellarium, finding your way around the night sky, and learning some of the more prominent constellations. And I hope that some of you have had the opportunity to get outside and match those up what you've seen on the screen with the night sky outside. Now, at this stage, you don't need a lot of equipment. You don't need expensive telescopes.

There's an awful lot that you can do in astronomy just with your own eyes, and perhaps with a simple pair of binoculars. And in fact, when I started out in astronomy, for a long time, I just used a pair of binoculars. And it was some time before I started acquiring my first telescope which you need for photography, and so on.

As those of you who've had a look at the night sky from outside have probably found by now, more important is to find yourself a site that's nice and dark, away from streetlights, and finding clear weather can be a challenge as well. So, a good observing site at this stage is more important than equipment. And a particularly good choice is up the mountain side.

So here at Mount Teide, we're 2,400 metres up. We're well above the cloud layer. We've got beautiful clear air, and we're well away from the cities and any light pollution. So when night falls, we've got beautiful, clear, dark skies which are perfect for astronomy. And that's the reason that we've chosen this site for our COAST and PIRATE telescopes. And we're not the only ones who think this is a great place for an astronomical observatory.

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