Slooh.com Canary Islands observatory

The Slooh.com Canary Islands observatory is a remote-access facility at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias' Observatorio del Teide on Tenerife, Spain, one of the clearest and highest observing sites in Europe.

About the Slooh Canary Islands observatory

Operated in partnership with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, the site hosts two telescope domes built for Slooh's online astronomy service. One dome is optimized for planetary viewing at high magnification, using 14-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, while the other is set up for deep-sky imaging, with wide-field views also available through a telephoto lens or apochromatic refractor. The site holds the official observatory code G40, assigned in 2012.

History

Slooh was founded in 2002, and its first telescope at this Tenerife site went online on December 25, 2003, opening to public access the following year.

Location & getting there

The observatory sits at Izaña on Tenerife, in Spain's Canary Islands, at an elevation of around 2,300 metres (7,500 feet) - high enough to sit above much of the atmosphere's turbulence and light pollution, which is why the Teide site was chosen for professional and remote astronomy alike.

Visiting the Slooh Canary Islands observatory

This is a working remote-observing facility rather than a walk-in visitor centre, so check the official Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Slooh websites before planning any visit or access request.

See your named star from here

Because the telescopes here can be pointed at precise sky coordinates, the exact right ascension and declination of a star named through Star Register can, in principle, be located from this high-altitude Tenerife site. Explore the star catalogue to find a named star's coordinates.