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The Canary Islands Trip
for the Laureates of Cirta Science 4

October 9-14 , 2012

Sirius Canary Islands
Dwarfed by a Giant

زيارة عربية إلى تحفة طبيعية وعلمية في وسط المحيط الأطلاسي
عاد من جزر الكناري الفريق الجزائري المتكون من الفائزين في مسابقة علمية متميزة مرفوقين بفلكيين. فزاروا من خلال هذه الزيارة أكبر تلسكوب في العالم ذو قطر عشر أمتار ونصف.هذه الرحلة التي دامت أسبوع تقريبا تم فيها زيارة مرصدين هناك، مرصد Teide بجزيرة تينيريف (Tenerife )، ومرصد Roque de los Muchachos  بجزيرة لابالما (La Palma) ، وتعتبر أول زيارة من فلكيين عرب هناك بشهادة إدارة المراصد.
للتذكبر تنظم هذه المسابقة العلمية المتميزة كل سنة بالجزائر بين الطلبة الثانويين تحت إشراف جمعية الشعرى لعلم الفلك.
في هذه المدة جاب الوفد المؤسسات العلمية وخاصة التلسكوبات الشهيرة منها GTC Gran Telescopio Canarias- وهو أكبر تلسكوب في العالم، تلسكوب وليام هرتشل  ذو قطر4,2 متر، اسحاق نيوتن ذو قطر 2.5 متر، البرج الشمسي السويدي وهو التلسكوب الذي التقط أدق صور سطح الشمس من الارض إلى يومنا هذا، التلسكوب البلجيكي Mercator" "، مجموعة تلسكوبات SuperWASP  المخصصة لدراسة الكواكب خارج النظام الشمسي، التلسكوبان  MAGIC ذوا قطر 17 متر للأشعة غاما وتلسكوبات أخرى عديدة. كما تم زيارة تشكيلات جيولوجية ذات مناظر خلابة تنفرد بها جزر الكناري ولا ننسى ومتحف العلوم الشهير بالتينيريف. (انظر الصور الملحقة).

 

The Trip to the Land of Eternal Spring


Leaving Houari Boumedienne Airport at Algiers towards Madrid, the first step on our trip to the Canaries.

The Youth Hostel we reached at night at the Valle de Guerra near La Laguna on the Tenerife island.

Few kilometers remaining to the ORM Observatory.

In front of the Gran Telescopio Canarias

Inside the Beast, with the appropriate gear



Standing dwarfed in full delectation.


The huge primary mirror. A whopping 10.4m polished at a submicron accuracy. Can you see the mirror itself ?



The secondary mirror can be seen in the back.


Inside the GTC control room

The history of the GTC unfolding in this panel.

The Isaac Newton Telescope of 2.5m of diameter.

Inside the The Isaac Newton Telecope's dome.

Inside the control room of the Isaac Newton telecope


A crowded landscape of telescopes.


Solar observation at the Teide Observatory

With Antonio Gonzalez, our scientific guide during our whole stay at ORM.
At the Teide Observatory on the Tenerife Island

A friendly crow making its show.

Learned explanations at one of the optical telescopes at Teide Observatory.

Displaying the "flag".
The Swedish 1meter Solar telescope dominating tower.


Posing next to the Swedish Solar tower with the imposing William Herschell telescope behind us.

The end of the vacuum telescope. Adaptative optics corrects the mirror several hundred to more than 1000 times per second, it is an astonishingly well performing solar telescope.

See here for details.

Inside the sunspots ! Perhaps the highest-resolution solar image ever of a sunspot observed on July 15, 2002. Scale: 20.000km x 30.000km.


Inside the Solar tower, at the end of the telescope where the Sun's pictures are collected and treated.


The Belgian Mercator telescope

One of the two 17m MAGIC telescopes working on night duty to catch galactic and extra galactic Gamma rays.

Here another view of MAGIC 1. Can you see us somewhere in the frame? We are all there. See next picture at right.


Here the inverted reflection image of the team along with Carlos Gonzalez, the ORM's Director. For a more detailed straightened up picture, see here. Can you find out who took the picture?


A view of MAGIC 1 and 2 as well as the GTC at upper right from the heliport.
Wandering in Out-of-this-World landscapes ...

A picture in front of a huge standing rock.

Leaving the Teide Observatory towards Los Cristanos in the Southern part of the Tenerife island to take from there an evening ferry to La Palma

Lunar landscapes ?

We see the Teide Observatory in the background at the top.

Martian landscapes?



Weird geological formations

More weird geological formations. Click to see the details.

Spectacle of desolation: the extensive Summer fire wiped out whole forests from the Tenerife island.
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Boarding the ferry from Tenerife to La Palma.

Boarding the ferry "Volcan de Taburiente" that we see here reaching the harbor.

Eerie view from the ferry's deck while leaving the harbor early evening.
Staying the night at Santa Cruz de la Palma with a view on a small harbor from the Hotel's room. The view o the Atlantic ocean in early morning.

A glorious sushine a little bit later

A view of Santa Cruz de la Palma far away from the coast in the late afternoon.
At the "Museum de la Ciencia y el Cosmos" in Tenerife

View of the Museum from the air


At the small planetarium of the Museum.


Can you see who is standing on the Radiotelescope on the Museum's roof? Clck on the picture.




Black Hole effect: the great spiraling fall...

Last Shoots

Night observation with the Milky Way in the back. Thanks Antonio.

At the summit of the Roque de Los Muchachos mountain

Bakir pausing with the imposing Teide Mount in his back

Back at Algiers landing under a fiery sky.

 

 
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