400 Years of the Telescope

As our plane from Madrid landed safely on the tarmac of the Santa Cruz La Palma airport, we knew that we were in for a treat of a location based on the beautiful scenery seen from the windows of our plane. The coast of the island was covered in white-sanded beaches and small beach-town communities in and around the city of Santa Cruz. Our excitement for the new adventure in La Palma was not exhausted when we discovered that two of our bags had not been safely stowed in the luggage compartment on our aircraft. They were still in Madrid, waiting to be moved. We made arrangements with the airline to have them returned to us the next morning before our flight back to Madrid, but we were concerned for the shoot that waited ahead for us in the next 24 hours. We collected our bags and the rental car from the airport and headed out towards the mountaintop that lay above the clouds. We passed through multiple biomes on the way to the summit – beaches, cities, suburbs, forest and finally the dusty and lava-rock covered lands of the summit of Roque de los Muchachos. We spotted the first of the domes about 5 miles from our destination and we watched as more and more domes came into view the closer we got. About a mile from the very top of the mountain, we came to the administrative building for the observatory and we stopped to check in and get our rooming assignments for the night. The staff greeted us and they showed us around the facilities before giving us our room keys and allowing us to roam the mountain. As we had arrived to the summit a little before sunset, we took the opportunity to get some shots of the beautiful sunset as the sun descended below the clouds in a pink and orange glow.

Kris set up his still camera to do some time-lapse shots of the GTC against the Milky Way. The dome of the GTC closely resembles the Gemini Telescope domes, minus the difference in the ventilation systems.

The next morning, we got up a bit early to take footage of the sunrise over the ridge covered in telescopes. The view was spectacular and we enjoyed every moment watching the domes close up after a long night of observing. The rest of our day was scheduled to be at the GTC where construction of the dome and preparations for the telescope to become operational are still underway. Dr. Riccardo Scarpa showed us around the facility and explained the process of the dome’s construction over the past several years to us. The telescope achieved first light last year and the staff is prepared for the telescope to become completely operational within the next year. Our interview with Dr. Scarpa gave us some insight on Observing in the near future, giving us a preview of new technologies and theories that are being considered at the moment. With our lack of lighting gear due to the airline’s misplacement of our gear, we used what we could to get our shots well-lit with the work-lights of the dome. We got some great b-roll shots of the workers in the dome as they completed some final preperation work on the pistons on the segmented mirrors of the GTC and the structure itself. The interior sounds of welding, loud speaking and walkie talkies going off posed some difficulties with our audio capturing which caused us to move our intended schedule around a bit, holding our interview until the workers’ lunch break. At that time, we were completely alone in the dome besides a few of the workers who were just walking around the facility. Then, the only ambient noise heard in the audio equipment was a cell-phone ring or soft chatter every now and again.

We regretted the fact that we had to cut the wonderful afternoon short at the GTC, but we had an early evening flight to catch down in Santa Cruz. We collected our gear and raced down the mountain to discover even more travel difficulties beyond our still-lost luggage. Apparently Anita and Scott had been placed on an earlier flight to the lack of our knowledge. After some discussion and the purchase of 2 more tickets for the later flight, we were once again on schedule to return home.