information om La Palma

General Facts:

Capital: Santa Cruz de La Palma Area: 708 Km² Altitude: 2.426 m, Roque de los Muchachos Position: Lat: 28,68° North - Long: 17,85° West Distance to Africa: 375 Km Population: Approx. 83.000 Nearest Islands: La Gomera, distance 35 Km Shoreline: 119,9 Km Dimensions: 29 x 47 Km Tourists per year: Approx. 122.000 Country: Spain Region: Canary Islands Government: Autonomous Language: Spanish Main Airport: Santa Cruz de La Palma Sea: Atlantic Ocean Climate: Atlantic Sub-tropical Time zone: GMT Religion: Catholic International dialing code: +34 Local currency: € Euro Canarian flag: Coat of Arms:

San Miguel de La Palma, the island with the most extremities in landscape and nature. Of all the Canary Islands, La Palma is the greenest island with the most rainfall. The South of the island is rocky volcanic landscape and the North is green with forests and nature. The volcanic landscape of the South is caused by several recent eruptions in the mountains Cumbre Nueva and Cumbre Vieja with the last eruption in 1971 which last for 25 days. In those two mountain groups you can find over 120 craters. Seven of them were active in the last 500 years and with this fact the Cumbre Vieja belongs to one of the zones with the most volcanic activity in the world. The biggest crater in the North of the island is since 1954 national park called Caldera Taburiente. This giant crater has a diameter of 10 Km and a depth of 1.500 meters.

With an altitude of 2.426 meter at the impressive top of the Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma is the steepest island of the world. This island is perfect for those who would like to spend a holiday at one of the quietest places in the middle of the nature.

Above the clouds, at a spectacular location on the remote island of La Palma, to the west of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, is to be found the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias with a group of cutting-edge telescopes inspecting the universe. This international collection of telescopes is situated over 2,400 m above sea-level, near the highest of the peaks surrounding the Caldera de Taburiente - an extinct volcano that is now a national park. The observatory is dedicated to astronomical observations, and the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) is the largest organisation working at the place.

The observatory covers an area of about 2 sq km and is reached by a winding 40 km mountain road from the town of Santa Cruz de La Palma. The site was chosen after an extensive search for a location with clear, dark skies all the year round. All tests proved that the Roque de los Muchachos is one of the best astronomical sites in the world.

The remoteness of the island and its lack of urban development ensure that the night sky at the observatory is free from artificial light pollution. The continued quality of the night is protected by law. The mountain-top site has a remarkably stable atmosphere, owing to the local topography. The mountain has a smooth convex contour facing the prevailing northerly wind and the air-flow is comparatively undisturbed, allowing sharp and stable images of the night sky. The site is clear of clouds for 90 per cent of the time in the summer months.

The observatory was established under a series of international agreements in 1979, and was inaugurated in 1985. The observatory is operated under the auspices of the local astronomical organisation, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, which also runs the Teide Observatory on Tenerife.


The telescopes pictured above are, from left to right, the Carlsberg Meridian Telescope, the 4.2-meter William Herschel Telescope, the Dutch Open Telescope, the Swedish Solar Tower, the 2.5-meter Isaac Newton Telescope, and the 1.0-meter Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope. Pioneering observations made recently by these telescopes include stars and galaxies forming early in our universe, comets breaking up, and evidence for planets around Sun-like stars.