Eyes on the Skies

In the early evening sky of La Palma, Canary Islands, stars trail around the north celestial pole, marked by the north star or Polaris. Below the colorful rotating sky is the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the top of La Palma, 2400 meters above see level. There are about a dozen major telescopes on this excellent observing site including the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in the foreground of this image. INT was the first telescope on the mountain in early 1980s and was once the telescope of Royal Greenwich observatory and was moved to La Palma under and ideal sky. The observatory on the left houses the 1.2m Mercator telescope.