119
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Sánchez, The Rise of Astrophysics in Modern Spain, Astronomers’ Universe,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66426-8_13
13
Royalty and Heads of State Above
the Clouds (1985)
From the summer of 1985, thanks to ¡Hola! (‘Hello!’) and other celebrity gossip magazines, people began to be aware of the existence of the Canarian
Observatories and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias when we were given
coverage by television and communications media worldwide. Photographs
of queens and princesses with their skirts wafting in the trade winds caught
the media’s fancy. How could it miss the opportunity to catch so much royalty
together in the Canaries, with the added curiosity that they had gathered for
such an exotic event as the inaugurations of some institute of astrophysics and
its observatories? What was certainly a most serious matter was bringing
together so many monarchs, heads of state, ministers, and leading scientists
from all over the world for an ‘astronomical’ event. It was quite out of the
ordinary and unforgettable, a rare event for any part of the world, and it
caused quite a stir.
In June 1985, for almost a week the entire Spanish royal family, the King
and Queen of Sweden, the King and Queen of Denmark, the King and Queen
of The Netherlands, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, the
President of the Republic of Ireland, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, in
representation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, along with
ministers and sundry European authorities, and the international scientific
community headed by five Nobel laureates descended on the islands of
Tenerife and La Palma.
Such a cluster of celebrities in a remote Atlantic archipelago, gathered specifically to celebrate a scientific—rather than a military, political, or sporting—event was an altogether singular happening of a kind never before seen
in Spain. It served first of all to help the Canary islanders discover that their
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Sánchez, The Rise of Astrophysics in Modern Spain, Astronomers’ Universe,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66426-8_13
13
Royalty and Heads of State Above
the Clouds (1985)
From the summer of 1985, thanks to ¡Hola! (‘Hello!’) and other celebrity gossip magazines, people began to be aware of the existence of the Canarian
Observatories and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias when we were given
coverage by television and communications media worldwide. Photographs
of queens and princesses with their skirts wafting in the trade winds caught
the media’s fancy. How could it miss the opportunity to catch so much royalty
together in the Canaries, with the added curiosity that they had gathered for
such an exotic event as the inaugurations of some institute of astrophysics and
its observatories? What was certainly a most serious matter was bringing
together so many monarchs, heads of state, ministers, and leading scientists
from all over the world for an ‘astronomical’ event. It was quite out of the
ordinary and unforgettable, a rare event for any part of the world, and it
caused quite a stir.
In June 1985, for almost a week the entire Spanish royal family, the King
and Queen of Sweden, the King and Queen of Denmark, the King and Queen
of The Netherlands, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, the
President of the Republic of Ireland, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, in
representation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, along with
ministers and sundry European authorities, and the international scientific
community headed by five Nobel laureates descended on the islands of
Tenerife and La Palma.
Such a cluster of celebrities in a remote Atlantic archipelago, gathered specifically to celebrate a scientific—rather than a military, political, or sporting—event was an altogether singular happening of a kind never before seen
in Spain. It served first of all to help the Canary islanders discover that their