49
The report also recommended encouraging visits by foreign astrophysicists,
‘Besides the didactic benefit and prestige that would be obtained from such
expeditions, perhaps others of a material nature might follow. I feel strongly
that this is an aspect that needs careful study, and that the Observatory should
be endowed as quickly as possible with a certain minimum of housing units
and work spaces to pursue this undertaking.’
I also stressed the urgent need to begin to do some science: ‘Nevertheless,
it is clear that we can now think about commencing certain observing programmes of interest to modern trends in astronomy and astrophysics.’
In spite of my complaints and pleas the problems remained unsolved. The
greatest misery of all was our feeling of abandonment and helplessness: while
the Director sat in comfort in Madrid, we were surviving marooned on the
summits of the Canary Islands.
My companions Zalote and Izeta eventually left the Observatory. We had
not been paid for months and had to depend on our family for support. I even
made a pitiful application for a ‘graduate loan’ in 1963 that makes painful
reading. But the truth was that from my second year in the Canaries, when I
was scheduled to return to Madrid to defend my thesis at the Optics Institute,
Fig. 6.3 The old observatory building in its present dilapidated state stands in stark
contrast to the imposing solar towers of Teide Observatory in the distance. (Credit:
F. Sánchez)
6 Astronomical Site Testing (1961–1974)
The report also recommended encouraging visits by foreign astrophysicists,
‘Besides the didactic benefit and prestige that would be obtained from such
expeditions, perhaps others of a material nature might follow. I feel strongly
that this is an aspect that needs careful study, and that the Observatory should
be endowed as quickly as possible with a certain minimum of housing units
and work spaces to pursue this undertaking.’
I also stressed the urgent need to begin to do some science: ‘Nevertheless,
it is clear that we can now think about commencing certain observing programmes of interest to modern trends in astronomy and astrophysics.’
In spite of my complaints and pleas the problems remained unsolved. The
greatest misery of all was our feeling of abandonment and helplessness: while
the Director sat in comfort in Madrid, we were surviving marooned on the
summits of the Canary Islands.
My companions Zalote and Izeta eventually left the Observatory. We had
not been paid for months and had to depend on our family for support. I even
made a pitiful application for a ‘graduate loan’ in 1963 that makes painful
reading. But the truth was that from my second year in the Canaries, when I
was scheduled to return to Madrid to defend my thesis at the Optics Institute,
Fig. 6.3 The old observatory building in its present dilapidated state stands in stark
contrast to the imposing solar towers of Teide Observatory in the distance. (Credit:
F. Sánchez)
6 Astronomical Site Testing (1961–1974)