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Foreword
revered head of a world-beating organization—and a humble student does
not feel he can often disturb such an eminent figure. In those days, my grasp
of the Spanish language was almost non-existent, and Paco was also not fluent
in English, so this also hampered our communication. Nevertheless, in our
meetings he was always kindly and very understanding of my problems, and
gave me everything I needed to do my work, including the assistance of one
of the brightest lights of his team, Carlos Sánchez Magro, now sadly deceased.
The actual location of the observation site was beyond my wildest dreams.
Far above the busy commercial life of Tenerife, in the breathtaking national
park area of Las Cañadas, was a volcanic ridge known as Izaña, with views of
the majestic central peak of Tenerife, El Teide, and, on a clear day, the whole
beautiful island. At that time the astronomical observatory consisted of just a
small building to provide support for the French zodiacal light telescope, a
Spanish solar telescope, and the foundations of the first dome for a large telescope—a collaboration between the University of La Laguna and Imperial
College. I also remember an old military meteorological observatory on a
nearby hill.
And it was here that my humble hut was taking shape. In those days, my
fellow student and I slept on site, and living and working up there was a lifechanging experience—no phones, no postman, and no food supplies except
what you drove up with! It was a peaceful and quite lonely life, broken up
only by making the journey down to Santa Cruz to visit the post office. But
the compensations were glorious. Suddenly, as a city-born-and-bred boy of
21 years, I was waking up every day above the sea of clouds, to deep blue skies,
and air that is always crisp even when the sunlight is hot, and the silence of
Nature, along with a view that seeped into my soul, has never left me. The sky
on a good night is dark, transparent, and matchless in its splendour. I developed a love for Tenerife, the tropical night sky, and all things Spanish, which
is still strong in me today.
But enough of me! The Spanish ZL building housed the instruments with
which Francisco Sánchez had made his observations of the zodiacal light,
beginning in 1964, and already published groundbreaking papers on the photometry of this phenomenon. In fact, the strong connection between the ZL
and Tenerife goes right back to the 1850s, when Scotland’s Astronomer Royal,
Charles Piazzi Smyth, made his famous journey to ‘site test’ on Mt Guajara,
and Teide itself. He set out to test Sir Isaac Newton’s theory that observing
from a high-altitude site, above most of the turbulence of the atmosphere,
would secure much better quality astronomical ‘seeing’. Piazzi was able to
confirm the theory and also made the first spectroscopic study of the zodiacal light.
Foreword
revered head of a world-beating organization—and a humble student does
not feel he can often disturb such an eminent figure. In those days, my grasp
of the Spanish language was almost non-existent, and Paco was also not fluent
in English, so this also hampered our communication. Nevertheless, in our
meetings he was always kindly and very understanding of my problems, and
gave me everything I needed to do my work, including the assistance of one
of the brightest lights of his team, Carlos Sánchez Magro, now sadly deceased.
The actual location of the observation site was beyond my wildest dreams.
Far above the busy commercial life of Tenerife, in the breathtaking national
park area of Las Cañadas, was a volcanic ridge known as Izaña, with views of
the majestic central peak of Tenerife, El Teide, and, on a clear day, the whole
beautiful island. At that time the astronomical observatory consisted of just a
small building to provide support for the French zodiacal light telescope, a
Spanish solar telescope, and the foundations of the first dome for a large telescope—a collaboration between the University of La Laguna and Imperial
College. I also remember an old military meteorological observatory on a
nearby hill.
And it was here that my humble hut was taking shape. In those days, my
fellow student and I slept on site, and living and working up there was a lifechanging experience—no phones, no postman, and no food supplies except
what you drove up with! It was a peaceful and quite lonely life, broken up
only by making the journey down to Santa Cruz to visit the post office. But
the compensations were glorious. Suddenly, as a city-born-and-bred boy of
21 years, I was waking up every day above the sea of clouds, to deep blue skies,
and air that is always crisp even when the sunlight is hot, and the silence of
Nature, along with a view that seeped into my soul, has never left me. The sky
on a good night is dark, transparent, and matchless in its splendour. I developed a love for Tenerife, the tropical night sky, and all things Spanish, which
is still strong in me today.
But enough of me! The Spanish ZL building housed the instruments with
which Francisco Sánchez had made his observations of the zodiacal light,
beginning in 1964, and already published groundbreaking papers on the photometry of this phenomenon. In fact, the strong connection between the ZL
and Tenerife goes right back to the 1850s, when Scotland’s Astronomer Royal,
Charles Piazzi Smyth, made his famous journey to ‘site test’ on Mt Guajara,
and Teide itself. He set out to test Sir Isaac Newton’s theory that observing
from a high-altitude site, above most of the turbulence of the atmosphere,
would secure much better quality astronomical ‘seeing’. Piazzi was able to
confirm the theory and also made the first spectroscopic study of the zodiacal light.