Stay up for the oldest light you will ever see.

Guided nights at six telescopes and eight rooms to sleep in, 1,680 m up in the Gúdar mountains of Teruel.

The young Moon, before it sets.

We start low in the south-west with a crescent under five days old. Its dark side glows with earthshine: sunlight thrown back by the Earth.

Lit: 24%
Altitude: 9°
Sets: 22:01

150 mm refractor, 45×

Saturn, with its rings nearly closed.

The rings turn edge-on to us every fifteen years. This autumn they are open only a few degrees, a bright blade across the planet.

Ring tilt: 7.1°
Distance: 8.45 AU
Magnitude: 0.4

600 mm reflector, 220×

Albireo, one star in two colours.

To the eye it is the star at the foot of the Northern Cross. In the telescope it splits into a gold star and a blue one, 34 arcseconds apart.

Magnitudes: 3.1 and 5.1
Altitude: 57°
Light set out: about 1596

400 mm Dobsonian, 90×

Andromeda, once the Moon has gone.

After moonset it shows to the naked eye, a smudge two hops from Alpheratz. Its light set out before there were any people to see it.

Distance: 2.5 million ly
Length on the sky: 3°, six Moons
Altitude: 70°

10×50 binoculars, a 5° field

Three ways to spend the night

Every night is planned around the sky it gets. The strip under each one shows 15 October: twilight, the Moon's hours and when you are at the eyepiece.

At the telescope

Two and a half hours with a guide at the big reflector and the refractors, from the first stars to the deep sky. Warm drinks and red torches included.

Length
2 h 30 min

Group
Up to 12

From
€54 a person
A private dome

The 600 mm telescope and an astronomer for up to four of you. You choose the targets, we find them and talk you through them.

Length
2 h

Group
2 to 4

From
€240 a dome
A night of photography

Dusk to dawn in the imaging dome with our mounts and cameras. You go home with your own picture of a galaxy, processed with us over breakfast.

Length
All night

Group
Up to 3

From
€320 a person

Six telescopes, and your eye for scale.

A dark-adapted pupil opens to about 7 mm. Our biggest mirror is 600 mm across, so it gathers some seven thousand times as much light and shows stars some ten magnitudes fainter.

Eight rooms with a hatch in the roof

Stay after the last tour and the sky comes with the room. Each hatch below shows what is overhead at the hour it is best.

Overhead at 01:30

Dome room

A round room under a roof that slides open. Lie in bed and watch the sky turn. Two of them, on the crest.

From €210 a night for two

Overhead at 22:30

Ridge room

A wall of glass to the south and a hatch over the bed. Four on the ridge.

From €165 a night for two

Overhead at 04:30

Family loft

Two floors, four beds and a small refractor on the balcony for the early risers.

From €240 a night for four

When the sky is darkest

We observe every clear night. The Moon decides how deep we go: near new moon the Milky Way reaches the horizon. Here are the next eight weeks from today.

Next new moon: 10 October

The calendar is worked out from the Moon's position when the page opens.

Hours with no Sun and no Moon
Our pick: seven hours or more

Book a night

Pick a date and the wheel turns to that night's sky at ten o'clock. We confirm by email within a day, and move you free of charge if it clouds over.

Your sky at 22:00 on Thursday 15 October.

Questions

What if it is cloudy?

We check the forecast at five in the afternoon and write to you. If the sky will not clear, you move to any other night for free, or we refund you.

How cold does it get up there?

Colder than you think, even in summer: around 8 °C on an October night at 1,680 m. We lend down jackets, and the domes have a warm room.

Can children come?

From eight years old on the telescope nights. The family loft has a small refractor of its own for younger astronomers.

Do I need to know the sky?

No. Most guests have never looked through a telescope. The guide finds every object and tells you what you are looking at.