Trips to dark sky sites, abroad.

and what price would a house be??

A house would only be about 20-25euro per person per night for a self catering cottage

If we hire a house ourselves, are we saying we we bring out own equipment or can we still get access to some scopes over there. i'd be as interested in observing as much as imagin.

We could do a bit of both. We could plan carefully and each bring something to create a good imaging and observing session. For example, I could bring the coronado, tripod, Pentax and modified DSLR. If someone else brought a mount. Ideally, If a third person had some sort of fold-up airline-friendly dob, we could share.

Just did a bit of checking with Ryanair.
Ryanair fly to Tenerife (North). From there one can get a flight to La Palma with a company called Binter Canarias, a division of the Iberia group.
I picked a couple of random dates and flights worked out around 180euro all in per person return with Ryanair to Tenerife. Binter Canarieas www.binternet.com/ operate around 10 flights daily between Tenerife North and La Palma for 57euro each way. So, in total, the flight cost, depending on days etc, would be about 300euro, about half the cost of other options I could find via Madrid.

The trouble with Madrid is that there is only one flight per day and its hard to connect to it from Dublin.

As well as Binter you might like to check out Islas Airways.

From a recent light pollution conference in La Palma guide:
"A more flexible travel schedule can be arranged by flying to Tenerife Norte (TFN) or Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (LPA), and take then a flight to La Palma with either Binter ( www.binternet.com ) or Islas Airways ( www.islasairways.com ). Both airlines connect La Palma with several flights to the main islands."

btw the reccomended accomodation for that conference was in "Aparthotel Las Olas
Los Cancajos, La Palma, Islas Canarias." www.unescocan.org/starlight/venuehotel.htm There were discounts for conference participants, so it might be possible to get a special rate for IFAS.

I couldn't go to the light pollution conference so I can't be of much more help I'm afraid.

Mike, that place looks great!
Not the easiest to get to mind but still well worth it I'd say.

Down in Portugal I was due to stay a night here:

www.coaa.co.uk/

The place looks great and is simple to get to,
the only (big!) snag was that they only allow observing
for 2 hours after sunset so I opted out.

But!
If you could find a holliday villa
high up in the hills away from LP
It'd be a great option as Ryanair fly in to Faro.

I also had designs on this place in the States;
www.arizonaskyvillage.co.uk/astronomy.html

The basic price for the house is $100 per night which includes all utilities,
towels and bed linen for up to four people.
A small additional charge will be made for extra visitors (max three extra).
Discounts are available for stays longer than one week.
So thats 7 people in total could rent it.
making it 14 bucks a night!
But more than likely if you got 4 it would still only be 25$.

British Airways operate a daily flight direct from London Heathrow to Phoenix.
(would cost around 700 E)

In terms of suitability for a site
I guess it all depends on what you want to do.
Just image image image? or Observe? or have a bit
of a holiday also?

As for the breaking of the bones - lets just say Mr Bean wouldn't
get a look-in.
:roll:

Gentlemen,

This sounds like a GREAT idea and I wish you all every success.

As an afterthought, has anyone entertained the idea of acquiring a very modest (but isolated) piece of property so that there would be a permanent facility available for frequent trips (with and without friends) which will automatically cover accomodation?

Some of the most pristine skies in Greece involve the countless isles and I have considered something similar. Our problem, however, is the hyperinflated real estate market.

How convenient would that be, between a bunch of us, get a small plot 1/4 ways up the mountain on La Palma and have a small place to stay with power and water and somewhere to have a solid base for the scopes. aw yes, dreams they are indeed.

Dave,

It really depends on how reasonable or expensive real estate is there? Since our hobby demands exclusion and being far from neighbours, I wonder if something doable can be found.