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Normally if I want to observe heavenly bodies I head for the beach, but earlier this year, on a trip to the island of La Palma, I had the chance to take the guided tour of the observatory at Roque de los Muchachos, 2,400 metres up. There are 14 telescopes up there, and you can read all about them in my feature (page 24) in the latest Think Spain Today.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s the first weekly national English language newspaper for the whole of Spain and it’s islands. It hits the shops every Friday, but takes a day later to reach the Canary Islands, and is just 2 euros. As well as a feature each month I will also be chipping in news stories from around all 7 islands each week.

OK advert over, back to La Palma. The observatory tours are few and far between but the website of the Institute of Canarian Astrophysics will keep you informed of La Palma and the Tenerife observatory.

La Palma is well worth a visit anyway, it’s not called the Beautiful Island for no reason. Lush and green, it boasts the Los Tilos biosphere park, the last Canarian volcano to blow (1971) at Teneguia, and some great walks and historic churches.