Qualification of Starlight Guides at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory

The Starlight Foundation organizes and teaches the Starlight Courses to train professionals in the astrotourism sector, considering the peculiarities and the high level of demand of the current and future demand for star tourism.

The Starlight Guides courses provide training for astroturistic activities, following the Starlight criteria, as well as provide the necessary knowledge to be enabled by the Canary Islands Observatories to guide visits to its facilities.

Therefore, after the training as Starlight Guides taught in La Palma during the months of April and March this year, students have completed an authorization at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory.

This was carried out in the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC 10.4m) on August 30 and in the British telescopes of Isaac Newton Telescope (ING) on September 5, by their respective directors Dr. Romano Corradi and Dr. Marc Balcelles, and jointly coordinated with Mr. Juan Carlos Pérez Arencibia, Administrator of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory.

This practical training shows students details about the instrumentation and science of each telescope, as well as the fundamental safety aspects that must be taken into account to guide the visits. And it is, therefore, a training of what they should know and should convey to the visitor.

In the Multiple Starlight course in La Palma, 45 new Monitors and 40 Guides were formed, apart from 10 Monitors that were converted into Guides and 7 Guides that updated content.