Daniel Pérez I Yunquera (Málaga), (EFE).- Located in the town of Yunquera (Málaga), the old defensive tower of this municipality serves as the headquarters of the company Astrolab, where the “astroprofessors” -as they call themselves- María H Jurado and José Antonio Jiménez carry out star observations and run a digital school to disseminate the curiosities of the universe.
Carob, olive and fir trees surround this watchtower, which is located at the gates of the Sierra de las Nieves National Park. The area stands out for its low light pollution, which makes it an ideal place to observe the sky.
In fact, its location has always played a fundamental role in the history of this construction.
Built more than two centuries ago, it was used as a strategic point for Spanish troops to monitor the advance of the Napoleonic army during the Spanish War of Independence. Years later it served as a prison, to then fall into disuse until the 1990s, when it was restored.
Astrolab’s activity began in 2016, when it opened the tower and the telescope to the public so that people could “put their eyes out and do what Galileo did 400 years ago,” Jiménez told EFE.
Since then, his project has always had a double aspect. The practical part, making astronomical observations from the upper area of the tower, and the informative part, through the school via the Internet, in which they teach Spanish-speakers from various countries.
Clusters, nebulae and double stars
After going up a narrow spiral staircase, the people who attend the practical observation arrive on the roof of the tower. Where once a great canyon was located. Now, sitting around a telescope and with a very dim light, the attendees listen to Jiménez’s explanations. That he reviews everything that he can see with his eyes in the sky.
As the night progresses and during the two hours that the activity lasts, people come closer to observe through the eyepiece of the telescope. While Jurado is whispering to each one how and in what way they should look to be able to locate the clusters. The nebulas or the double stars that the closed night offers.
Albireo is one of these doubles, which Jiménez marks with a laser pointer. And that at first glance she seems to be only one and have a flickering color. But it is the telescope that reveals that there are two of them and that due to the temperature of each one they appear blue and yellow.
The Ring Nebula of the Lira, which is also known as object Messier 57, next focuses the gazes of amateur astronomers participating in the observation. The nebula, of a planetary type, shows us the final phases of the cycle of a star.
Meanwhile, as a game, they begin to list shooting star sightings, which quickly exceed ten.
The Great Cluster of Hercules, at a distance of about 25,000 light-years, once again reorients the telescope to be able to observe this enormous accumulation of stars.
Classes for Spanish speakers
“We work with nature and so we can’t teach what we want. We can teach what the sky that night, at that time, has available”, explains María H. Jurado.
Online classes are taught rigorously live for one hour a week and are divided into two age groups, adapting the subjects to be discussed. High ability students also find specific classes for them.
Jury indicates that the profile of the student body is “from 6 years onwards, having among them professors, retirees, engineers or psychologists. They are curious people, non-conformists, who get down to it”.
And he adds that “it is very gratifying” to be able to bring astronomy closer to fans and “accompany them in the evolution through this learning.”
As has happened in other cases, the origin of this training through the internet was the pandemic. Previously, they held face-to-face workshops and talks in different spaces, but this became a digital school that for Jiménez is the door they have “to change the world.”
“We inspire today to build tomorrow, looking for that moment of inspiration and to open the mind that astronomy has”, he emphasizes. EFE