His Royal Highness the Prince of Asturias visits the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo

During the night between July 13th and 14th, 2007, in conjunction with the first light of the Grantecan (the spanish telescope Gran Telescopio Canarias) His Royal Highness the Prince of Asturias, Don Felipe de Borbón, has been guest observer at the TNG.

After the First Light official ceremony, Don Felipe de Borbón, who is an amateur astronomer, visited the TNG, accompanied by Don Francisco Sánchez and Don Carlos Martínez, respectively director and vice-director of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).

During His visit, Don Felipe de Borbón, helped by the TNG staff, observed some targets, with the Imager/Low-Resolution Spectrograph Do.Lo.Res.

This is the second visit of a member of the spanish Royal Family at the TNG, being the first in 1996, when the King Juan Carlos I and the Queen Sofía Margarita inaugurated the TNG.

The TNG staff explained to Don Felipe de Borbón how to use the Imager/Low-Resolution Spectrograph Do.Lo.Res. in order for the Prince to conduct himself the observations.

Among the targets observed that night, the Globular Cluster M15, the Stephan Quintet, the SuperNova Remnant Cas-A and the Planetary Nebula PNG 126.62+1.32, discovered at the Isaac Newton Telescope in october 2003 and christened as "Príncipes de Asturias" by its IAC discoverers. With an H_alpha filter the Prince could better discern the peculiar structure of the PNG 126.62+1.32 nebula, and could appreciate the different morphologies of the other targets imaged at different bands.


The planetary nebula PNG 126.62+1.32 "Principes de Asturias" imaged through H_Alpha filter with Do.Lo.Res	Don Felipe de Borbón with the TNG staff and the IAC director, Don Francisco Sanchez