Alqueva Dark Sky Reserve – Part I

Alqueva Dark Sky Reserve is the first site in the world to receive the recognition of ‘Starlight Tourism Destination’ by UNESCO and World Tourism Organization.

The Reserve has an area of 3000km2 that surrounds the Alqueva Dam,  it’s spreaded along six municipalities, Alandroal, Barrancos, Moura, Mourão, Portel and Reguengos de Monsaraz. Alqueva is also the biggest dam of Europe.

In the next photo we can see an interesting green cast from the solar storm that looks like a small aurora borealis. I never saw such thing in Portugal.

While photographing the cromlech suddenly I hear a noise from the movement of the grass and when I pointed the flashlight on I saw two little bright eyes, it was a little fox staring at me for some moments.

During the night were reunited all the conditions for a perfect view of the sky. Less than a day from the  new moon and no clouds in the sky that could call into question the appearance of the stars, It was the first time in a long time, that I got a night like that so magnificent, perfect to enjoy the center of the Milky Way and the bright planet of Venus.

Hours and hours went through by into the evening and many more to look at the stars. It’s impressive how the sky, without light pollution, can be so amazing! It’s possible to observe all the stars, constellations and some planets. As the shooting star in the next photo.

The only bad thing was the freezing cold that was felt through the night.

After spending nine hours photographing the North Star called Polaris which is the tail of Ursa Minor, it becomes the focal point of the night, where all the other stars rotate around it.

This is due to the fact that the north star is too far away from the Earth and is located in a close position to the North Celestial Pole. The Earth rotates around an axis, an imaginary line from North Pole to the South Pole, and thus, while the earth rotates through this same axis, the polaris (which is at the center) remains in the same place and this causes that all the remaining stars revolve around it.