The dark skies of Sierra de Gredos in Ávila (Spain) are in danger. In 2020, this area was declared "Starlight Reserve", with some good figures of sky quality measured at the cenit and the advantage of the altitude (1600 m MSL), aiming for astro-tourism development. In this context, the word "reserve" is just a mere statement of (good) intent, there's no real protection in legal sense. The proximity of Madrid (E), Talavera de la Reina (SSE), Ávila (NE) and some other municipalities can't be ignored, and they're more than evident from Navacerrada de Gredos, with the Sierra sihouetting below remote light domes.
So it's not the best location to capture this area, but still better than home. So I tried anyway, knowing what will follow in terms of modeling the "background" (is this even applicable when the pollution is more evident than some of the objects?) and fighting the noise that will appear after subtraction. I didn't want to push the image more, that would be "torturing the data"...
Hope you enjoy it!
This image has been
highlighted by the European Space Agency (ESA) in its spanish Twitter account.
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