2026 Star Party - A tail of two Locations
Roboscopes have been organizing a Star Parties in Spain for a few years now and this will be our 4th annual event, 2026 will be a little different however, as we have an eclipse in the mix in August which is one of the most stable weather periods in an already very sunny country
So, we decided to bring our usual star party forward a few weeks and combine the two. This allows people a choice to attend either or both treating the Eclipse as a grand finale to what we hope has already been an awesome event
6-11th August StarParty - Malagón, Spain
Accommodation
Olivar de Albarizas
A high quality air-conditioned country house that's 170km South of Madrid and nestled in 12,000 sq-meters of olive trees. It's remote enough to have dark skies whilst It's still accessible to small interesting towns with lots to do locally. There is also fishing, walking and hiking
The accommodation has:
- 5 twin rooms1 quad room
- 6 bathrooms
- Mutliple seating areas
- Full outdoor facilities
- Plenty of room for telescopes
- The host has allowed us access to her land on top of the hill if required
As usual I will have a myriad of cables and electrical distribution with me but its always best to have EU adapaters with you just in case
Google Map - How to get there
Places to visit and things to do
Local towns are
Fernán Caballero - 3km
Malagón - 10km away
Ciudad Real - 20km away
200 metres from the Gasset reservoir in the foothills of the Montes de Toledo, a small slice of a slower pace and nature if only for a few days
Pricing
5 Twin Rooms at €700 each (all twin rooms now booked)
1x Quad room at €900 - Still available
Food, drinks, cooking & housekeeping
One of the Roboscopes staff will go shopping on the way there and get some essentials, generally after that we simply one of us will (me usually) shopping and split the bill between all of us, cooking is done on a fair basis and as its Spain over the years it's become more of an alfresco affair and the men do a lot of the cooking
Housekeeping, we all pitch in and work together :)
Bookings are on a first come, first served basis, with a 50% non-refundable deposit unless you can find someone to take your place
Some general blurb!
Obviously, travel expenses and astronomy equipment are not provided or included in the price,
Madrid will be the best airport if you come by plane, a few of us are already booked onto the Plymouth-Santander ferry, if you want to join us please message me for the ferry details as the more, the merrier.
Last but not least we are a laid back organization and this is done for fun as much as anything else, if you want a hyper organized trip with a complex and rigid itinerary then this is not what your signing up for.
However, if you want a fun trip with like-minded people including decent accommodation, things to do, food, drink and interesting conversation then this may well be right up your street :)
11-13th August Eclipse - Finca Cuevas Minadas, Lebrancón, Spain
Location & Accomodation
We have a wonderful rural spot were we have booked the whole complex that consists of two large 5star country houses with 23 rooms sleeping up to 48 people, all rooms have en-suite facilities
The accommodation has everything from a pool, outdoor padel tennis court, indoors games rooms, a huge 100m2 dining room and plenty of space for everyone to relax and have privacy or be as active as they wish
There are plenty of vantage points close by were we can watch/image the eclipse and the accommodation has Bortle 3 skies so we can continue through the night doing astrophotography if you're feeling up to some more late nights :)
Link to property website: Here
It's a self catering affair again so Manuel & Myself will do some shopping on the way up so if you have any special requests please let us know, again like the Star part beforehand it tends to be more of an alfresco cooking bonanza as who wants to cook indoors in Spain in August!
The men take up most of the cooking duties traditionally with Roboscopes events, and we hope that this tradition continues with the eclipse event
* food/shopping/drinks are not is included in the price
Things to do Locally
Camino Natural del Rio Guadalaviar
Medieval Walls of Albarracin
Pinares de Rodeno - national park
the area is very well located as you could plan a day trip to Madrid or Valencia if you so desired, its rich historically with plenty to do for even the most intrepid amongst the group
The Eclipse
Our location have many options locally for viewing with decent low horizons, I have put a couple of images above but what it provides most of all is a decent centralized base if you choose to spread further afield or have a specific agenda in mind.
Between us, we will be able to lay on some transport to a site for people who don't wish to drive, I have a VW Transporter, so can carry a lot of people & equipment. I will be bringing Lithium Power tanks & power distribution equipment so we will be able to help facilitate many people's needs but we do suggest members wherever possible cater for their own power requirements as the hill has zero power itself obviously!
The Roboscopes team have spent a lot of time and energy checking out locations, including driving to and staying in the local areas before hand preparing for this trip, we have even managed to be gazumped on one location after booking 18 months in advance. So for the team it's been somewhat a stressful experience juggling the decent accommodation, pricing and customers expectations.
We do hope you all enjoy & benefit from all our initial spade work to make this a memorable event :)
Pricing
We have 23 twin & double rooms
Twin Room €450
Bookings are on a first come, first served basis, with a 50% non-refundable deposit unless you can find someone to take your place
If you need any information in the meantime please get in touch
Steve & the team
General Blurb
Same as the other side really, which saves me writing it twice :)