Stargazing at Teide National Park in May

Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Figures for May 2027, calculated by us. Times are local.

Milky Way season

In mid-May the sky is fully dark from about 22:18 to 05:47, 7.3 hours a night. The bright centre of the Milky Way is well up from about 00:56 to 05:36.

The darkest nights in May 2027

Nights when the Moon is down for almost all of the dark hours:

1 May to 8 May 2027 (8 nights)
31 May to 7 Jun 2027 (8 nights)

New Moon: 6 May 2027
Full Moon: 20 May 2027

What to know

Teide National Park holds Starlight certification both as a tourist destination and as a reserve.
The Teide Observatory, run by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, sits at about 2,390 m in the park.
Canary Islands law has protected the sky over the observatories from light pollution since 1988.
Low clouds usually form below a temperature inversion that sits well under the peaks, so the park can be clear when the coast is cloudy.

It is cold at night up here even in summer. Bring warm layers, and check the road and weather before you drive up.

Circular star trails over the dark peak of Mount Teide and the rocks of the Cañadas crater — Star trails over Mount Teide, from the Cañadas crater at about 2,000 m. Photo: Benedikt Markus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Get a note when it is worth going out

A short email before an eclipse, a strong meteor shower or a dark week worth planning for. No more than a few a month.

Teide National Park: the whole year. All five dark-sky places.

Sources

Darkness, Moon and Milky Way: our calculation, Astronomy Engine 2.1.19 (MIT licence). How we worked it out.
Tenerife Tourism, astronomy.
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, observatories leaflet.