Andorra Comapedrosa Starlight Reserve and Starlight Tourism Destination

Andorra Comapedrosa is the astrotourism program of La Massana parish in northwest Andorra, built around the Comapedrosa Natural Park. The Starlight Foundation certified the area in January 2023 as both a Starlight Reserve and a Starlight Tourist Destination. The parish says the natural park has the darkest and best quality sky in the country. At the launch, the foundation's director, astrophysicist Antonia Varela, said the park's sky quality is on par with major international observatories. The parish chose the Andorra Comapedrosa name to leave room for the rest of Andorra to join later.

Visit Andorra names two viewpoints in the parish. La Roca de la Sabina is in Arinsal and Coll de la Botella is in Pal. The foundation also valued the tourist infrastructure, such as the restaurants of the Pal Arinsal ski area, and Coll de la Botella is one of the spots with restaurant service. Each June, Arinsal hosts the Andorra Comapedrosa Astronomical Festival with talks, family workshops, telescope areas and night outings. La Massana's tourist office books guided observations year round. Our light pollution estimate at the coordinates we use is Bortle 6, well brighter than the park itself, since valley towns sit close by.

At 42.6 degrees north, the core peaks near 18 degrees above the southern horizon in our data. Mountains block a lot of low horizon here, so a pass like Coll de la Botella gives you more room. Our calculations give May, June and July the most hours of core visibility.