A wooden planetarium at Serón’s old station: the story of the astrophysicist who chose its sky
Raúl Martínez Morales is marking 30 years of teaching astronomy. Since 2020 he has lived in Serón, where he runs a wooden planetarium next to the Vía Verde del Almanzora greenway.
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At Serón’s old station, next to the Vía Verde del Almanzora (the Almanzora greenway), there is a white wooden dome that holds an entire sky inside it. It is the Planetario de Serón and, since 2020, it has been run by an astrophysicist from Granada who, after years of teaching the sky in Lanzarote, chose this village to live in: Raúl Martínez Morales, who in 2026 is celebrating 30 years of teaching astronomy (1996-2026), as his website announces.
A planetarium made in the village
The dome was born in the summer of 2017. A carpenter from Serón, commissioned by the town council, built it out of wood, according to the planetarium’s website, and that summer Martínez Morales visited the village for the first time to see how “this fantastic wooden planetarium” was coming along. In February 2018, for the Día de Andalucía (Andalusia Day), it lit up for the first time with a demonstration for council staff and local residents.
The official opening came in May that year, at the 5th Jornadas de Astroturismo de la Sierra de los Filabres (Astrotourism Days), whose programme, publicised by Almería Provincial Council, included a visit to the planetarium at Serón Station.
Thirty years teaching the sky
Martínez Morales was born in Albolote (Granada) and graduated in Physics, specialising in Astrophysics, from the University of La Laguna. According to the CV on his website, in 1996 he was a teacher at the Observatorio Astronómico Centroamericano de Suyapa (Honduras); he was later an instructor at the planetarium of Granada’s Parque de las Ciencias (Science Park) and was in charge of the observatory at the Centro Blas Cabrera, in Arrecife (Lanzarote). In 2006 he created El Galactarium, which his website presents as Spain’s first travelling digital planetarium.
In September 2020, after the lockdown, the family settled in Serón to manage the planetarium and bring it to life. “The beauty and characteristics of Serón and the fact that it is a municipality with a clear sky, very conducive to the activity to which I have been dedicated for more than 25 years” made him think about staying on to live in the village, he told La Comarca in December that year.
He did not come alone. Amanda Jane Mandry, a Welshwoman and a teacher for 24 years, met him in 2004, when he brought his planetarium to her school, and they have shared the same path ever since. Today she prepares materials and experiments, does astrophotography and operates the telescopes. “My mission in Serón is to support Raúl in bringing the stars closer to the population and its visitors, with young and old alike,” she writes on the website.
From the classroom to the sierra
Inside the dome, live sessions are held on the sky and its myths, the history of astronomy or navigation by the stars, according to Turismo Serón, the municipal tourism website: at weekends for families, and on weekday mornings for primary and secondary schools, which, according to the planetarium, come from Infantil (pre-school) up to Bachillerato (sixth form). Since 2022, the planetarium has had an observatory next to it, built with a grant of €18,150 from the Andalusian regional government (Junta de Andalucía), according to La Comarca.
Night-time observations take place in the Sierra de los Filabres, at an altitude of almost 2,000 metres, using what the website describes as the largest portable telescope in Almería, with a 56-centimetre mirror. For the night of 3 October, the planetarium scheduled ‘Estrellas, planetas y berrea’ (‘Stars, planets and the rut’), with Saturn and Neptune at their closest approach and the roar of rutting stags in the background: it was fully booked.
A planetarium that travels
When the public cannot come to Serón, the planetarium goes out to find them. El Galactarium, a portable dome six metres in diameter, is “the mobile planetarium that brings the Universe to your school, to your town”, according to its website. And it has travelled to the Jornadas Astronómicas de Almería (Almería Astronomy Days): in 2025, the Provincial Council announced that it would be opened by Nobel laureate in Physics John Mather, and in May 2026 it called on the planetarium once more, this time in the Patio de Luces courtyard of the Palacio Provincial. According to the Provincial Council’s press release, after the opening of the Astronomy Days, those who had taken part in it toured the planetarium, among them another Nobel laureate, Brian Schmidt.
One more reason to come
Serón “offers us the perfect opportunity to be able to enjoy astronomical activities thanks to the low light pollution surrounding the municipality”, as Turismo Serón sums it up. The planetarium has added that sky to what the village has to offer: in December 2024 it joined the Consejo Provincial de Turismo, the Provincial Council’s tourism board, and on its website it recommends to those arriving where to eat, sleep and walk in Serón.
Trains no longer pass through the old station; cyclists and walkers do. But from there, people are still travelling: to the Moon, to the rings of Saturn or, as its website promises, to the edges of the known universe. Thirty years after he started teaching astronomy, Raúl Martínez Morales is still doing so from the village whose sky convinced him to stay.
