What Do You Think of Our New Logo?

We are working on a new logo with an Israeli design firm. It is still in progress. What do you think of it currently? It's the new logo on top of our home page! Comments welcome here or on Facebook.

Our new logo

Our original web banner

Chez Eugene - A Boutique Hotel and Restaurant in Mitzpe Ramon

Chez Eugene has to be my favorite hotel in Mitzpe Ramon (or maybe anywhere for that matter). It is small and elegant, Gallic charm without French hauteur. The rooms are expansive and decorated with a keen eye for color, texture and shape. Architectural touches, such as see-through, room long fireplaces that give onto elegant, footed bath tubs make for romantic vistas. Some rooms have sky-lights over the bed; others have private terraces and outdoor jacuzzis. The hotel is small -- only 6 rooms, with 2 for families in a secluded location so as not to disturb other guests. If you've ever been to Israeli vacation-spot hotels with screaming kids running around, you will doubly appreciate this.

The hotel seems unaccountably out of place, located in the industrial area of Mitzpe Ramon. But once you walk through the doors, you are in another world - un petit arrondissment. Arnaud Rodrigue, the owner and frequent presence, and his staff pay meticulous attention to their guests and are always thinking of ways to please them and make their stay special. The hotel and restaurant feature local desert products, and the hotel was even built by artisans and workers from Mitzpe Ramon.

A wall-length, see-through fireplace romantically separates the bath from the other rooms.

The elegantly appointed bath room.

Le Roi Soleil: A beautiful pair of turquoise chairs grace the corner of a room.

A view with a room and a cozy heat stove in the corner.

Yair Feinberg is the star chef at Chez Eugene's restaurant, having studied under the likes of Paul Bocuse. The restaurant features European cuisine with a Mediterranean touch, sourcing local products from the desert and Israel.

Chef Yair Feinberg and waitress Lotem.

The restaurant at Chez Eugene

Chez Eugene from its corner view.

(Chez Eugene) Shhhhh...a secret place in the desert.

You can find out more about (Chez Eugene) here.

Related articles

• A Culinary Oasis in the Desert (The Jewish Daily Forward)

A Jewish Geography Moment

It happens so often that I hate to bring it up. I'm sure a statistician could explain why it isn't uncommon. We had a Jewish Geography Moment last week at Astronomy Israel. We met Leslie Weinberg and her daughter Sharon (and Sharon's boy friend Ariel) at Chez Eugene to go up for an astronomy tour. As I discovered on the phone before we met in person, Pam (my wife) was good friends with Leslie's mother and father who, among other things, had helped found the nursery school at the Tenafly, NJ JCC where Pam was the 2-year old director for many years before we moved to Israel. (Was that too hard to follow?) In any case, Pam insisted on my giving Leslie a card for her Mom, together with a soap made in Mitzpe Ramon's own soap factory, all packaged in a tidy little brown bag with handles, which made me laugh at Pam because who has room for such things in their suitcase? However, the joke was on me since Leslie's suitcase was empty as she had just brought a bag full of goodies to her daughter who had recently moved to Israel.

The point of all this is that we already had the basis of a relationship before we even met, so we had a rollicking good time on the plateau where I take our guests. Just by chance, it was night in which we saw many sporadic meteors and random satellites. This is always a thrill and resulted in a contest between Leslie and Sharon to see who could count the most. This is when I keep reminding our guests to "keep on looking up". You can't see anything if you're not watching the sky. I think Sharon trounced her mom, or perhaps my memory fails me. In any case, it got so heated that they began accusing one another of cheating. What fun!

Sharon, Ariel, and Leslie Weinberg on site with Astronomy Israel.

Sharon's beau, Ariel, came up with one of the best back handed complements I have ever heard. Being familiar with Hubble Telescope photos he said, upon looking through my 4" refractor, "I will lower my expectations to increase my pleasure." A rather wry comment that got a good laugh from us all and an admonition from me that he might not want that sentiment to linger in the mind of his possible future mother-in-law.

Keep on looking up!

Crepuscular Clouds

Sun's rays shine out from a crepuscular cloud in Mitzpe Ramon.

"Time Out Israel" Likes Astronomy Israel

We got a great write-up in the February edition of Time Out Israel, the "Israel for Lovers" issue. We are together with our patron hotel, Chez Eugene, the finest hotel and restaurant in Mitzpe Ramon. See page 17 of the digital edition for the full article.

Our page in the February issue of "Time Out Israel". (Click for full size)

Mitzpe Ramon's desert sky makes for a fantastic star gazing night...Machefsky leads the personalized tours in English and points out the constellations, stars and planets with passion. - Time Out Israel

How Dark are the Skies in Mitzpe Ramon?

Mitzpe Ramon proper has quite bright lighting, unfortunately, but just a few kilometers out of the city and you are back in the desert where the sky is quite dark. How dark? John Bortle developed a standardized scale for evaluating sky darkness which has become widely adopted. It has been used in the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness to color code a world map to show light pollution.

Mitzpe Ramon on a Bortle Scale map of Israel. Black-gray-blue-green-yellow indicate increasing light pollution. White is the most light polluted.

Bortle dark sky classes

Mitzpe Ramon is located at the border of a Bortle Scale gray/blue (Class 2/3) zone which is described as "typical truly dark site/rural site". Only Class 1, black, "excellent dark sky site" has darker skies. As you can see, much of tiny Israel suffers from light pollution, with only a small area of the central Negev classified as "truly dark". This is where Mitzpe Ramon lies (see map).

But the Negev's dark skies are under constant attack. Mitzpe Ramon itself, a town of about 5,000, does not do enough to mitigate light pollution. A new training facility for IDF officers just outside Mitzpe Ramon throws bright light unnecessarily across the desert. Gas stations along Route 40 are lit like sports stadiums. Tourist lodgings like Hawarim Farm have spot lights that light up the surrounding desert like a prison, and then there is Nafha/Ramon Prison which is lit like a prison because, well, it is one. Unless care is taken the little dark sky that remains in Israel will soon be swallowed by lights that are completely unnecessary.

Institutions like the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) are designating places official "dark sky" locations in recognition of their efforts to control light pollution and encourage astronomy tourism. The Channel Island of Sark, in the English Channel, is the first destination to be so named. Wouldn't it be great if Israel could work towards protecting and extending the dark skies of the Negev to become the first area in the Middle East to be named a "dark sky" destination!

Related articles

• Welcome to the Dark Side: British Isle Named Skywatching Paradise (space.com)
• Sark is world's first 'dark sky island' (guardian.co.uk)
• The Bortle Dark Sky Scale (Sky and Telescope)