A blog about my third life in Dublin, Ireland, after growing up in Switzerland and living in the USA for 22 years. And now a fourth life in Forest Grove, Oregon.
Hello, as you can see the four of us spent Christmas together this year. With Anika living in Brighton and James in Austin, and us in Ireland for a while, this has not happened for a few years now. Christmas weather in the Portland area is usually not spectacular. Instead of watching the heavy clouds and rain here, we unpacked our presents in the morning and headed for the coast in the afternoon to watch the rain there falling into the Ocean.
Venus on Christmas
We got to the house we rented just South of Newport just in time for the sunset and a pretty clear view of the night sky. Our neighbor had some bright porch lights on and the humidity was very high. Also, this is not the season to take Milky Way pictures, but I had to try anyway since it is seldom that we get clear nights here.
Winter Milky Way and Andromeda in the upper left
The next day we visited the Yaquina Bay and Yaquina Head lighthouses and saw some of the animals in the natural area there. Some of the pictures turned out OK. You can see all of them in my Flickr album for this trip.
Yaquina Bay lighthouse
Yaquina Head lighthouse
A bald eagle watching the visitors to Yquina Head lighthouse
I had my 300 mm lens with me to capture the eagle above. In hindsight, I should have gone back to the car and get the 500 mm lens. We also saw some seals down at the pebble beach, but no gray whales, even though this is supposed to be whale watch week. Other than the good day we had right after Christmas, visibility was pretty bad and the waves were huge with sneaker waves warnings in effect. No gray whales for us. James thought it was a scam to attract tourists to the coast during Winter months ;-)
We did get a decent sunset, though, on the day after Christmas.
Sunset with Yaquina Head lighthouse in the background
We now have seen all lighthouses on the central and Northern Oregon coast. There are a few more in the South we need to visit. I have a good picture of Heceta lighthouse from our Florence trip in August, but have not had time to post thos pictures yet. Stay tuned!
A couple of times a year, the full moon rises right behind Mt. Hood. There are some beautiful pictures of that event online and I have tried several times so far to capture it. A really nice spot to take this picture from is Jonsrud Viewpoint in Sandy, Oregon. It is a tiny little spot on top of a bluff right above the Sandy river with an unobstructed view of Mt. Hood. If the weather cooperates. And often it does not.
The view from Jonsrud Viewpoint, Sandy river below, and Mt. Hood on the horizon.
Clearoutside.com had predicted a cloudless sky for last Friday and I made the two-hour drive through rush-hour traffic. Due to moon rise timing over Mt. Hood, it is always rush-hour when I try to take this picture. When I got there a woman told me that it had been perfectly clear until about a half hour ago when the haze you see at the base of Mt. Hood in the picture above moved in. It took almost twenty minutes for the moon to clear that haze and rise above it.
Full moon near Mt. Hood
I got some nice Fall colors and the moon looks cool, but Mt. Hood is barely visible. The whole idea is to wait for a day when the moon rises near that position but the sun has not set yet and is still lighting up the face of Mt. Hood. That requires good weather around Mt. Hood but also behind me so the setting sun is not obscured. Those conditions are difficult to align. I had tried last month too, but about an hour before moon rise, lots of clouds moved in. By the time the moon became visible, it was almost completely dark.
These clouds were not there an hour earlier during my attempt in September.
The peak of Mt. Hood is about 30 miles from Jonsrud Viewpoint and 50 miles from Pittock Mansion, another nice spot to see the mountain from Portland. On many days, Oregon weather hides the mountain completely. This happened to me September last year when I tried from Pittock Mansion. The following day the moon was rising after sunset and I went to Jonsrud again, hoping for better weather. The weather worked out, but the timing was a day off.
A photoshopped version from last year
Once it gets dark, Mt. Hood is no longer lit up and the moon appears much brighter, making it difficult to photograph the scene. The above picture is stitched together from multiple images from that evening. I made the moon bigger to overcome my disappointment.
Whenever the full moon rise aligns with Mt. Hood like that, and the weather is not horrible, you will find fellow photographers at Jonsrud and Pittock mansion, trying to get that perfect picture. Twice now, somebody held a class there and I overheard people talking from where they had come from to learn and to take pictures of Portland and surroundings. Compared to them, my two-hour drive is nothing, but I am getting tired of doing it. But I'll probably try again ;-)
It's been a busy two months: I visited four continents! Three more to go and, of course, I have only seen a fraction of the ones I have set foot on. In May I was in Tokyo on business but was able to spend a weekend in Kyoto. Lee Ann and I spent Memorial day weekend at Crater Lake (I live on that continent, but it was a trip, so it counts!) In the middle of June it was off to the PASC conference in Zurich and a customer visit in Paris. I left early so I could visit Anika in Brighton and stopped in Bern before taking the train to Paris. Finally, at the end of June, a week in Chile to see the total solar eclipse. All these trips were fun, but the most exciting was the eclipse trip.
Total eclipse near Vicuna, Chile. Venus at the horizon, Tololo observatory to the left.
Chile was a chaotic trip. I arrived first on Saturday and drove from Santiago to La Serena, five hours further North. La Serena is at the foot of the Elqui valley and right in the path of July 2nd eclipse. I had booked a large apartment there many months in advance. It was expected that 350,000 solar eclipse chaser would visit the region in that week. And, indeed, the airport arrival area was full of tour group operators holding signs for Sky & Telescope groups and the like. In La Serena they sold eclipse ice cream and street vendors hopped in front of stopped cars to hawk eclipse glasses.
Eclipse Ice Cream!
Through booking.com I had GPS coordinates and an address in La Serena for where the maisonette I had booked was supposed to be. The coordinates were wrong and the address did not exist! In the airport I had bought a data SIM, so I had internet access, but communication with the owner was not easy. We did not speak each others languages and used google translate to bridge the gap. I spent hours talking to people, with hands and feet, trying to find the place. All of them were super friendly. Even when they couldn't help, they encouraged me to come back for more help if I was still unsuccessful.
In the end, I ended up at an apartment five miles North of La Serena. The owner had switched us to a different place without ever letting me know. The explanation was "there was a problem with the maisonette."
It had a beautiful view of the Pacific, not enough space heaters, one less room and bathroom than I had prepaid for, no WiFi, and only occasionally warm water. And only one key for seven people. On Sunday, the rest of the crew arrived: Stacy, Mark, Jill, her daughter Emmalyn, and Kieran and Matt. We all saw the eclipse, but Emmalyn got sick and Jill took her home the day after. Kieran also had to go home early because of his grandfather's health condition.
Heavy traffic heading back to Santiago
We had three cars and left La Serena on Wednesday at different times. I waited until almost lunch time and paid a price. EVERYBODY was heading back to Santiago that day. The eclipse the day before was just before sunset, so most people waited until Wednesday to leave the area. It was late at night before I arrived at Concon where Stacy had rented an house. This one was cold too, but much easier to find. By Thursday it was just Stacy, Mark, and me, and we had the whole house to ourselves until Sunday when we went back home.
Street art in Valparaiso
We spent the second half of the week in the colorful city of Valparaiso. In the summer; i.e, not in July, this is a big tourist destination. In the winter it is still busy, but probably less claustrophobic. It was a nice relaxing end to our week in Chile.
You may remember that for my first solar eclipse I made several scouting trips into the path to find a good spot. This time I only had Sunday and the morning of the eclipse to do that. What I wanted, was something along the lines of the picture below. What I got, is the picture further above. I'm happy with that, but with just a little bit better planning, and fewer apartment troubles, it might have been even better.
The picture I really wanted (this one is photoshopped)
The Elqui valley is famous for all the astronomical telescopes on various mountain tops. On Sunday I had found a spot where I could get the telescope and the eclipsed sun into the same frame. But, the distance between the two meant I had to zoom out to 24 mm on my lens and everything would be quite small.
Along route D-445 South of Vicuna, near a hill called Portezuelo Las Tres Cruces, is a spot where I had hoped all the angles would align. The terrain option in Google maps is useful and there are other sites that show you whether the sun is behind a mountain at a given time of day. Crucial information in the Andes with their steep valleys.
People, miles from civilization, getting ready for the eclipse
I was not the only one with that idea and information. To make sure the Cerro Tololo Observatory would be visible, I climbed the hill in the picture above. There isn't really a path, it is steep, and most of it is loose rock. And no telescope in sight at the top, but another hill, which I also climbed. By now I was an hour away from the car, and all my equipment was down there. I had left it, for a "quick" scouting hike.
The video above, from the highest point I reached, shows my surroundings. No Tololo, but another hill in sight of line to the telescope. At that point I thought I would head back to the car, get my gear, come back up here and climb the next hill. That's when I met another eclipse chaser, from Hungary, this was his sixth eclipse, who had the same idea. He said he would rush up the next hill to have a peek and he would let me know when he came down to the parking lot to get his camera equipment as well.
The way down was difficult. Climbing that mountain was an exercise, going down required thinking and careful stepping. There was no path and going down looks a lot different than going up. I got "lost" a couple of times and had to retrace my steps because there was no way down. Even without weight on my back, I kept slipping on the loose rocks. At that point I decided that I did not have time to get my equipment and come back up. Plus, going down after the eclipse with 30 pounds of camera gear on that terrain was way too dangerous for me. Two cameras, three tripods, two cell phones with different apps and sensors, lenses, an equatorial mount, counter weights for the mount, water, flashlight in case I got stuck, etc. I had come well equipped for the eclipse. Not so much for taking it all with me on a long hike up a steep hill.
Scouting for a place to photograph the eclipse
My new Hungarian friend was disappointed when he caught up with me a little later. He had still not seen the Tololo but he had hoped I would climb back up with him anyway since his girlfriend down in the car was not comfortable with him alone up in these mountains.
The Cerro Tololo Observatory
I drove back a ways from where I had come. There was a nice spot to see the eclipse and the observatory. Just not very close together, and I had to use a wide angle lens. The telephoto lens on my second camera did OK, but again, not quite what I was hoping for. I got a couple of nice diamond rings (Bayli's beads) and solar flares, but not the long streamers I have hoped for. Good thing the next total solar eclipse will happen soon!
Bayli's beads
Solar flares
Originally I had planned for some night sky photography in the Andes, but I never had time for that. Stacy and I did see the Southern Cross, but it was from Valparaiso under a light polluted sky.
My solar eclipse and Valparaiso pictures are here.
The Southern Cross (click on the picture to see it)
Lee Ann and I spent Memorial Day weekend at Crater Lake. This year I reserved three nights to give us a better chance for at least one day with good weather and make the whole thing a little more relaxing. And, as planned, the first two days were pretty bad ;-) Still got a few good shots with dramatic clouds and then on the third day the sky cleared up for these pictures:
I liked the first one so much that I had it printed on a 30"x20" sheet that now hangs on one of our walls.
Japan was fascinating as always. This time I got to venture outside the city limits of Tokyo. After the meeting with RIKEN in Tokyo, I stayed the weekend and took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, the old capital of Japan. The train goes by the foot of Mt. Fuji, but both times going and coming back betwen Tokyo and Kyoto, the weather was bad and I could hardly see the mountain. Plus, it was not easy to take a picture with the landscape zooming by so fast. Most of them have a blurry electric pole or something in the foreground.
This year the Sandia, Oak Ridge, Swiss (SOS) workshop was held in Asheville, North Carolina. We were there three years ago at the Biltmore, but this time we got to stay at the (also) historic Grove Park Inn. I had some time one evening to wander around the estate and took a few sunset and nighttime shots. You can view all pictures on Flickr.
Sunset at the bottom of the Grove Park Inn
The Grove Park Inn from below
Getting there from the Northwest corner of the US is not simple. I flew into Atlanta because I could not find good flights in and out of Charlotte. The drive was a little longer but I had a chance to see Danette, John, Nicolas, and Elizabeth.
Before the SOS workshop I got to attend the ADAC workshop at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Despite working with them for years, I never actually visited there. It was quite interesting. In order to get a badge and approval to move around unescorted, I had to take a short training course. Basically, read and obey the signs, be courteous and don't discriminate, and use common sense. In return, the lab tries to keep the radiation levels within reasonable limits ;-)
An abandoned structure on the grounds of the Grove Park Inn
Both workshops were quite interesting but the best part was visiting with old friends and colleagues. I got to have dinner with Barney and Linda in Knoxville and then spend evenings with Kevin, Kurt, and many other Sandia and Swiss folks.
One afternoon Barney drove us to the top of Mt. Mitchel, the highest point in the US, East of the Mississippi.
Impressive that there isn't anything higher for many hundred miles
We were hoping for those famous Smokey Mountain views, but it wasn't quite happening
On the last day, after the workshop was over, I drove up again in hopes of capturing a nice sunset. That didn't quite work either, but it turned out better than I thought when I was driving back down at night. Another photographer I met up there was also disappointed and didn't think any of his shots were for the keepers portfolio.
Sunset on Mt. Mitchel
On the drive back to Atlanta on Saturday I got stuck in traffic several times due to accidents. I almost missed my plane. The first attendant wouldn't let me check my bag because it took me a couple of minutes to get the app on my phone to produce the boarding pass. She could have looked me up by name, but instead told me that I'm too late and had to speak to customer service. Thankfully, that line was short and the person helping me there was much nicer and competent. Both my bag and I are back home for a while. Next trip will be to Japan in May!
