Four Continents in Two Months

A snowman at Crater Lake

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.

If you want to jump to the picture albums, here are the links:
Japan
Crater Lake
Solar eclipse and Valparaiso
Be sure to click on images you like to see a larger version!

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.

My other Crater Lake pictures are here.