Retrospect

Breakfast at the astrohotel. An elderly woman came into the dining room of the hotel. She was panting. Heavily. The sweat was running down her face. I stopped eating and looked at her. Wondering if she was out of shape or in dire need. She put down her bottle. It was half full of water. Ok so she didn't need water. She looked around the room, and scanned passed me without noticing me. She took out her purse and fumbled with it for a few seconds. The brought out her cell phone charger. She plugged it in the wall socket and into her phone. She sighed in relief. Welcome to 2016...

Sitting in my hotel in Marrakech. A few hours till my plane takes off for home. Looking back at my time here, it has been a magnificent couple of weeks for an amateur astronomer like myself. Dark skies night after night with little or no clouds. And no frost to cover the lenses and mirrors of my optics and ruin photos.
I must admit that I couldhave done more here than just take astrophotos, but due to lack of, bad, or no sleep during the nights. I have not been up to anything much duiring the days. Mostly doing some processing between the naps. But I have made a few walks into the desert surrounding the hotel. For some reason, I love desert. I have ever since I walked into the dryness in Peru in 1996. There was a beauty in the dryness and deadness of it.
I took this shadow-selfie of me and the hotel the first day I stayed. Sahara was trying to reposess the area, and one guy was constantly shoveling sand to keep it back.

Close to the hotel, there are some sanddunes. I decided one day to cliimb the highest. I had no idea how high it was since I didn't have any reference of distance or anything. But as I apporaced, a biker stopped by it, and it was clear it wasn't excactly Mount Everest...

One small step for man, but....

... a giant leap for whatever else had left its footprints here.

Rule #1 for hiking : Only leave your footprints.

There are also some nomads living close to the hotel. They offer camel rides for tourists. I was approached by one, but since I wanted to walk by my own energy, I politely refused his offer.

The not so nomadic nomads have pitched their tent close to the dunes to offer the passing tourists rides on their camels.

When they are not riding the camels themself. This guy was probably on his way to the market. He was riding past the hotel, so I got a picture of him from my balcony.

But as everyone reading this has already understood, my main purpose of staying here, has been to take astrophotos. And this has been my tool. A wonderful refractor from William Optics. I have a similar scope at home and love it! It has been a wonderful workhorse and has given me great images these 12 nights. I just wish my scope at home had such pristine skies to shine under!

It was kind of sad to get up at 6 the last morning and for the last time take down my gear and pack it up. I took some photos and just enjoyed the rising Sun in the east.

It was a bit hard to get into my car and head out onto the N9 back to Marrakech. I knew it would be a long drive. But this time I had better time, so I could stop more and maybe even take some more photos. I did, and it was  much more enjoyable drive. And it didn't feel that long, even thought it actually took longer... I took some photos here and there. Too many to include here, but especially the climbs and decents across the mountains were beautiful. With stunning gorges below the road. Beautiful patterns carved by the wind and the sand through thousands of years. 

I stopped once and took a picture down the valley through which I had driven up.

On the road, there wasn't much to take pictures of, but I saw this truck with the wash of the driver hanging to dry. I had to smile when I noticed...

Right after checking in to my hotel here in Marrakech, I walked to the Jemaa el Fna marked to get some food. The market place is just a big chaos and cacophony of musicians, food vendors, dancers, scammers and snake charmers. It had changed since the last time I was here in 2003. The food wagons had been replaced by something that reminded me of makeshift restaurants. But still the same feel as last time. I sat down at one of the restaurants and had a filling meal of sausages, chips and kefta. Wonderful!

So this is me checking out for now. Till next journey, keep travelling!

Stairway to the heavens

The main reason for going to Morrocco this time around, was to do astronomy from a dark site on the edge of the Saharan desert. The site was not as good as the astrofarm in Namibia, but WAY better than anything I have experienced in Norway. So dark you could see the zodiacal lights. Can't remember ever seeing that in Norway.

Most nights have, luckily, been clear. And I have spent most of them sitting, standing, walking on the rooftop terrasse where all the telescopes are located. Many sleepless nights hopefully resulting in many brilliant images of the beautiful objects in the skies. For those of you who have never seen my astro images, they can be found in my astrophoto blog at http://heavensglory.blogspot.com. As I finish processing the images I have taken here, I will add them to that blog.
Every evening/night, I walk the stairs up to the terrasse. Only to be met by the glorious skies above. During the day, it is just a rooftop terrasse, but at night, it is a stairway to the heavens.

The following is the normal routine for taking astrophotos :

First set up everything

Then find your object

Check the focus

Set up the autoguider

Start the camera, and wait

...and wait...

...and wait...

And then stop.

A final procedure is to take something called flats. A procedure to let the camera record the variations in light over the sensor. This can be caused by specks on the sensor or vignetting by the optics.

Afterwards, the processing may take from hours to days. But the result is, hopefully, rewarding. The following is the result of a basic processing of an image of the galaxy M51 in Canes Venatici. 3.5 hours of exposure. The filed also contains several other, smaller galaxies in the field.

Not so deserted desert with dessert

I frantically tried to figure out what was wrong. A guy on a motorbike coming up from behind was waving his hand and yelling and honking his horn. Did I have a flat tire? Nope, couldn't feel any wobling. Was my lights on? Yup. Had the trunk opened and strewn my belongings all over the road? A quick check in the mirrirs revealed that nothing was lying in the road behind me. The guy on the motorbike was now driving beside me, waving his hand and trying to get my attention. "Hotel sir?! Sir? Monsiour? Mein Herr? Hotel? Very good price!". I looked at him in dibelief. You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me!

I woke up early and had a shower. The bathrom in my room was excactly what I had expected from Marrakesh.

The bathroom was completed with these cure soap-holders with their own fez... 

I enjoyed the shower, which was in a small room by itself. This room had wonderful acoustcs, and when I hit the right tone, it was ringing a long time. I found two notes where this happened. And sang those again and again. Ok. So I'm weird....
After a wonderful breakfast, I was ready for the trip up to the astrohotel outside of Tamegroute. The receptionist got me a taxi and actually followed me to the airport to pick up my car. The rental car routine was as usual. A lot of waiting around for the people to hack through a lot of paperwork and failing computer programs and networks. But I finally got the car keys and headed out to pick up my ride. The car had seen a lot of action and we went through the car together to mark any small dents or marks. Which were a few. After I was satisfied, he bid me a good trip. "Eeerrr. I ordered a GPS." I said. He looked at my papers. "It is coming!" he said unassuringly.
After half an hour, he came and said "We go to garage". So he drove the car to their garage and got a GPS from another car. He tried to mount the holder to the windshield. It fell off. I spat on it and put it back on. It stuck. He looked at me as if I had spat on him. Then returned to the task of setting up the GPS. "This no working!" he said. "I find new!". He tried to remove the holder, but had to fight to get it off. He finally did and left to get me a new one. The new one worked.
"Where you go?"
"Tamegroute!"
"Tameg---what?"
"Tamegroute"
"?"
"Near Zagora"
"Aaaah! Tamigrou!"
"Eeeeer... Maybe?"
He entered the name and plotted the route. It looked correct to me.
"Have a nice trip!" he said and got out of the car.
So there I was. Ready to take on the Moroccan highways and byways. Hopefully without anything going sideways.
After some hairy driving through and out of Marrakesh with only a few drives honking frantically at my crazy driving, I was out on the highway. The N9. I thought this would be a breeze. But far from it. It was packed with poeple driving erratically and surprisingly slowly. And in addition, the road was FAR more winding than I had ever anticipated. On the map I could see that it would be filled with turns back and forth going up the mountains, but I have never. Like EVER. tried something quite like this. 90- and 180 degree turns all the time took its toll on me. And after several hours of this, I was starting to get really tired. And the clock was ticking. I had anticipated arriving at the hotel long before sundown. But the clock ticked relentlessly away as the kilometers snailed by. I had planned to make a few stops along the way to stretch my feet, but due to the slow advancements, I ended up only stopping when nature called. Or in my case : SCREAMED. Since I didn't want to make any unneccesary stops.
So in a way, the "hotel special price"-dude on the bike managed to get my juices going enough to handle the final few dozen km to the astrohotel.
I arrived just after sundown. Finally I could stretch properly. I had arrived! And was ready for some serious astrophoto sessions for what would hopefully be 12 clear nights.

Here are some photos I snapped on the way. I guess it is obvious why I didn't take any photos of hairpin turns...

And finally, the reason for being here at the moment: The night sky. I took this picture of the observing roof of the hotel, just before sunrise. I had packed down my gear, and used the light from the moon to take this photo before hitting the sack.

Riad'y for anything

"Whisky of Maroc" the receptionist said and smiled as he served me a small glass of delicious tea. I smiled and thanked him. I had just arrived in the hotel (or "riad"), and he insisted on serving me tea while he was checking me in.
I arrived in Marrakech an hour late. There was a slight delay from Oslo airport. Passport control and customes went without much ado. I changed some euros into dirhams and went to find a taxi. After some haggling and the usual "walking away", I ended up in a very perfumed taxi with a smiling driver who insisted on telling me all about the local sights, in Arabic, as we passed them. I have been to Marrakech before, so I understood what he was talking about. I just smiled and said "Ok" and "Yes" at appropriate times. He seemed happy that he was giving me my money's worth.
Since my hotel is within the narrow streets of the old city, the driver dropped me off as close to my hotel as he could. In the "outer rim territories". He pointed me in the general direction and I started walking. I was soon joined by a local who I knew had made himself my local guide. A bit annoying, but I knew he wouldn't take no for an answer, so I just let him follow me.
I walked through the narrow streets, enjoying the bustling activity of street vendors, mopeds zooming through, and the smell. The smell of Africa. A few minutes, a couple of death-defying dodges out of the way for mopeds later, I had arrived. The hotel was as I expected. Hidden away in a dead-end street.
My self-appointed "guide" rang the non-working electronic bell, and asked for his "pay". I gave him a 20 (about $2.5) note. He looked at me and asked "What is THIS? This is nothing! Give me a 50!" I waved him off, And I could see from his face that he knew I knew. He asked me on the way if I had been here before. I said "yes".
After he left me standing outside the hotel door, a woman sitting outside a house next door yelled, and a little girl ran up to the door, smiling at me. "Hello" she said, and used the door hammer. She stood there, waiting until the receptionist opened. Then she smiled at me again and ran back to her friends down the street.
After I had checked in, I walked outside to find something to eat. I had noticed a couple of small shops while walking to my hotel. I found one that had everything I wanted. One of the guys spoke a few words of English, and with some universal sign language, we managed to communicate my needs quite clearly. And this is the time when I could put the pay of my "guide" into perspective : I bought a Coke, a big bottle of water and two big bread for 14 Dirhams. And the Coke was half of that sum... So 20 Dirhams is enough to eat a couple of meals. Not bad pay for walking 5 minutes... It's not that I mind paying people. It's just that I don't like to "spoil" people into becoming greedy. The last time I was in Morocco, the guys putting our bags into the cargohold of the bus demanded 50 Dirhams tip from each passenger for the "service".
I took a couple of photos outside my hotel. I was contemplating going to Jemaa el Fna this evening to eat, but decided I didn't want to risk it. If I caught something, I would risk wasting the precious nights at the astrohotel sitting on the toilet. I will do that the evening before I go back to Norway.

My hotel is on the left. The door is in just beyond the street light.

View down the street from my hotel.