To HESS and back

"I thought you were going to Windhoek today!"
"'Were going' is the keyword. But I will never get there unless I can get this stupid camera to work!" the technician at H.E.S.S. said and smiled. Notoriousnly unstable, the several ton heavy cameras are prone to failure. "It works perfectly during the day, but when night falls? Pfff!" he said and shook his head.

A smaller group of us had opted to go to the H.E.S.S. observatory a few miles away from the guest farm. It is the biggest of its kind in the world, and is looking for high energy bursts from deep space. The trip to the observatory was filled with animal observations. And two of those was a first for me.
"Meerkats!" one of the guys in the car cried out. Sure enough, beside the road, running away from our cars, was a group of them. In their typical fashion, they stood on their feet and watched this parade of weirdos driving pass them. Taking pictures. I didn't have much zoom on my camera, so they only became shadows in the distance.

Timon and family

Earlier on the trip, we had encountered two warthogs trying to find a hole in the fence to go through. So it was fitting. Timon and Pumbaa!

Pumbaa and bro

This was my second time to the observatory. I never tire looking at these giant telescopes. Searching for signs of high energy particles hitting the Earth's atmosphere. The dimensions of these things are ginormous. The telescopes are the biggest optical telescopes in the world. And their cameras have weights measured in tons, not grams and kilos. The mirrors are segmented and made up of hundreds of smaller mirrors, all focused at the camera in front. The flashes of light they are looking for, are extremely short, measured in nanoseconds, or billionths of a second. So they need a lot of processing power to be able to detect and record them. A computing bank with 100 multicore processors work in unison to handle the load of data.

As seen from the access road

The big one

Camera module. The small model...

Selfie in the telescope mirrors

Thin and in big numbers

The big scope mirror showing the technicians climbing the BIG
model camera...

Whacha lookin' at?

Back at the farm, I enjoyed taking pictures of giant insects and some baboons that always roamed the area around the farm. I hadn't seen much of them in my previous trips, but I guess that was due to me arriving a bit later in the season when the temperature was to low for them.

The following is a kind of grasshopper that doesn't have the ability to hop. It is big, but doesn't bite or sting. And it eats its own kind, if given the possibility.

Devouering its sibling with great verocity. You could actually hear the
munching of the shell

Outside one of the observatories, I found this gigantic grasshopper. It was 6-7 cm long, and (almost) perfectly camouflashed to its surroundings. I only noticed it because it jumped. I approached it slowly and managed to take these images.

The baboons often paid us a visit. During breakfast one morning, they even managed to get into the enclosed area around the main building. The landlady chased them out with clapping and noises. But they stayed in the area.

Last night was the final dinner here. We are going home today, and I am sitting here in my room, blogging while packing. It has been a very good week. We have been able to do a lot of observing and I have been capturing a lot of photons in my camera. I am looking forward to processing them when I get home. It is always sad to go. There is so much more I want to see. So much more I want to image. But all good things must come to an end. And so it does here too. I put my camera up outside of the dining room, and let it sit there and take photos of the sunset.

The wind started to pick up as we sat at the dinner table. And when we got out, it was very strong. Too strong for observing. But luckily not for imaging. So the two of us doing that, set up our gear as usual and started imaging. But the rest sat inside talking and waiting for the wind to die down. It didn't, and most of them went to bed early. That was probably for the best. Personally, my night was spotty. I had to get up every 2-3 hours to change the position the camera was pointing, and to pack my gear. Today it is still blowing. I have packed most of my stuff into my backpack and will help disassemble some of the telescopes we have been using here in an hour or so. Then lunch, and then the long trip back to the airport.

Will I be back? Who knows? I want to, but having been here three times makes me wonder if I should take a break and do something else next year. Only time will tell. This is Ragnar, amateur astrophotographer, checking out of Namibia for now.
Here are some of the earlier processing of my images taken here this time. Enjoy! (click on them to get larger versions)

The galaxy Centarus A, with it's characteristic dust band. At the lower left one can see a small
background edge-om galaxy. The original image (this is cropped) was dotted with these.

Eta Carina nebula. One of the most beautiful objects in the skies.

The Helix nebula

The colorful Trifid nebula and the Lagoon nebula

Omega Centauri. The largest globular cluster in the night sky.

Dark deeds

"Wow!" "Amazing" "Wonderful!" "Unbelievable!"
Many were the superlatives that were uttered during the first night under a clear and incredibly dark Namibian sky. For me, it was a happy reunion. For my group of friends, an astonishing new experience.

The flight from Frankfurt left the European continent. Soon we were over Africa. A continent sparsely populated. An night image shows large pathes of mostly dark areas. Just spotted with a few smaller and larger cities here and there. I had been there many times. And the past two years, I had come here to not just look at the dark skies, but to exploit them. Taking photos of objects that are either too low or even under the horizon from my usual spots in Norway.
I never sleep much on any means of transportation. And this was no exception. I tried to close my eyes and let my body take me into dreamland. But it just wouldn't do it. So I just lay, or more precisely, sat there with my eyes closed.
A few hours into the flight, somewhere over Cameroon, I notices a large flash outside the windows. My initial thought was that the flash was just the lights on the wing flashing into moisture. But I soon realised that it didn't come from the airplane. It was from the ground underneath us. I tried to locate the source, and after about 10 minutes, squeezing my face onto the window pane, I could see that we were approaching a thunderstorm. The lightning was ripping the clouds and illuminating large areas. I pulled out my camera, and tried to film the beautiful event. I love thunderstorms, and the fireworks display west of our flightpath was amazing. I was smiling. My tiredness was gone. A welcomed treat.
We arrived one hour early. It was cold. Only 3 degrees C. I had opted for shorts, and had regretted that during the flight, and now even more. I was eager to get into the terminal building for passport control. I and my friends were among the middle of the people coming off the plane, but due to some poor choices in the passport queues, I ended up being third last to pass passport control. The ordeal took more than one hour. But finally I got my stamps and was admitted into Namibia. My backpack was waiting for me on the conveyor belt. I picked it up and walked through customs to meet my friends on the other side.
Our transport hadn't appeared yet, so we spent the time changing some money for a short trip into Windhoek and buy snacks and the life elixir of the amateur astronomers at Harestua Solar Observatory : Chocolate...
The landlady at Hakos Guestfarm showed up and we packed the car with bags, suitcases and backpacks. Ready for the long drive to Hakos. But first we went into Windhoek were Waltraud drove us around on a short sightseeing tour of the city before stopping at a gas station for gas and snacking (we realized that it was Sunday, and this was Africa. No Sunday open shops...).
The trip to Hakos went as always, rumbling on gravel roads. Sleeping after the long sleepless flight, and the occationaly baboon or ostritch sitting by the road.

After arriving, settling into our rooms and eating breakfast, the first order of the day was to inspect the gear we had rented. It was all laid out on a terrasse below the main house. We had rented three telescopes together for visual observing, and two of us had rented tracking platforms to put out astrphotogear on. For deep sky photos.
As for most of the winter in Namibia, the skies were clear, and all of us was preparing for a night under the skies.

My photogear installed and ready for the night

 An area where astronomers meet to observe the night skies, is often referred to  as "red light distrct". This is due to the fact that only red lights are accepted. Our eyes are not very sensitive to red light, so in order to preserve our night vision, we only use red light. On this trip, we also decided to buy som red glasses to cover our eyes in case we needed to go to places where there wasn't red light. Below is a photograph taken through my glasses to show how we want our eyes to adapt.

And here is me sporting my astrogoggles. They actually worked remarkably well as sunglasses. They covered my prescription glasses perfectly, so I used them for most of the day.

All of our gear inspected and ready for the night.

Nightfall, with swallows flying through the air to their nests underneath
the roof of the main building. We would occationally har them during
the night.

After a few nights under the skies, four of us decided to take a walk to something called "Walter's point", about 45 minutes walk from the main house. The name stems from Walter Straube who started the guestfarm back in the days. He died two years ago and is buried on the farm. His daughter is now running the place.

View back towards the farm

Beautiful views

Rest in peace

The walk was also a reminder of two facts : Even in the desert, there is a place for life and beauty. And the desert is not to be taken lightly. We found this flower in the middle of the trail. Like a defiant reminder that it will not be downtrodden and forgotten. But will still lift towards the light and spread its beauty.

But if you do not take the desert seriously, it will punish you dearly, as these two animals found at such a high cost.

Most of this Kudu antelope had decayed, leaving only literally the skin and bones

Beautiful light in the afternoon.

One of the days, we got a guided tour of the farm and its many observatories. All of them with a lot of gear that can make even the most calm and composed amateur drool. But the following was by far the biggest display of "astro-porn" on the site. A 20 inch telescope on top of a world class precision mount far above my normal price range. I think I started drooling at one point.

But of course, our main focus for being here, was the night sky. Superlatives have been many and not far between. The beauty of the night skies are simply stunning. With star clusters, galaxies far far away (...) and nebulas in all the colours of the rainbow. All scattered across a sky so dark it makes your heart bleed when thinking of the light polluted skies back home. Where you can barely see the stars some places.
And it makes me wonder at times : What have we lost by lighting up the night? It may make us feel safe, althought in many cases it doesn't actually make us safe. But we have lost the night. We have lost the awesome and humbling view of the billions of stars encompassing our existence. And that might have caused us to ignore the obvious fact of our insignificance in it all. Maybe we all need to turn off the lights once in a while, and on a clear night, lay down on the ground and let the view humble us into getting off our self-inflating thrones of significance. And just realize who we are in it all.

Ragnar,
Amateur astronomer with the permanent travel bug syndrome

Seoul-searching, Gangnam style!

When taking the Seoul-train to Seoul station, one might be tempted to believe our destination was Motown. But this was an oriental town, not occidental. Although with its modern looks and design, it is no doubt this South Korean capital has opened it doors to the world's influence.

Almost every year, a friend of mine and I go for a short oval weekend trip somewhere in the world. And this time, Seoul was the target. It was a long flight from Europe, with too little sleep. When flying east, the day (and night) is way too short. We had originally planned to go to Seoul a few years back, but those plans failed. But finally, we were able to visit the southern part of the Korean peninsula, 6 years after I visited the north.

I have Won!

Going to Seoul station!

We took the train from the airport to Seoul station (...) and after some wandering about in the heat, we decided to just grab a cab to the hotel and drop off our bags before doing anything else. It was also getting late. We were a bit surprised by how little crowdy Seoul was, until we learned that we had arrived on the South-Korean equivalent of thanksgiving. So almost everyone had left to visit their parents and/or the rest of their family.
Our taxi-driver spoke English and told us about the corruption and how he didn't like the government. Just like everywhere else, I guess. Except a few hundre kilometer north, where it would have meant "reeducation" if you even considered talking like that. And in those sentences, the main difference between the two brother nations became all too obvious.

Our hotel had a name that was all too fitting :

And we got a room with a view.

After dropping off our bags and changing into something more apporpritate and less sweaty, we headed out. The city felt dead. My friend had found a place he wanted to visit, so we took the subway there and found excactly nothing. That is, we found the place, but there was nothing there. We walked thought the front door, and just a big empty space greeted us. And a guard. He pointed towards an escalator, and we rode it DOWN into the ground. Suddenly, we were in a shopping mall and cineplex underneath the ground. Complete with the Hulk and Ironman fighting it out...

...and an indoor slide...

...and green-tea-flavored ice-cream! Yummy!

If I could speak Korean, this movie would probably have been my choice.

But we were too tired to watch any movie. Unless the co-audience would like some life-like snoring sound-effect to their movie. We opted for returning to the hotel for some sleep...

After a couple of hours sleep, we were ready to take on the world again. At least a new day. And this day, we had planned to go to the Namsam Seoul tower. A towering (...) construction on a mountain overlooking the city. We took the subway to the nearest station, and walked the rest to the cable-car that would take us to the foot of the tower. Even though most people had left the city, the line for the cable-car was, like, forever. But we finally got ur tickets to ride. My friend learned that many couples would bring padlocks and lock them on the fences by the tower. So he bought a padlock with a heart on it, dedicated to him and his wife. He photographed it and sent the picture to his wife. She loved it.

Fences packed with padlocks from couples.

An elevator inside the tower lifted us up to a viewing platform 140 meters above the ground. Luckily, I do not have a fear of heights...

Not for the shy or men with fear of heights. But then again, the latter would never
see this bathroom...

After coming down from the mountain, we walked around the city, taking photos and enjoying the street life and buildings, old and new.

Part of the old city wall. This was one of the entrances.

Lots of visitors to the old city. Many with natiional costumes.

Cool design on the buildings.

In more detail

Even the river was "designed"

Is this a way to make sure office rats get out more?

Ok. If you need an iPad that bad, maybe you should see a shrink

Hmmm. Not sure if I want to trust an ATM from this bank... I need
no more woories...

We walked into a narrow street and found this restaurant....

...serving typical Korean cousine. I had tried this in North Korea. Delicious!

After the delicious meal at the side street restaurant, we walked back to our hotel. Shooting some more pictures on our way. We decided to walk a side street again instead of the main roads. And that was a good call. We suddenly found where all the people were hanging out...

Hanging roof...

Rose petal ice-cream! The guy scooped flat scoops of ice and
formed this rose. Cannot remember the flavor, but it was delish!

So this is were all the people were hiding!

Bustling street!

Next morning. We had booked a VIP bus for the airport. Originally we planned to take the train again, but when the receptionists offered VIP bus, how could we resist?
The breakfast wasn't fast at all. Enjoying the view from our table, we sat talking and enjoying the last meal before heading home.

Fat and juicy breakfast

The VIP bus was truly VIP. With ginormous seats of leather we sat like kings and enjoyed the ride to the airport.

At the airport, these guys provided a photo-op for us before we boarded
 the plane

The trip was short, but full. We got to see a lot, taste delish cousine and enjoy a weekend away from home. Far away from home...