Posts Tagged ‘travel’
Festival of (star) lights
Diwali, a festival of lights.
This year’s Diwali ended up being a festival of star lights at Death Valley National Park, the darkest sky that can be, amidst a federal government shutdown.
We had made a call earlier in the summer to sign up for a star gazing event organized by Eastern Sierra Observatory, in Panamint Valley. The site was by the side of a county maintained dirt road, Indian Ranch road. The organizers are astrophotographers themselves. They were quiet until a few days before the event. An earlier flash flooding in August had resulted in closure of several roads in Death Valley. Three weeks ago, the federal government had shut down resulting in the shutdown of National Park Services. It had rained recently and as a result, the county road was badly rutted in places. The organizers had crafted a detailed and helpful email on road access – “Take Hwy 58 from Bakersfield and not the twisty Hwy 178”, “Whatever you do — first navigate to Ballarat first”, “Do not approach the county road from north”, “The road is bumpy here and there, so drive slowly”, …
I wasn’t sure what to expect. This was our first communal star gazing event. On one hand was the government shutdown and poor road conditions. On other hand, the 2025 Dark Sky Festival in Death Valley National Park, held in Feb, had reported over 6,800 attendees. Our camping experience hasn’t yet prepared us to deal with a primitive campground. The site was going to have porta potties, but not water. Instead, they were going to bring large telescopes to look at planets in our solar system and star clusters that are million light years away. I couldn’t stand the idea of star gazing while being unbathed for 3 days in a hot valley. So, we had also checked into the Panamint Springs Resort. The rutted county road meant we were going to be driving an hour each way from Panamint Springs Resort (daytime) to the campsite (nighttime) and back, but it also meant that we were going to be fed, washed and rested. Even then, I was a little apprehensive. I needn’t have been.
In the end, 150-180 vehicles had congregated at the event, not thousands. They were respectful of the dark sky. Everyone used red lights when they needed to use a light. There was no music playing. While the historic temperature averages predicted 60-90F, we ended up with 50-85F. As far as Death Valley goes, it was positively balmy weather. They had suggested bringing 12 inch stakes and we were glad to have followed the suggestion. We experienced gusts of wind throughout our stay. It was particularly windy when we were setting camp. I remember feeling a brief moment of panic when we weren’t sure if we would be able to put up the tent. But we did and the tent stayed put. There were a couple of welcome surprises – a starlink WiFi access and a food truck.
It couldn’t have been better star gazing experience. We have been going to Pinnacles National Park (Bortle 3), but Death Valley sky is darker still (Bortle 1). We would get to the campsite by 4 or 5 pm, and set up photography gear. During earlier part of the evening, there were organized events. One evening we listened to a panel of astrophysicists from Caltech. We looked through giant telescopes and saw globular cluster and rings of saturn. We ate simply. We would select the star cluster and set up the photoshoot program and catch a snooze before moving on to the next star cluster. Each night we ran two programs. We managed to shoot several hours of Andromeda galaxy, Pleiades cluster, North America nebula and the Orion nebula. These are relatively large objects in the sky – easier for beginner gear and skill set. The location of the site caused a dome like effect, the night sky was surrounded by mountains on the horizon. The desert landscape meant no tall trees to interrupt the view. It was stars as far as eyes could see. And more with binoculars. And more still with camera. Along the milky way, nearly every pixel was occupied by a star. We saw meteors. We saw satellites.
It was not an unpleasant experience sleeping (somewhat fitfully) while listening to the periodic shutter of our DSLR. I woke up with a start once because a donkey was braying. The occasional gust made the tent cover flap and added to the fitfulness of the sleep. We would wake up early, wrap up the gear and drive back to the Panamint Spring Resort. There we would grab breakfast, enjoy a hot shower, catch naps, inspect the photography artifacts from night before and plan the upcoming night’s shooting. On the very last night of our stay, we decided to skip the campsite and shoot from the resort’s well maintained campground. Our neighbor was a loud group that kept the fire going until well past midnight. The sky was so dark that it didn’t stop us from being able to see the stars, infinite of them. For the first time, I could actually see a nebula, the Orion nebula, through binoculars.
Stars make me happy and sad at the same time. More than anything, they make me want to live my life at its fullest. I truly believe that there are millions of intelligent species elsewhere in the universe and we are not unique. Heck, our planet has thousands of intelligent species! I want desperately for SETI to succeed. But I have finally come to grapple with the fact that there is simply no way for us to hear observable noises from another planet for a long time. That long time is perhaps a million years. Andromeda, the nearest large galaxy, which likely hosts a human like intelligent lifeform or two, is over 2.5 million light years away. Humanity has been making observable noise only the last two hundred years. Even as I write it, I want to hold on to a little iota of hope.
Across the Puget Sound
Today’s story is about a small plane flight. It originated from Boeing Field, Seattle and landed in Friday Harbor Airport, San Juan Island. Apparently, San Juan Island is in Salish Sea’s banana belt. The arial view of the Puget Sound is described as the highlight of this short flight.
These planes are tiny. In addition to the two pilots (ours only had one), it can accommodate eight passengers. There are four rows of seats, each row has one seat on either side of the plane. There isn’t much between you and the outside – the 6000 square miles of the sea, the Olympic mountains, the straits of Juan de Fuca, the 400 islands and unending blue sky. These planes fly low, and I had packed my binoculars in my day bag, ready for island spotting (and really hoping to see whale activity on the ocean surface). Statistics doesn’t quite apply to one’s own situation. The day we flew out, all the precipitation that is statistically due in the banana belt in the month of August fell on this one day in August. As a Californian, who has often picked up the phone to watch a fire report, I am not averse to rain. However, given everything the ride over the Puget Sound had to offer, all I got was the clouds.
Orcas of Salish Sea
It will be underwhelming to just say that I loved every minute of this four hour trip. It was a thrill of a lifetime, although wish me luck, I want to have many such thrilling adventures in my life. A weekend trip to San Juan Island materialized the dream of seeing the orcas up close.
Before the story, we have to start with the confusing terminology – killer whales. A – Orcas are not whales, they are largest members of dolphin species. B- Some of them might be whale killers, but not in our neck of the woods. Here in our pacific northwest, the resident orcas exclusively eat chinook, the fattiest salmon. The transient orcas eat marine mammals like harbor seals and porpoise. They eat what their grandmother taught them to. Frankly, their persnickety eating habits remind me of some members of my own family!
In the language of Haida, orcas are called Sgan (sometimes written as Sgaana or SGaana). “The word for killer whale in Haida is “Sgan” which means “supernatural,” and also “the chief of the underworld.” In mythic times, killer whale was chief of the underworld. They say that when you go underwater to visit the territory of the killer whales, it’s no different from being on land, except that because you’re in their world, you see them as humans.” — Robert Davidson, internationally acclaimed Haida artist
Back to the story. My first interest in orcas coincided with my interest in the gentle humpback whales. I am now convinced that humpback whale is my spirit animal. These two species are not friends so, and therefore, my position on orcas is not particularly friendly. That is not to say I don’t admire the grandmother orcas. One of my favorite wildlife program is The Wild with Chris Morgan. Listening to the episode, “Evesdropping on Orcas: Love, Grief and Family“, I have grown to appreciate how close they to human kind. I am not known to be fond of humans either.
Read the rest of this entry »Embracing Schrödinger’s cat
Exposure therapy suggests that if you are afraid of spiders, then to get over that fear, spend more time with them! For instance, if I were afraid of spiders, I might photograph spider webs covered by morning dew. I think that exposure therapy works by rightsizing your expectation of the outcome. An anxious brain tends to catastrophize, but in real life, outcomes are not extreme. As you gather experiences through exposure, you rebuild brain circuitry and eventually, you start to lean towards the common outcomes.
If exposure therapy had worked on its own, my travel anxiety would not have existed for decades. I am moderately well trod and have been traveling since I was a kid. It is only recently that I have turned a corner and it has felt like a switch instead of a long winded effort. To see where Schrödinger’s cat fits in, stay tuned…
Read the rest of this entry »Flowers of Tijara Fort
The Aravali range is India’s oldest mountain range, ten times older than the youthful Himalayas that are still growing. This 400 mile “line of peaks” has been eroding for over 500 million years. The range cradles the Thar desert and stops the desert from taking over more of Rajasthan. In places, all that is left of the range are stubs. Mining of the Aravali is an ancient activity in itself. Copper mining dates back to 5th century BCE. I grew up in what was then a small town, Alwar. Most people know Alwar for its famous sweet, Kalakand. I, however, remember my time in Alwar for the Aravali range. I was fortunate to have an Aravali stub right opposite my primary school. For a child, a stub is as tall as a mountain and its base camp was only a hop skip and jump away from the school gate. My father was stationed in Alwar and occasionally, the family would tour the Alwar district with him. On these tours, we would naturally weave in and out of the Aravali range, sometimes with the sun high up in the sky. And on such occasions, the Aravali would glitter, the mica of the mountain range would reflect the sun. I continue to like my mountains, skies and oceans to glitter!
Read the rest of this entry »Human penguin interaction
In Antartica, the penguin gets more agency than the tourist. That seems totally fair, we are the visitors to their home.
They build their nests further up from the ocean, on exposed rocks where the snow has melted away, in clusters, so they get some shared warmth. They travel to and fro to the ocean to secure food for themselves and their little ones. It turns out, that like bears, they take the same path in snow repeatedly which ends up creating highways. And then when tourists go to visit them, we create these temporary trails that invariably intersect their highways. Now, humans are required to maintain a healthy distance from these birds, avian flu is here too. These intersections create memorable moments. During the trip, I saw a handful of curious penguins who would watch us or come to us or sneak up behind us. But most of them didn’t really care for us. They would keep on doing whatever they were doing, micro-napping in between, tens of thousands of times. Grooming and napping. Thinking and napping. Shitting and napping. Sliding and napping. Waddling and napping.
Read the rest of this entry »A new year hike on the Ice
I am no stranger to hiking through poor visibility (Mindego Hill, San Bruno). The sensory deprivation where you disengage and simply focus on the action of walking can bring mental quiet and a new appreciation of an otherwise familiar environment. Here on Antartica, the environment is brand new. Walking on snow and ice with the bulky jacket, boots, and life vest was proving to be an act of controlled slipping while alternately sweating and freezing. There was no rookery at the site, which meant no guano and no smell. Photographs were already proving to be difficult due to lack of familiar objects that define the scale of the environment, like the trees or rivers. So don’t judge. Here is what the camera saw over the course of a two mile hike, climbing perhaps 200 ft.
Read the rest of this entry »Hello Doreo, it is a pleasure to meet you
This is my first friendly chinstrap. I have decided to call him Doreo, derived from a dark oreo. Perhaps he fancies himself as a Mateo, but what he doesn’t know, won’t hurt him. He was curious and came within a few feet. I am assuming Doreo was a he because the colony here had chicks and the mums were all fussing over their chicks. This lot are distinctive with that strap under their proud chins. I wonder what he thought of me, swaddled in an orange parka, looking like a larger and less elegant version of himself.
The chinstraps are a talkative lot. I found myself waiting for over an hour for the humans to stop talking, so I could record the penguins. In the end, I had to cobble together from over 20 separate recordings to eliminate the human noises. While waiting, I got the opportunity to watch them closely. They groom. They squawk. They do some ballistic pooping, including the chicks. Later I learnt that they have specialized physiology that allows them to poop several feet away from their nests (link). They seem to ponder a lot. Later I learnt that they can micronap 10000 times a day (link). I had thought more stones more better, progeny survival being correlated with size of their stone nests. What I saw was preference for specific stones. Either they were just killing time, or like me, they did like the looks of one stone over other. I saw a lot of pink poop. Later I learned that their poop, called guano, colored pink due to a krill diet, is visible from space (link). I learned more about unregulated krill fishery (link) and took the vow again to never eat farmed fish (hello, plant based diet, I come to you in this new year!).
Read the rest of this entry »An epic trip to the end of the world
For normies like us, there is no physical training needed to go to the end of the world. An experienced polar adventure company will take you there, care for your safety, keep you warm and well fed. They will help prepare your packing list and compliment it with polar parkas, hiking poles and boots. They will give you mandatory trainings. They will prepare you for the day and give you educational lectures.
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Locomotoring 