It sounds like an unusual pairing, for science and Christmas to come together in a place called Anatomiegarten, or Anatomy Garden, in the German university town of Heidelberg.
During the Christmas season, the Anatomiegarten is host to one of the key Christmas market locations along Heidelberg’s main street (Hauptstrasse). Prominent are two names from a historical and scientific perspective: Bunsen and Kirchhoff.
Berlin is one of my favourite cities in the world. Since visiting the German capital city the first time in 2002, it’s been an ongoing love story, which now is entering a second decade.
There are a massive number of sights throughout Berlin, but to get a sense of the city and her people, I’ve always believed in combining public transport (trains!) with lots of “pounding the pavement” on foot. The photographs above are personal measurements of motion, geometry, a sense of place, and of locations around the “Hauptstadt.” Upon reflection, I’ve consciously chosen images which are (mostly) out of the direct spotlight of visitors, and even at well-visited locations, I’ve chosen a a longer focal length and/or a tighter crop to show a different point of view.
It’s a long road to a latitude of 30 degrees South to stand at an elevation of 9000 feet up on the mountainous spine of South America.
Over a period of 11 years, I visited telescopes in Chile to collect research data, before I moved to Chile to live and work there for 5 years. This is a brief look at the journey an astronomer makes to telescopes in Chile.
That’s one very famous balcony.
The balcony on the second floor facing the back gardens doesn’t look particularly special. But here in the Czech capital city of Prague there’s an important connection between that building’s balcony and events leading to the fall of the Wall. This building is also the German Embassy, and it’s where Hans-Dietrich Genscher looked over the crowds from the balcony and made a famous speech in 1989.
On a plane again: it’s either a prayer or a curse.
I summon the sleep gods on this 14-hour flight, and going over this very large body of water seems like an eternity.
Over the last few years, I’ve become accustomed to 10-hour “shuttles” between Chile and the United States, and I’ve trained mind and body to divide 10-hour flights into three easy-to-digest chunks between take-off and landing: (1) dinner; (2) an attempt at sleep, movies, or reading; and the final third that is (3) breakfast.
But it’s always been the case that the extra flying hours beyond the 10 mark can be a big mental block.
Sometimes, the goal is the motivation. On this 14-hour flight, Cape Town is the destination.
Qantas flight 63 is a non-stop flight from Sydney, Australia to Johannesburg, South Africa, and it’s at the latter where I’ll transfer onto another plane to Cape Town.
This ‘marathon’ flight takes place mostly over the Indian Ocean, the third largest on the planet.
On a flat surface, the shortest route between two points is a line, but on a curved surface, the shortest route is a curved path (i.e., great circle). QF63’s flight path takes us over the South Indian Ocean, and the plane skirts past the edge of Antarctica, on the side opposite to South America.
About halfway into the flight, I’m standing in the rear galley of this jumbo jet plane, and I’m looking out the window. The optics through the window are weird, giving a weird warped view of the world outside. I’m leaving nose prints on the interior plexiglass screen.
Sure enough, there it is.
Peeking under cloud cover is a hint of land below.
Under the rippling deck lies the great southern continent of Antarctica.
That’s what the plane’s in-flight displays say, too.
Our plane’s path glances over the continent of Antarctica; the display helpfully supplies geographic information, locating Argentina, Brazil, and Chile as well.
How do I feel?
Nostalgic.
There’s loss, too. I’m not going to see Antarctica on this trip, and I have no plans to do so in the near future.
After 5 years in Chile, what I miss most are the people with whom I worked, my friends and colleagues. Perhaps this “near miss” is a reminder, that I should return to South America sometime soon in the future.
Approaching South Africa, I’ve just departed Australia, after ten weeks among friends in some of the most beautiful spots around. I feel loss and separation from friends and country.
As sure as I’m moving forward on this around-the-world journey, I’m confident I’m coming back someday soon.
On board Qantas flight QF63 SYD-JNB, I made the photos above on 10 October 2012 with a 4th-generation iPod Touch. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-5q0.
