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After oversleeping until 9:40am Oslo time, I joined Tony and Eileen on a trip into Oslo. First I picked up the Travel Quest outfitters packet of information and the eclipse t-shirt. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Eclipse t-shirt

We took the very efficient NSB train from the Oslo airport to the center of the city and walked to the National Gallery. There is a whole room of Edvard Munch paintings including his most well known.

“Skrik” (The Scream) in the Munch gallery at the National Gallery

Our friend Jason Kendall from the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York appears once a month on Al Roker’s morning Weather Channel show. He wants a photo of the three of us AAA members on our way to Svalbard for the eclipse. Apparently he will be on the show Wednesday early morning and wants to talk about the eclipse. So here we are by the Oslo waterfront. Tomorrow morning we fly to Svalbard. We found out today the daily schedule once we get there has been changed around depending on the activities you signed up for. I’ll have a 3 hour introduction to Longyearbyen (the town) followed by late night aurora viewing. Tony will do his ice caving trip tomorrow night and Eileen with do the dog sled ride also tomorrow night.

Me, Eileen Renda and Tony Hoffman at the Oslo waterfront

Monday, March 16

I flew Icelandair to Oslo via Reykjavik. Very nice service with witty or maybe ironic text on the food containers. On the eco-friendly hot dinner box it said “‘Kvika’ is the word for molten lava floating beneath the earth’s surface”, then “more interesting geothermal facts inside the box.” The hot beverage cup said “‘Strokur’, is a column of steam rising from a natural hot spring”. And the oatmeal cup on the Oslo leg said, “‘Hver’, is a natural hot spring of bubbling water.”

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

Den Norske Opera & Ballett

Took the commuter train from the airport hotel to central Oslo and walked to the Opera House, as my big sister suggested. The roof rises diagonally from the street to create an airborne plaza that people walk up. Approaching the roof I saw this scene that reminded me of the Guggenheim Museum’s circular structures, with lighting, all under glass. It was dusk and overcast so it made for an eerie sight.  

Monica Bonvicini’s sculpture She Lies in Oslo’s inner harbor

From the top of the Opera House’s roof you get a great view of the harbor. This sculpture is in the water, which is described as a glass house, but really from some angles looks like a ship.

Sunday, March 15:  Since it’s not cold enough in New York, I’ve decided to head to Norway. Actually, I’m going to Svalbard, an archipelago of islands far north of Norway to see a total eclipse of the sun on March 20. Joining up with 2 friends and a whole lot of people on a Travel Quest tour. The company has done many eclipse tours and was recommended by Tony Hoffman and Eileen Renda, two friends from the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York. Packing cameras and cold weather gear for the trip. I fly on Icelandair Sunday night. And hoping for clear skies!

Camera stuff and special solar filters. Click to enlarge.

Monday, August 12

We’re back in New York now, having traveled over the weekend from the Rocky Mountains to Denver and then home on a Sunday afternoon flight. Great memories of the park, the cabin, the people. Within a week I hope to update my website with a whole page of Rocky Mountain photos. Here’s a few more until then.

Friday was Astronomy in the Park night at the Upper Beaver Meadows Trailhead. Every two weeks during the summer, Ranger Cynthia Langguth leads a talk about the night sky, and a group of local amateur astronomers bring their telescopes for people to see what’s in the sky. But that night, Ranger Meredith led the program; she’s training to lead the night sky programs. She was great, getting the audience involved in a demonstration of the size of the universe. Here she is using an inflatable earth. (click on all photos to enlarge)

About 125 people were there, a pretty good turnout for RMNP. Many may have come from the nearby Moraine Park campground and some from nearby towns. A lot of people stayed on as it got dark to look through the eight or nine telescopes set up in the meadow and focused on various objects in the sky including Saturn, the Andromeda galaxy and the Ring Nebula.

During the program Meredith announced that the artist-in-residence was present (me) and available to help with any photography-related questions. Several people had good questions about problems they had shooting night sky pictures. I roamed around looking through telescopes but was also working, trying to get some photos of the telescopes and the sky. It’s much harder than it sounds since there is little-to-no light on the ground. All the astronomers have small red flashlights so they can see the controls on their telescopes but not ruin everyone else’s night vision. I found a man named Ken with a nice white reflector telescope; I’m not sure what he looks like since it was dark. If I put the camera very low to the ground, I could photograph his telescope against the northern sky.

Looking to the south that evening wasn’t so great; most of the sky was clear but a low cloud bank hovered in the east and southeast, reflecting the lights of Denver. The lights were quite bright at one point, making an eerie glow over the trailhead. But the northern views were good, and I got Ken’s telescope and above him, the Big Dipper, the North Star and the Milky Way. I headed back to the cabin around 11 p.m., my last night of shooting over.

We woke up early on Saturday to pack, needing to “check out” of the cabin by noon. We cleaned up the house and returned the keys to the main visitor center. It was sad to leave the park, and I’m hoping we will return someday. In Denver, where we stayed Saturday night, we went to see a Mark Rothko exhibit at the Denver Art Museum that afternoon. It was very good, covering the decade or so before his “color field” period. We also saw an exhibit on Navajo blankets.

Sunday morning we returned to Denver’s arts complex to see the new Clyfford Still Museum, entirely dedicated to this early abstract expressionist who isn’t as well-known as Rothko since he avoided gallery and museum shows during most of his career. We saw the progression of his life’s work, and it was amazing to see how an artist refines and changes what he does. As we were walking around the arts complex, Ann took a photo of a huge Claes Oldenburg sculpture of a small broom and dustpan. A plaque noted the appropriate behavior around a “GIANT broom and dustpan,” including “chatting with the broom about cleaning products” and “blaming the broom for the degradation of contemporary morals.”

So then it was on to the Denver airport and the flight back to New York. I feel I was able to accomplish a lot at Rocky Mountain during the residency. The terrain was totally different than what I experienced recently in the Southwest, and it was a challenge to adapt to it both physically, due to the altitude, and artistically, as I had to factor in the mountains and what effect they would have on the rising moon when visualizing the photos I wanted to take. But there were interesting trees and lakes to use as foreground objects, which really made some of the pictures. I was able to work on and improve some techniques that led to better pictures, including using the SkyTracker device that tracks the stars during long exposures and keeps them sharp. Thanks to all the people at Rocky Mountain National Park for making this great experience possible.

Found one last photo, for now. By extreme luck, I got a meteor streaking through the atmosphere passing below the Andromeda Galaxy on Friday night. This is a big crop from the edge of a frame that looks very much like the one of Ken and his telescope above. Not only was the streak just inside the picture but I had the shutter open for a 30 second exposure at that very moment.

Friday, August 9

Wednesday night I gave the second of two public programs at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. It was well attended. Betsy, one of the volunteers who helps the artists, said 92 people came, a record number for an artist’s talk this summer. This number was bolstered by 8 of our neighbors from the Scottage, our 2 friends Anne and Richard from nearby Ft. Collins, and Ann. All went well; I added a few more pictures that I had shot since last Wednesday’s talk and they were well received.

Park volunteers Joan and Marcus Sessel at Rainbow Curve

Little did we know we would have a completely adventure-filled day on Thursday, one that will be hard to forget. Ann and I decided to drive the Trail Ridge Road to the west side of the park, a part we had not seen. We stop at Rainbow Curve, one of the really spectacular viewpoints on the road, still on the east side. We end up meeting the two park volunteers assigned to the viewpoint, Marcus and Joan Sessel, from no real address. They spend 42 weeks a year living in a motor coach, working the summers at Rocky Mountain, visiting their three children, and wintering in Tucson. They don’t have a house and love the lifestyle. Marcus was a stockbroker in St. Louis and Joan was a teacher. They are incredibly knowledgeable about the park and the mountains. Both came to the artist talk on Wednesday and enjoyed it. They had been to all the places I showed night sky photos except Chaco Canyon. Ann talked to Marcus quite a bit about Jewish culture; he said his name, Sessel, was German for upholstered couch or chair, though the family originally was from Krakow. He said he met a German tourist who said, “I’ll have to tell people I
met a Sessel.” Marcus replied to the tourist, “Tell them you sat on me!”

This was the highlight of our day — until the afternoon, when we ended up fulfilling our lifelong dream of seeing moose in the wild. We had driven into the Kawuneeche Valley and met another very knowledgeable volunteer who suggested some prime moose-viewing spots. We turned north on the Trail Ridge Road and saw several cars pulled over on the side of the road. A very good sign that some animal has been sighted. Ann pulled over and shouted, “Look!” Coming out of the woods on the right were a cow and calf, and in an instant they were crossing the road. I jumped out of the car and managed to get some shots of the two crossing. You can see how spindly their legs are, apparently good for wading in streams and rivers where they feed. The pair headed into a meadow, pausing occasionally to munch on grass. Both ended up at the base of a forest eating and providing delight for the “moosejam” of cars and people that had pulled over to stop and watch. At one point the baby sat down in the meadow, maybe too exhausted to keep eating. The mother continued to feed and eventually the two wandered away, into the trees.

Happy with our sighting, we continued up the road to head home. After a few minutes we see another group of cars, some barely pulled off to the side of the road, and people running to a small clearing. We stop and join them, and through the trees we see a young bull moose, antlers not fully developed, eating his way through the meadow. He approaches a river, dips in and comes up with a big mouthful of greens; we see water draining from his mouth. The crowd is enthralled. Upon looking at the photos later, we decide that this moose and the other moose are very handsome moose indeed. The bull walks in to the water, crosses the river and wanders off into the trees. After much of the crowd leaves, some people spot another cow and calf in the distance. We wonder if they are the same as the two we saw previously. But the mother is light brown in color, different than the first one we saw. That brings our total to five moose for the day.

What more could we possibly see, we said as we headed back on the Trail Ridge Road to the cabin. Rain had been falling off and on as we were moose-watching, but now it was steady as we climbed in altitude. The road tops off at 12,183 feet and just about there we notice that the rain is now snow. In August! So we pull over at the Lava Cliffs viewpoint; I brave the cold and snow to try and mostly unsuccessfully take pictures of it. Well, as soon as we began to descend, we were back to rain and our adventures were (almost) done for the day. The last amazing thing were the three handsome elk who grazed along the road just 50 feet from our cabin as the sun went down.

Wednesday, August 7

Had a great experience Monday evening with the neighbors next door. About 100 feet from the cabin is another cabin, called “Scottage” where the Scott family gathers for  a few days in the summer. The cabin dates from the 1800s and is one of many that were allowed to remain on the land after Rocky Mountain became a national park in 1915. It just happened that much of the extended family was visiting and they treated me to drinks and an amazing dinner. I showed them a mini-slide show of the work I’ve done so far here at Rocky and talked about the night sky and the residency with them.

Angelo explained the cabin name comes from either a combination of the family name and cottage, or summer cottage, stories vary. It’s a great 2-story structure made of logs with 2 porches and a nice enclosed dining area with the usual spectacular view of the mountain range.

The most of the family is involved in forms of publishing, the brother owning several newspapers/websites/blogs in Vermont and the sister owning a small newspaper in southeastern Kansas. Her paper was one of two that were deemed too liberal by Kansas Governor Brownback, something that made her and the family quite happy.

After dinner Angelo and Oliver accompanied me to Sprague Lake to see another space station flyover. Angelo brought his camera, I gave him an extra tripod and he tried some night sky photos, which he had never done.  He got a couple nice ones of the lake and trees silhouetted against the stars.

Just had a text from Ann to say she has arrived at the Denver airport. She’s going to take a SuperShuttle to the Stanley Hotel, an old historic hotel, in Estes Park where I’ll pick her up. It will be great to see her, I think she’ll like the cabin.

Last night I had pretty good success returning to a couple of sites. Shot another space station flyover, this time it flew right over one of the stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper. Bullseye! I had never seen it cross over a major star, though it probably happens frequently.

The air was still last night so I went to Sprague Lake to try and get a shot of the stars reflected on the water. The Big Dipper lined up nicely near the horizon and you can see it clearly in the lake.

Bullseye!  (click to enlarge pictures)

The International Space Station flying over Moraine Park very early Monday morning. The Milky Way and Summer Triangle are on the right side. (click to enlarge all these photos).

Monday, August 5

Here’s a couple of night pictures I’ve been working on. Finally managed to get a decent shot of the International Space Station during a fly over. There is a website, heavens-above.com that lists all sorts of astronomical stuff in the sky. If you put in your location it will make a chart showing the times and dates that the ISS flies over your location. I made 2 charts for the 2 weeks I’m here just before I left. It tells you the compass directions, how many degrees above the horizon it will be and the exact times it will appear and disappear. After a few not so great shots I got up at 4:00 am this morning to see it from the cabin. Turns out the flyover would be seen perfectly from the front of the cabin as I look out at Moraine Park and the range behind it, including Longs Peak, the highest in Rocky Mountain. I got up early to set up the star tracking device I’ve been using to shoot a few pictures of the Milky Way and other things. The sky begins to lighten in the pre-dawn hours about 4:35 am to the exposure was going to be tricky. I had shot some pictures the night (morning?) before around that time, so I had a guide to go by. I had the super wide fish-eye lens on since it looked like it would be going from horizon to horizon from northwest to southeast. I set the camera for 5 minutes and waited. It’s always a guess since the web site times are always accurate, but your watch may not be. So just after 4:40 am, I pressed the button and saw the light of the space station moving up from the northwest. It looks like a bright star, this morning it was very bright. So you really don’t see much except this moving point of light. But it’s impressive to think that this is the ISS where people are living and working, flying right over where you’re standing. Trying to figure out how to shoot it has been difficult. But I think this method worked. The ground is blurry since we (the earth) is moving- with night photos you can get either the stars sharp or the earth, not both- but it’s not too distracting. My nightmare was that a car would pass by on the road below the cabin, flooding the picture with bright light. Hikers who want to get an early start for a mountain climb at a nearby trailhead often start around 4:00 to 5:00am. So about a minute into the exposure, I see a car approaching from the west. I have a small piece of cardboard covered with black cloth that can be used to partially cover the lens if you don’t want parts of the picture to be overexposed. I don’t use it much, but it came in handy as the car passed. Fortunately there was only one car.

The Milky Way through ponderosa pines at Bear Lake.

On a walk in the field across the road from the cabin, I saw a busy bee on a plant that doesn’t seem to appear in the “Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountains”. Closest description seems to be a thistle.  I’ll have to ask someone.

The happy couple, hitting the trail. (click to enlarge all these photos)

Saturday, August 3

Up until 4:00 am last night (morning?) so any spelling error might be due to lack of sleep.

But Friday, had one of those days that make you say, “Wow!”

Went to check out the Upper Beaver Meadows trail head area for photo possibilities in the afternoon and also to call Ann. It seems to be a place where a cell phone signal can be had. I see a group of people in the meadow and realize it’s a wedding. Telling Ann there are decisive moments going on, I hang up and walk over to the party to introduce myself. Jenni Dyer and Aaron Mobrier (photo above), a couple from Des Moines, Iowa, have just gotten married at the trail head. Joining them from Iowa are their families, including 2 grandmothers and a grandfather. Champagne is being poured and the photographer is setting up for photos. Jenni’s mother and grandmother tell me the couple are very outdoor oriented so they decided to have their wedding in a national park. They ask where I’m from and I say New York City. I tell them we have a park, Central Park, but no mountains like the Rockies.

I walk to the meadow where the newlyweds are being posed with the unbelievable backdrop of Long’s Peak and the rest of the range. The photographer is quite good, being able to heard the various parties dressed in their Sunday best into the thigh-high grass. The couple have come prepared, both wear Converse All-Stars canvas shoes.

Turns out Jenni is an ornithologist and Aaron fishes a lot and both have been to Rocky Mountain NP before their wedding date. As they walk, the groom does his best to gather the long train of the brides’ dress to keep it from dragging on the trail. Everyone hugs the couple before heading off to more photos at nearby Sprague Lake.

The two grandmothers join the photo session.

Converse shoes on bride (left) and groom (right).

The brides’ parents and siblings join the couple.

The adventures continue as I head later in the evening to Estes Park, the town next to Rocky Mountain. (Jean, the artist coordinator, said I might be confused since everything is called Park here. When easterners were discovering the area, they called a meadow or clearing in the mountain areas a park. I read somewhere that in other parts of the west, ‘hole’ is the same thing, as in Jackson Hole.) Cynthia Langguth, the Rocky Mountain ranger in charge of the night sky programs was giving an evening program called  “Stories Behind the Moon & Stars” at the Estes Park Memorial Observatory. I wanted to meet Cynthia and I wanted to see the observatory, something unusual in a small town.

The observatory sits next to Estes Park High School and has a dome with a 12 inch Meade telescope and a large conference room for activities. One whole wall is painted with the constellations, there are big photos of celestial objects, several telescopes occupy a corner by the constellations, a small display has items for sale, 2 tables are filled with astronomy information including free magazines and brochures. It’s an amazing facility that’s used by school groups and the local astronomy club. Phil and Dave, two National Park volunteers who help with the night sky programs, were setting up their telescopes next to the observatory. Phil said it was great to have the observatory in Estes Park, noting that sadly it was a ‘memorial’ observatory. It’s all the work of Mike Connolly, who I met at the Wednesday talk I gave at Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. Apparently his son and daughter-in-law were killed in a motorcycle accident in 2005 and Mike worked to raise funds and get volunteers to help construct the observatory in memory of his children. He’s done an amazing job to involve the community in this project.

Ranger Cynthia did a fantastic program which was geared towards families, which there were many present. She talked about stars, planets, the solar system, galaxies and preserving the night sky through controlling artificial lighting. Handing out strips of paper about 2 ½ feet long, she had everyone make a representation of the solar system, giving you the idea of the scale of distances involved, that you could then fold up and put in your pocket. We all went outside onto the field in a big circle as Cynthia demonstrated why we see certain constellations at certain times of the year. We looked at Venus and Saturn through the telescopes. Best of all, I got an activity guide so I can get my Junior Ranger Night Explorer patch. However, you are supposed to do the number of activities that you are years old. Which means I need to complete 54 (!) activities in the book. I have a week to do them before I see Cynthia next Friday at the star gazing session here at Rocky.

Dark Sky Ranger Cynthia Langguth directs our circle of constellations outside the observatory. (click to enlarge)

Our galaxy. The center of the Milky Way is at far right. The bright star in the middle is Vega. (click to enlarge)

 Friday, August 2

On Wednesday night I gave a public presentation at the scheduled Evening Program, one of 2 required of the artists. I think about 40 people came, some from the nearby town of Estes Park. The talk was in the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center auditorium. I was helped by Betsy and Roger Leverton, volunteers who work in the various visitor centers and help introduce the artist talks. Roger dealt with technical issues- loading my Powerpoint presentation of photos into their computer, showing me the wireless microphone and wireless remote control to advance the slides. Roger gave a brief history of the artist-in-residence program in the national parks and Betsy introduced me with a very nice summary. I showed some photos from my “day job” at AFP then went into more detail with the night sky and astronomical shots. I give another program next Wednesday, so this was a good rehearsal.

I stopped by the Beaver Meadows center briefly Thursday and noticed a flyer announcing the artist talk, with my picture on it, attached to the outdoor bathroom doors. I guess I’ll take any kind of publicity.

After the talk Wednesday night, I drove up the Trail Ridge Road to shoot photos from the various overlooks on the road. During my drive on Trail Ridge Tuesday, it was quite windy, so I wasn’t expecting to take many photos. I reached a viewoint called Forest Canyon that has a 360 view of the area. It was also quite cold, probably 10 degrees colder than down near the cabin. The wind was blowing, just strong enough to make the photography difficult. I took a few shots, then retreated to the car to warm up and have some cookies from my backpack. Plus the moon wasn’t going to rise for another 2 hours. When I went back out, the wind had died down and it was quite clear out. I set up my equipment, getting some nice Milky Way photos. The Big Dipper hung just above the ridge to the north. Being annoyed by the occasional car on the Ridge road (who is out after midnight except crazy photographers?) I realized it might make a nice photo of the highway and the constellation.  The moon rose almost behind me, as it crested the mountain I thought it was another car on the road it was so bright. I managed to finish about 2:30am and headed back to the cabin.

Out on Trail Ridge Road at 2:00 am. Cars driving under the Big Dipper. (click to enlarge)

A couple of early shots from the past few nights.

I saw this toppled tree near a creek at the Upper Beaver Meadows Trailhead. Despite the bright glow of light in the east, which I think may be the YMCA conference center just outside the park, and the fast moving clouds, you can clearly see the Milky Way and lots of objects in the sky. (click to enlarge)

Two bare trees nicely frame the Milky Way at Sprague Lake.