GALAPAGOS 2022

November 24, 2022 by cew06@comcast.net | 0 Comments

(Arrival) – “Galapagos Islands have always been on our bucket list of cool places to visit.  When we saw an opportunity to go on a small expedition-style, newly-renovated liveaboard boat with National Geographic and Sven Lindblad, we jumped on it.  We arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador on the coast staying one night at the gorgeous Hotel del Parque surrounded by a “dry” tropical gardens.  I sampled Ecuador’s finest cacao in various strengths and flavors on a curated tour of the grounds.  We joined the crew of the Islander II liveaboard the next day after a 2-hour flight from Guayaquil out to the Galapagos islands, 600 miles out in the pacific.  We cruised past Daphne Major island at sunset as frigate birds flew overhead on our way to Bartolome Islet.  A clear night filled with stars offered a view in the morning hours of the Large Magellanic Galaxy considering we on are the equator”

(Bartolome) – “The next morning, we took a zodiac ride to explore the peculiar tuff Pinnacle Rock teeming with sea lions and penguins.  Sandy, Brett, Chad and I did two snorkels around the Pinnacle in cold water (62deg F).  Full wetsuits kept us comfortable.  The visibility was good with a surprising amount of tropical fish; including parrotfish, Mexican hogfish, yellowtail surgeonfish, with sea lions and penguins darting around us!  Chunks of layered tuff underwater looked like layered cake.  A whitetip reef shark swam around Sandy!  Fantastic sea life on the shore and underwater alike”

(Cerro Dragon) – “After lunch and a great talk on photography by Anahi, we cruised to Santa Cruz island for a hike at Cerro Dragon.  There were beautiful flamingos, some even laying down close enough for beautiful photos.  Land iguanas didn’t seem to care that we were there; nor did the marine iguanas on the shore.  Yellow warblers darting around were a challenge to photograph.  Anahi gave photo tips along the way which were very helpful.  Naturalist Cindy Manning showed considerable knowledge of the local flora and fauna on this hike.  That evening, scientist Denley gave an excellent presentation on deep sea camera systems”

(Champion Islet & Punta Cormorant) – “Overnight, we cruised to Floreana island in the south to Post Office Bay, where some passengers went ashore to leave letters at the famous Post Office Barrel.  Chad and I snorkeled Champion Islet where we found no beach, but tall, ragged cliffs topped with prickly pear cacti on which numerous sea lions were sunbathing on ledges alongside Sally Lightfood crabs.  The visibility was excellent with myriads of cardinalfish, king angelfish, and barnacle larvae.  The sea lions would jump in the water and play with us!  A cave was filled with orange sponge.  Sandy and Brett spotted a red-billed tropicbird at Champion Islet via zodiac.  After lunch, we took a hike to the green beach called Punta Cormorant on Floreana.  Anahi showed us the olivine sand that imparts the green color the sand to the beach.  The beach was loaded with sea lions and blue footed boobies, diving in the water next to green sea turtles.  That evening naturalists Ixora and Vanessa set up a projecting Leica microscope showing plankton they caught with a dipnet.  What a treat to see the plankton that supplies 70% of the oxygen we breathe!”

(Gardener Bay & Punta Suarez) —  “We steamed to Gardener Bay, Espanola, where we spent the morning in the water with female green turtles that seemed to play with us.  Male frigate birds and sea lions sat on the cliffs watching us snorkel.  Mexican sea anemones were prolific in this area.  After lunch, scientist Salome gave an excellent talk about her research using remotely operated vehicles finding mesophotic kelp.  A hike led by naturalist Ixora in the afternoon to Punta Suarez was fabulous!  So many marine iguanas, you had to be careful where you stepped.  Sea lions were everywhere; including one with a large shark bite scar.  Albatross were interacting and frigates were diving on their nests.  A massive blowhole was the icing on the scenic cake.  A perfect surfable wave at the inlet caught Chad’s attention.  Later, we enjoyed Ecuadorian cuisine and a Halloween party in which the staff and passengers donned costumes.  One of the most original costumes was 2 passengers dressed up as interacting blue footed boobies.  The staff dressed Brett up as Harry Potter and he won first place in the costume contest!”

(Punta Pitt & Cerro Brujo) —  “We woke up the next morning at Punta Pitt, San Cristobol Island.  Naturalist Cindy led us on a vigorous hike up rugged and dry Punta Pitt where vistas of brilliant red Sesuvium contrasted with the blue pacific waters with our Islander II in the background.  We spotted Nazca and red-footed boobies as well as a variety of lava lizards on the hike.  Chad was able to see sea lions in the water from the cliffside and couldn’t wait to run down and get in the water with them.  He didn’t even bother putting on fins.  Sandy and Brett had made sea lion friends by the time we got back to the beach.  Spending two hours splashing around the shallows with young energetic sea lions was the highlight of Chad’s trip.  After lunch on the boat, we used zodiacs to land on a gorgeous white sand beach at Cerro Brujo.  It was deserted aside from sea lions, ghost crabs, and marine iguanas!  Green sea turtles came up to the shallows to say hello.  We watched the sun as it was setting next to spectacular Kicker Rock as we headed to our next destination.  We visited the bridge to meet and thank Captain Garcia for a great and safe trip”

(Rancho El Manzanillo) —  “The final day included the much anticipated visit to the giant tortoises at Rancho El Manzanillo in the Santa Cruz highlands.  Cindy explained the altitude zonation on the island – going from sunny on the coast, to rain and mist (Garua) in the Scalesia Forest around 700m elevation.  The Scalesia Forest is threatened by exotics like invasive blackberry and Cindy described the conservation efforts to preserve the area.  As we were approaching the ranch, giant tortoises littered the road and were in no hurry to move.  The ranch was beautiful with many exotic plants and tortoises everywhere.  We wore heavy boots as there was plenty of mud which the tortoises love”

CLICK HERE FOR FULL TRIP PHOTO GALLERY

Farewell friends, fantastic trip – I would recommend this journey, without hesitation, to anyone! -Bill

Posted in Uncategorized

Alaska Adventure

November 30, 2018 by cew06@comcast.net | 0 Comments

June 2018 – We arrived in Seattle to rendezvous with the brand new, gorgeous Norwegian vessel “Bliss”. Before embarking to the Great North, we spent time exploring Seattle’s beautiful Post Alley and Pike Place Market as well as Chihuly Glass Gardens, where acres of massive glass artwork adorn the grounds. Outside sits a transformed Airstream, converted into a mobile kiln for a personal glass-blowing exhibitions. After boarding the massive Norwegian Bliss, we set off on our journey out of Elliot Bay (Seattle’s portion of Puget Sound) and then Westward around Vancouver Island. A full day at sea left us completely shocked, as we were glued to the balcony, eyes downward into the water watching massive Ocean Sunfish (Mola Mola) skirt by nearly every other minute. The waters of the pelagic Pacific were peppered with these giant, flat fish, many of them sporting long, stringy parasites trailing off of them.

We awoke the next morning as we approached Ketchikan, Alaska, skirting around Mountain Point (where we were set to snorkel in a few hours) when a solitary Orca rolled and swam by, blowing trails of mist into the still air.  After disembarking into the fog, we traveled the handful of miles to Mountain Point, where the craggy coastline meets the frigid water.  Donning 7mm wetsuits, hoods, gloves, and boots, we slipped into a soup of jellyfish that covered the top layer of the freezing waters.  Thick, colorful starfish blanketed the bottom and our guide found a huge, bright yellow Lemon Nudibranch.  Massive Lion’s Mane Jellyfish peppered the dark water with brilliant orange hues and long stringy tentacles.  We never expected these cold waters to be brimming with brilliant and colorful life.  Leaving Ketchikan, the Bliss slipped westward into the Pacific and rounded Cape Decision where the lighthouse beacon beckoned us northward into the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen.

The next destination was the capital city, Juneau, which welcomed us with the most gorgeous weather – bright blue cloudless sky, sunny, warm, the colors of the city vibrant and alive.  We set off beyond the city to conquer Mendenhall Glacier.  Gearing up with snow pants and sharp, studded snow boots, we looked outside to see the helicopters arrive.  We boarded the chopper and glided up above the treeline where eagles were soaring about.  Up and above the green forestry and soon into the beautiful white and blue mountain peaks we went.  Hooking around the backside of the glacier, we looked down on a sled-dog encampment – our destination.  The helicopter touched down onto Mendenhall and we walked up to the Iditarod summer training camp.  Teams of dogs and their trainers were eager to take us on a jaunt around the glacier, where they worked together to easily navigate the snow and ice.  All the sounds of the world faded away, and the sharp, crisp noises of the dogs’ paws and the sled slipping through the glacier were loud in the most beautiful and welcomed way.  Driving across Mendenhall, the sun poured down on us, bouncing across the snow and creating a gorgeous icy tapestry – being led by a team of obedient and accomplished animals through the snow under the brilliant blue sky remains one of the most distinct and awesome memories I have. 

Leaving Juneau, we traveled south and were gifted with another few hours of great weather which allowed our massive ship to coast slowly into Endicott Arm and towards Dawes Glacier.  Seasonal glacier melt sometimes prevents safe passage – but, again, we were lucky.  As we slipped down the narrowing passageway, the Alaskan splendor drew a massive crowd as nearly every balcony on both sides of the ship were occupied with spectators.  Deep blue mini-icebergs floated by, some sporting seal passengers, some cracking and booming as the ship’s wake awoke them.  Streams from high mountain peaks turned into waterfalls and runoffs at the water’s edge, creating an incredibly beautiful turquoise water color.  Nearing the end of Endicott Arm, the enormous ship did a slow pirouette, gifting all sides of the vessel with views of Dawes Glacier, a magnificent frozen river of ice carving out the surrounding landscape.  That night, as we steamed back out to sea and continuing north, a rare atmospheric phenomenon reared its stunning face.  Noctilucent clouds appeared on the horizon – these ice crystal ‘clouds’ shone impressively during astronomical twilight ending a gorgeous day with an unusual and unforgettable light show to say goodnight.

Skagway soon welcomed us with rugged coastline which stood at the foot of steep, deeply green Alaskan wilderness.  We boarded the White Pass Railway, which sported vintage passenger coaches and famous yellow and green engines ready to lead us up into Yukon Territory.  The 40 mile journey, up and back to 2885ft elevation chronicles the efforts of many who hiked relentlessly up into the Klondike Trail in search of gold fortune – unsuccessfully.  Trestles, waterfalls, gorges flew by as we leaned off the back of our train car, posturing for images out into the chilly air flowing by.  Cruising through tunnels carved into the mountainside left us in pitch dark before emerging back out into the bright, lush forest once again.  At the summit, we soaked in beautiful mountain views framed by the train cars leading out in front of us. 

The rugged beauty of Alaska seems boundless.  We barely scratched the surface of the varied and exciting adventures available in this beautiful land.  We plan on returning to Alaska soon to photograph bears and explore more at the tip of the Aleutian Islands, Homer, and then eastward into more unknown (but surely exciting) expeditions…

View Full Alaska Photo Gallery 

Posted in Travel

Cayman – Chapter Two: Lights, Camera, Action

September 4, 2015 by cew06@comcast.net | 0 Comments

9/4/15 – Cobalt Coast, West Bay, Grand Cayman

A moment is fleeting – light and shape appear and disappear within the same instant.  A picture, however, allows time to stand still, freezing the tide and the turning of the world for us to remember how beautiful things truly were.

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Cameras are capable of perceiving things that our eyes and our minds simply cannot.  The tools we use as photographers become part of our thought process – aperture, exposure, composition.  But none of that matters unless we put ourselves in a place worthy of imaging.  Every corner of this island is more than worthy.  If we do not look, these moments will gladly pass us by.  We have spent the past few days looking further than usual, searching for those wavelengths of life that are difficult to see during the normal daily routine.  Work, traffic, relationships – all flood our concentration, yet, natural beauty quietly happens in the background.  To see something different you must shine a different light (both figuratively as well as literally).  We put away our regular white lights and entered the water with our fluorescent blue lights (black lights) and yellow filters.  Hard corals utilize certain proteins and algae as a semi-sunscreen that we cannot see until the fluoro lights come out to play – normally orange, brown, or ‘clear’ corals and anemones become vibrant green and purple glows.  As we moved across the top of the reef, our fluoro lights lit up certain animals as others disappeared into the inky dark of night.  Think halfway between an alien abduction and an Ibiza nightclub.  Some parts of the reef were glowing so brightly it seemed to entrance us, leading us deeper over the ledge – we’re almost out of air, but wait, the next section looks even brighter…

 

Even after our weird fluorescent lights are put away, the life across this island doesn’t cease to amaze.  The sun shines through the surface through what seems like an infinite amount of water, illuminating more life than I could even begin to grasp.  The bathymetry (underwater topography) cuts the ocean like a knife.  Giant pillars of rock erupt from the depths up towards the surface where we can only see the peak.  Walls hug the coast like a close friend, bending out to sea creating mountain ranges blanketed by color – we dive spots 30 ft deep, then swim a stone’s throw away, and suddenly you can look down and watch the ocean floor vanish below 500 ft, too dark to see – what else is down there…  Day becomes night and all of this is concealed.  The once friendly ex-USS Kittiwake wreck turns into something more sinister, something too moody to describe in words.  I found myself moving across the massive ship in complete darkness, not taking many pictures because my camera simply could not steal my eyes away from the scenes around me.  Luckily, the video camera was running the entire time and I look forward to creating a video to share this experience with you all – moments I truly will not, or cannot, forget.  Frightening to the point of magnificence…

 

The sun rises and black turns to blue again.  The night shift disappears into the deep as the daytime residents begin to mobilize.  Damselfish dart about their morning routine, blennies poke their heads up to say good morning, sea fans regain their color and begin to dance again in the current.  There, literally, is not one inch of uninhabited space in these beautiful waters, so the animals have no choice but to coexist.  We sat and watched as the ‘cleaning stations’ opened up for the day where groupers and angelfish come to get ‘cleaned’ – gobies and shrimp climb aboard the much larger fish and eat parasites, a symbiotic relationship where predator and prey put aside their differences to help each other.   Our friends brought some bait squid underwater and before we knew it it was a stingray society meeting.  Once the food was gone, they stayed around wanting to be pet.  Massive rays acted like puppy dogs – they like getting their face rubbed, almost falling asleep under our little scratches.  After the cacophony of action, I saw one ray out in the sand, away from the fray.  I put my camera down and spent a moment with her, we stared into each others’ eyes.  Nothing was said, so much was said…

 

I’ve learned so much about myself here.  The ocean has always been more than just water to me – and now, Grand Cayman is more than just an island to me.  Yes, there are tourist hotels, giant cruise ships, and duty free shopping, but none of that is what I see.  We have found our own corner, a corner carved by the sea and modeled by its ocean inhabitants.  The people we’ve met here have taught me so much and treated me like one of their own although I am still just a freshman in this aqua fraternity.  We will leave, but Cayman will never leave us.  Until next time, cheers Cobalt Coast.

 

 

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Posted in Underwater

Cayman – Chapter 1: Rain or Shine

September 1, 2015 by cew06@comcast.net | 0 Comments

9/1/15 – Cobalt Coast, West Bay, Grand Cayman

Hurricane Erika threatened to put a damper on our dive expedition, but Mother Nature seems to have a way of providing surprises.

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I’ve been around the big drink for as long as I can remember – but I have never seen the ocean go from dead flat to 4 foot perfect beach break in an hour.  These were my first visions of Cobalt Coast.  Every surfer knows the feeling, you go somewhere without a board, there will be waves.  However, as fast as Hurricane Erika sent the swell in, is equally as fast as it dissipated.  We came here to dive, so I can safely say this may be the only time I was happy to see the swell disappear over the horizon.  Crystal clear water and unreal ocean life greeted us from the moment we stepped off of the Divetech boat on the first day.  Sheer wall drop-offs lead divers from the safety of 20 ft sandy bottoms to seemingly infinite abyss of darkness as deep as you can imagine.  Corals and sponges create structure and color that even the imagination becomes jealous of.  It seems almost laborious to take in the massive grander that is the Caribbean dive scene (a task we openly welcome).  The north wall runs along the coast, a thin barrier between the protected shallow inshore and the pelagic expanse stretching between Grand Cayman and Cuba.  We descended down into the dark blue in sheer amazement of what the Caribbean was offering us.

 

The abundance and variety of ocean life here is almost laughable.  From massive Mutton Snapper to the tiniest Blennies, the reef looks like the natural I-95 during rush hour.  Each and every animal has its own personality – Green turtles cruise right up to take a nibble off our lens (or maybe ask to join our selfies), massive Pompano cruise overhead like watchdogs waiting to divebomb for unsuspecting meals, tiny Blue Chromis dart together over the corals like a group rehearsing for the most incredible natural ballet.  Water here pulses like a heartbeat.

 

The Ex-USS Kittiwake lies just around the corner from our dock.  Rising impressively from the bottom, the de-commissioned submarine recovery vessel serves its new purpose as an artificial home for fish and sponges while creating moody vistas for photographers.  A massive sand ‘chute’ leads upward from 300 ft towards the wreck like a beige ski run, walled in on both sides by vertical walls sporting colors spanning the entire spectrum.  Giant groupers watched carefully as we approached with our strobes firing – the underwater paparazzi has officially arrived.

 

Cobalt Coast has provided us with unbelievable views and what will soon be permanent memories.  For us Williams boys, this is truly paradise.  I could imagine diving here everyday and never becoming even close to bored with the scenery, ocean life, or people.  So far, every night has ended with rain tapping down on our windows – we begin the day in the water and end the day dreaming of returning to it.  Sounds of bubbles rise over the pattering rainfall… the dream doesn’t seem to end when tomorrow arrives.

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Posted in Underwater

Underwater AstroImaging

July 8, 2015 by cew06@comcast.net | 0 Comments
A number of people have asked me how the 2014 Florida Keys Winter Star Party was – after all, it was a landmark 30th anniversary of this venerable astro-event. I tell them in a word: “wet”!! 

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Imaging from inside MarineLab – See the images here or continue reading

They figure I meant the weather was lousy and rainy. But, in fact, it was just the opposite – gorgeous warm, clear and steady almost all week which meant scuba diving during the day and observing deep southern objects including the Southern Cross, Keyhole Nebula, and Omega Centauri after dark.  But it was wet for me because most of my imaging during the star party was performed by accessing my Chiefland Observatory about 400 miles away from a underwater habitat called MarineLab submerged 25 feet underwater in Key Largo.  MarineLab is a steel structure built by the midshipmen of the US Naval Academy as an exercise in oceaneering that has ended up in a lagoon in Key Largo serving for about 3 decades as an educational venue for saturation divers and marine biologists. The structure is composed of a surplus water tank 16 feet long by 8 foot in diameter with an acrylic sphere underneath I affectionately call the “womb”.

Having scuba dived the MarineLab a month ago, I wanted to combine my two hobbies (astronomical and underwater photography) so I carefully picked the perfect night (Friday night, Mar. 1) when it was awesomely clear and dry at Chiefland and during a night when the underwater Lab was available. I was greeted by longtime MarineLab Director and marine biologist Chris Olstad in his wetsuit at sunset and within minutes we were descending using hookahs and weighted-watertight suitcases, holding my new laptop, to innerspace 25 feet down where we would study the heavens. The lagoon in which the Lab sits is full of tropical fish, a great variety of invertebrates and even an ROV (remote operated vehicle) with which Chris surprised us on our first visit!

We descended down to the lab entering through a small porthole on the bottom, donned our gear, dried off and assessed the integrity of the laptop (Luckily OK!), we were opening the observatory using the internet via LogMeIn on my laptop and equilibrating the telescope which sat 400 miles away in Chiefland, FL. At the same time, we were witnessing shrimp scampering about the porthole window trying to escape the hungry fish. By 3AM, the same fish came by with BIG bellies full of shrimp! I guess the Lab lights attracted the shrimp and made them visible and easy pickings for the snappers! Once inside the habitat around 7PM, and having hooked up the new solid-state hard drive laptop up to the internet cable, we were thrilled that the connection was good and we could communicate with the observatory via internet!  We began with the Andromeda Galaxy, which has two bright satellite galaxies: M32 and M110. We did great on both as well as capturing the southwest arm of the Andromeda Galaxy.  M33 is a face-on galaxy while NGC1055 is edge-on. Notice all the dust in Andromeda – even Andromeda satellite galaxy M110 has some dust!  The Uranus image does show several moons but the resolution is poor due to the low elevation of Uranus at that time looking through 3.69 atmospheres in the west!  Regardless, we were able to ferret out Uranus’s satellites Oberon, Titania and Ariel as well as an incidental background faint galaxy NGC202! Uranus was a great place to start our astrosafari …. relatively close to home!

 

We made a great effort on the Orion Nebula taking LRGB images as well as a narrowband sulfur (SII) images!  The trapezium in the deep interior is a group of hot stars powering the Orion Nebula!  The trapezium is well seen in a number of our exposures, especially in the narrowband SII image.  At 10PM, after soaking down the Orion Nebula, we stayed in the constellation Orion imaging the Flame Nebula (NGC2024) which is an imaging challenge because it includes bright bluish star zeta Orionis which is one the three bright stars in Orion’s belt.  That star created color round artifacts seen in the upper left of the image.  Artificial satellites can be seen running through the image when red and green filters were being used.  We also imaged a star cluster NGC2169 that coincidentally resembles “37”. We continued on to the Hubble’s Variable Nebula (NGC2261) which looks like a comet but is a reflection nebula. Two images of the Rosette Nebula were next, one with a clear filter and the other with ahydrogen-alpha filter showing well-defined dark Bok globules and tendrils standing out against a bright emission nebula with suppressed stars. The hydrogen-alpha filter used for the narrowband Rosette Nebula image has a bandpass of only 5nm centered on 656nm (red), the wavelength at which ionized hydrogen (H-alpha) emits (which is the predominate emission of many nebula) and provides tremendous contrast by excluding all other wavelengths of light.

 

After 11PM, we were just getting cooking as we went south to capture a dying star planetary ring nebula NGC2438 superimposed on a large open star cluster M46. Another open star cluster deep in the southern skies is NGC2477 in the constellation Puppis. The Eskimo Nebula is a dying star planetary nebula resembling an eskimo – also called the “Clown Face” Nebula.  Of course, we had to violate the Jellyfish Nebula (IC443) which is a supernova remnant in Gemini.  I felt it only fitting to photograph a ‘jellyfish’ while 5 fathoms deep!  Moving from object to object we banked all sorts of data documenting a variety of celestial bodies.  After midnight, we ventured close to home imaging Jupiter and its four Galilean satellites.  Jupiter has many more moons but they were too faint for us to capture.  Coincidentally, we next went to a planetary nebula called the “Ghost of Jupiter” NGC3242 which, I guess, someone thought resembles an out-of-focus Jupiter.  This is a small object in which we got some decent detail, like the Eskimo Nebula, another small but bright planetary (dying star) nebula.  Next we visited the northern Cigar Galaxy M82 which just had a supernova event discovered one month before our MarineLab effort. I unknowingly took a pre-discovery image of this supernova in early January 2014 as part of my preparation for this MarineLab expedition and did not recognize that the supernova was there at the time or I would have been the discoverer!

 

Late this night, we went from Saturn, 75 light-minutes away, to a quasar 2.4 BILLION light-years away! The Saturn image shows the planet overexposed to reveal the moons which are identified on the image. Other moons are lost in Saturn’s glare. I added an inverted image of Saturn we took in the overexposed blob for size perspective. Saturn’s brightest moon, Titan, is the only Solar System moon with a dense atmosphere. Next, we toured far south capturing giant globular cluster Omega Centauri (NGC5139) which was our southernmost object, greatly affected by turbulent atmosphere. We were imaging through 4.39 atmospheres to capture this image so the stars in the close-up are of poor quality. Nevertheless, you can see the yellow and blue stars that compose the bulk of the globular stellar population. At this point, Chris made a night dive peering at me through the MarineLab porthole watching me download the globular cluster images as fish full of shrimp surrounded him! While the Omega sequence was happening, I made a trip into the acrylic bubble under the Lab for a video/photo op by diver Chris. Once back at our stations, we studied a peculiar galaxy near Omega Centauri that is a strong radio source which may represent a collision of two galaxies with a big dust band (NGC5128) also very low in Centaurus. Crazy as it was, we next pointed the telescope (barely over the observatory roof) to the extreme southeast to see an object in the summer Milky Way as it rose, namely the dark nebula B72 or Snake Nebula. At this point, Chris got very excited about tackling the summer stuff but I was getting exhausted and the gable of my observatory roof (which opens to the east) greatly hindered us from going there anyway. So, lastly, we went to two very distant objects. Abell2151 is a galaxy cluster 500 Million light-years away in the constellation Hercules. We did a 5 minute exposure and the inverted version shows a great galaxy morphologic bonanza! But that galaxy cluster was close compared to our last object captured a 4:17AM. Quasar 3C 273 is 2.4 Billion light-years away and even showed us her optical jet! With that, we called it a night, warmed up the CCD camera, parked the telescope, closed up the observatory (all remotely, of course) and made a night dive to the surface 25 feet up where were greeted by the rising summer Milky Way and a warm breeze. Not bad for one night’s effort! We both had cosmic dreams. Mission – accomplished!

 

 

Click HERE to view all images taken during the underwater remote astroimaging adventure.

Posted in AstroImaging