A fun little film. You will have to watch it through to understand the twist at the end. Though it can be done more easily than they make out…
Author: Andrew
An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.
Waimea Planet Walk
Waimea was living up to reputation with a gusty wind and blowing mist. But this did little to dampen the Waimea Planet Walk sponsored by Keck and CFHT Observatories. A steady stream of parents and kids walked the length of the main street to visit the booths representing a scale model of the solar system.
The Sun and the inner solar system… Mercury, Venus Earth and Mars, all occupied the lawn directly in front of the Keck lobby. Each location was measured properly to achieve the correct position, each booth had a scale model of the planet to correctly interpret the scale of the entire solar system. This meant the Sun was about 8 inches (20cm) in diameter and the Earth a small dot mounted to a piece of wood. In the far corner of the Keck lawn, several hundred feet from the Sun, sat Jupiter represented by a 1/2-inch (1cm) ball bearing.
To visit the remainder of the solar system it was necessary to walk down Mamalahoa highway. Saturn sat in the upper corner of the KTA parking lot, beside the historic cemetery. Uranus was located in the lower corner of the KTA parking lot. Neptune in the park across the street from the library. At the end of the walk, Pluto and the rest of the TNO’s in the lawn of CFHT.
Everyone, volunteers and guests, seemed to be having a great time learning. All up and down the street walked parents and kids from station to station. It is always interesting to see the entire solar system represented to scale like this, even if you have seen it before. The experience is the first step to seeing just how big space is…
Alaska 2009 – The Video
Three weeks of photographic effort, literally thousands of photographs to select from. It is difficult to put the experience into words, hopefully around one hundred of the best photos and a few minutes of video set to music will convey the trip better than pages of text can manage.
About two thirds of the photographs are mine, the others from one of the seven other cameras that were present on the trip in the hands of other family members and friends. Editing the video was not a short or easy process, but the result is fairly good. Hit the full screen icon to see it in full resolution, this is the first properly HD video I have put together. The Vimeo version does exhibit some encoding artifacts, the original 720p HD versions are simply beautiful.
Three weeks of traveling some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet is something best experienced by being there. Short of that, this is the best I can manage…
A Touch of the Wild – Alaska 2009 from Andrew Cooper on Vimeo.
Alaska Roundup
It is over, an odd and melancholy feeling pervades. After three weeks out the boat begins to feel like home, leaving it a sad thing. But we are also ready to go back to our regular lives, which are not really all that bad in Hawai’i. Looking forward to seeing friends and getting back into the swirl of the life we have built on the island. I return to the observatory, with a major project coming to a peak with the delivery of the K1 laser. Deb has gotten a call from the school, they want her back for the next school year.
Three weeks on the water. Three weeks of beautiful weather, whales, halibut, icebergs and fantastic scenery. Hard to think of how the trip could have gone better, maybe a few more fish caught?
Week one was spent mostly touring with just enough fishing to eat and a little for some friends to take home. We headed south from Juneau to the fjord of Tracy Arm to dodge icebergs for a day. From there it was further south around the end of Admiralty Island. As we passed the Brothers Islands there were whales, both humpback and orca everywhere, also sea lions and porpoise. Up Chatham Straight we stopped at Barnof Hot Springs and one of my favorite places, Tenakee Springs.
Back On Line
Three weeks without a connection! Over now, a WiFi fix available from the hotel in Juneau. I have deleted the couple dozen spam comments that leaked through the filters and loosened the comment rules again.
Be a bit before regular posting resumes, have a couple days of travel in front of me yet. I think there are a few more scheduled posts to tide the blog over.
Now on to the 645 emails stacked up…
Postcard from Alaska – Salmon Run 2
Standing in the rain watching the fish. If you do not move for a few moments the salmon seem to ignore you and begin crowding the shore in an attempt to get up the creek. The mass of fish fills the mouth of the stream as each attempts to take the barrier of the first cascade under the highway bridge.
Those that have already spawned, or for whom the effort proved too much litter the gravel bar beyond where we stand, dead fish at the end of their life cycle become the nourishment that will enable other life to flourish. The nutrients of the deep ocean delivered to a gravel bar in Alaska to feed ravens, eagles, bears and more.
Postcard from Alaska – Salmon Run
In a scene lifted from innumerable nature films, a small creek jammed with fish. So many salmon fill the stream that it seems there is more fish than water. Large fish, some up to three feet long, scales and fins turning a dull green as they lose the silvery sheen of life. To see this spectacle in person lends an immediacy and an awe of nature that strikes deep in one’s thoughts. Here life completes the cycle, salmon coming to spawn after years at sea. Returning to the same stream that gave them birth.
Evolution is a powerful force, driven by the irresistible instinct to spawn the next generation, to reproduce so that the species might survive, Even if it means dying in the process. The species goes on in the eggs and sperm deposited in the stream bed.
Postcard from Alaska – Wreck
There is a way to leave Sitka without entering the open ocean, a sheltered waterway that leads to Juneau and the rest of Alaska. The passage from Sitka to the open waters of Chatham Straight is in places very narrow, a series of passes and straights that lead inland, the last section found on the charts as Peril Straight. The passage is plied by dozens of vessels daily including the Alaskan State Ferry.
In a narrow passage just north of Sitka, a place called Neva Straight lies the wreck of a tugboat, a vessel that failed to make the journey. A rusted reminder to be careful in navigating these waters.
Postcard from Alaska – Tracy Arm
Tracy Arm is one of the must see places near Juneau. If you are not traveling in your own boat you can jump on one of the fast excursion boats that make the run from Juneau each day. A classic fjord with walls that tower thousands of feet above, waterfalls everywhere, and icebergs to make navigation interesting as you make your way up the glacially carved canyon. The terrain beneath the water is just as dramatic, not unusual to be a few hundred feet from shore with a thousand feet of water below the keel. In some places the depth finder can not find bottom, over 1,200 ft or more down.
At the top there is Sawyer Glacier, a tidewater glacier that drops those icebergs into the water as you watch. There are actually two glaciers, in twin arms of the fjord that separate near the end of the trip. Sit among the ice flows watching the seals and ice crashing from the cliff-like face. If you can time your arrival for high tide it is far more likely to see a really big calving, with hundreds or thousands of tons of ices breaking free from the face to crash into the water and create waves that rock the boat.
It is customary to scoop up some of that glacial ice floating around to fill your coolers. Crystal clear and very dense, the ice from the bottom of the glacier is interesting stuff. We break it up and make cocktails out of it to enjoy as we cruise back down the fjord.
Tenakee
If we are anywhere near on schedule I should be in Tenakee Springs today. Tenakee is one of those places in the world that is just special. The town is quite simple, a single line of homes and a few businesses along the shore for about one mile. The center of town is found at the seaplane dock and the general store. At the far eastern end, half a mile down the shoreline, are the state docks where anyone can tie up a boat for a small nightly fee.
View Larger Map
There really are springs at Tenakee, wonderful hot springs that supply water just right for bathing. The springs are the reason why the town is located here, endless hot water available to douse the cold of an Alaskan winter. To take advantage of this water there is a public bathhouse constructed over the main spring. Male and female bathing is handled by alternating hours of access. Sitting in the bath and enjoying the water one evening I was talking to one of the local guys, he made the comment of having “seen half the town naked, the wrong half!”
Tenakee Springs is a place where man lives, but nature rules. Stray very far out of town and you quickly enter wilderness. This remains the only place I have had a close encounter with a grizzly bear, way too close, just a 100yards from the state marina while on the beach. There is a great story there, one I will save for another time.
The general store is a place that would not have been out of place in most towns of the American west back in the 1930′ or 1940’s. A clapboard building found right in the center of town on the waterfront, right next to the float plane dock and the helipad. A single large room with a small selection of all the necessities. One wall serves as a gift shop and gallery for local artists, selling watercolors and other artwork to those of us who are just visiting.
Looking forward to returning here, taking a bath in the hot spring, and generally enjoying a bit of rural Alaska.
