Santiago, Chile, 2008
In July 2008 I was on a buisness trip in Santiago, Chile. It was mining-related trip, nothing astronomical, but I must say, there is no village or town or holiday resort on Earth, where I’ve been during last 8 or so years and haven’t taken an astronomy-related image of some sort. I hope you will enjoy my few pictures from this magnificent part of the world..
It was mid winter in Southern hemisphere, the Andes were covered with the snow, which I haven’t seen for 17 years at that time. Before the airplane reached the mountains, which rise above the sea level about 4000 m on average, the passengers were warned about turbulence during the fly-over, so it wasn’t a surprise, but reminded me a drive on a ribbed farm-side road somewhere in the Karoo in South Africa. |
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As we got out of the airplane, my eyes caught nearly full Moon, rising above the Andes, covered with the snow and lit by the last rays of the Sun. There was also very specific smog smell in the air - the effect of " Thermal inversion (a meteorological phenomenon whereby a stable layer of warm air holds down colder air close to the ground) causes high levels of smog and air pollution to be trapped and concentrated within the Central Valley during winter months" Read more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago,_Chile |
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The architecture of Santiago is a beautiful combination of the old buildings, dated back to 16th century and the most modern metropolitan buildings. Unfortunately, due to the fact, that Santiago was often hit by the earthquakes, most of the old buildings couldn't survive. |
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Modern buildings and bridges are being designed and built to withstand the earthquakes. |
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Downtown is full of people since early afternoon to the late night, and it appeared that Checkers is the national board game of Chile. |
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Thin layer of clouds resulted in the most spectacular full Moon halo, which I photographed from the downtown Santiago. Bright Jupiter is in the upper left corner of the image. |
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Planetario de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile |
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