Elisabeth SIEGEL #238
Letters to the Editor
from
Elisabeth SIEGEL
in CMO #238
@. . . . .
Now, as the old millennium is coming to a close, I want to thank you for all your kindness and generosity these past years. I fear that my contributions, as far as Mars observations are concerned, may be few in 2001 --- during opposition Mars will be only 8above the "theoretical" horizon here in Denmark, and, living in the north side of a slope, I might not be able to see Mars at all from my back yard this coming summer!
Fortunately, everyone in my family is well. The absolute highlight of the year 2000, for me personally, was my journey to Antarctica in January-February (perhaps you remember my mentioning it a year ago?). Everything went incredibly well -- except that we didn't get very far down in the Weddell Sea, due to the favorable ice conditions, so most of our visit was spent on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. We made 5 landings - 2 on the Antarctic mainland and 3 on different small islands along the coast - and seeing the wildlife there was incredible: elephant seals, Weddell seals, Antarctic fur seals, leopard seals, crabeater seals, and tens of thousands of penguins! Adelie penguins, chinstrap penguins, gentoo penguins and Macaroni penguins. They seem totally unafraid of humans, which makes it a very moving experience to meet them. We had a snow (or hail) storm during our first landing, very appropriate for Antarctica! And we also got to experience a hurricane (a wind force of 40 meters per second, which is quite a bit) one day; on that day we had to stay aboard the ship, landings were out of the question in weather like that. But we also had fine, quiet days with sunshine.c
Other impressions: the fantastic sight of huge, tabular icebergs in the Weddell Sea, smaller icebergs of varying colors, from white to strong blue to a dark grey, almost black (the black icebergs contain a lot of dirt and gravel from the bottom of glaciers). Albatrosses following the ship all the way from South America down to Antarctica (and back). And the night sky, when not cloudy: seeing the Magellanic Clouds, the Southern Cross, globular cluster 47 Tucanae for the first time - and Orion "upside-down", and on our way back from Antarctica: witnessing the partial solar eclipse on February 5, which was only visible from Antarctica...! (We were on the northern border of the eclipse track, so the moon only took a tiny bit out of the sun - but I saw it.) I also enjoyed our one-and-a-half days on Tierra del Fuego very much. We hiked all day through a beautiful forest in the National Park of Tierra del Fuego - very impressive scenery, with snow -clad mountains all around. The Iguazu Falls in northernmost Argentina's subtropical rain forest were of course spectacular too, but too many tourists!! I much prefer Penguin Country!
May the new year and millennium bring you happiness and fulfillment - and plenty of clear skies . . . !
(11 December 2000)
Elisabeth SIEGEL ( Malling, DENMARK )