Ollantaytambo

Sacred Valley:

Right after we landed in Cusco airport, before we could feel the effect of the high altitude of 11,150 feet (3400 meters above sea level), we were quickly whisked away to Sacred Valley, which lies at a lower elevation, north and west of  Cusco. During the Inca period, Cusco was the spiritual capital of the Incas but the Sacred Valley was of great ceremonial importance. The Sacred Valley is a beautiful stretch of valley surrounded by tall mountains. The Urubamba river (Rio Urubamba in the map below) cuts through the Sacred valley. The Incas considered the Urubamba river as the earthly equivalent of the Milky Way. The three important small towns/villages in the Sacred Valley are Ollantaytambo, Urubamba and Pisac.

Ollantaytambo:
With its Inca built narrow alleys with stone walls and water canals, Ollantaytambo is a well preserved Inca village.

What looks like giant steps here are agricultural terraces, another Inca ingenuity (better visibility in the next photo).
As we climbed to the top to visit the unfinished Sun temple, the Sun was very gentle on u s:)

Agricultural terraces: In order to feed a lot of people, the Incas flattened the mountain slopes in to steps and
used the terraces to grow Quinoa, Maize, Potatoes and Coca. The agricultural terraces are a
common sight all over Peru and Bolivia.

View of Ollantaytambo village from the top of the ruins. The structure on the slope of the mountain  (almost,
the middle of the photo) is a food storage building used by the Incas, where they stored Quinoa, Maize and Potatoes.
The food was distributed to the entire population.

Close up of the food storage building.

The unfinished Sun temple at the top. Referred to as the "six monoliths",
no one understands the significance of this structure.

At the center, the "Ten Niches". To the right of the "Ten Niches" is the unfinished entrance to the Temple of the Sun (above).

Water temple. Just like the Sun, the Incas understood the importance of water and worshiped it.
There is a water fountain inside this temple as well as many fountains on the right side.

Water temple. On the day of the Solstice, when the Sun cleared the mountain (visible through the window)
and hit the water fountain, the Incas considered that the water was blessed by their ancestors.

Archaeological explorations are ongoing in Ollantaytambo and more Inca built structures are getting unearthed.

What good is a tourist place if there are no shops :)

As is clearly evident, the Ollantaytambo ruins indicate that the construction was abandoned in the middle. The Inca Temples and the buildings above the town on the mountain slopes were of great importance to the Incas, an engineering marvel and a testament to the Incas' architectural skills.

The Inca Itch !!!

In 2009, my friend hiked the Inca trail for 4 days to visit Machu Picchu. His experiences and photos triggered the desire to visit Peru. During the summer of 2010, I was all set to go on a trip to Peru with my family and two of my cousins' families. I picked up a book on the Incas, "The Secret Of The Incas: Myth, Astronomy, And The War Against Time" by William Sullivan.

It turned out to be an outstanding book connecting my favorite hobby, Astronomy with the the mythology, culture and the history of the Incas. As I was reading the book, with each chapter, my  interest in the Incas exploded exponentially and I was getting very eager to make the trip.

Then, just few weeks before the trip, my Mom fell sick. I encouraged my family to go on the trip (which they did, very reluctantly) and rushed to India to be with my Mom.

For the last 5 years, I was having the "Inca Itch" and finally, this summer along with my family, made the trip to Peru and Bolivia.












A really brief  summary of the Inca's culture:

It is impossible to write just a few lines about the Incas. Like every ancient culture around the world, the Incas looked up the sky during the day and night, watched the movement of the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars. They tried to make sense of the repetitive movements of the celestial bodies. As they recognized the patterns, they started making use of them for agricultural purposes - when the rainy season starts, when to plant the seeds and when to harvest. They also realized the importance of the Sun and worshiped the Sun. From this regard, they are no different from any other culture.

The Incas built many temples for the Sun (in Ollantaytambo,  Pisac and a magnificent one in Cusco).  They tracked the Sun's Solstices  with a stone pillar called Intihuatana in Machu Picchu. In addition, the Incas paid a lot of attention to the black clouds located in the Milky Way and created their myths based on them. They considered the Urubamba river in Ollantaytambo as the earthly equivalent of the Milky Way (As a side note,  Indian epics refer to the Milky Way as Akasha Ganga (The river Ganges in the Sky).


A really, really brief historical Timeline of the Incas:

•   200 AD - Tiwanaku City (now in Bolivia) was built south east of Lake Titicaca (which is
                  partly in Peru and partly in Bolivia).
•   650 AD - Beginning of the Wari - Tiwanaku period.
• 1000 AD - Tiwanaku culture collapsed due to an extended period of drought.
• 1200 AD - Mythical founding of Cusco city by Manco Capac (founder of the Inca Empire).
• 1438 AD - Pachacutec's (9th Inca Emperor) 33-year reign began.
                  Pachacutec expanded the Inca empire from current day Ecuador in the
                  north to Chile in the south.
• 1525 AD - Huayna Capac died; his son Huascar succeeded and fought with his brother
                  Atahualpa.
• 1532 AD - Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro with just 168 men, captured Atahualpa
                  starting the down fall of the Inca Empire.
• For almost 300 years the Spanish ruled Peru, ransacked the Gold, converted the Incas to Christianity, demolished the Incas' temples and built their cathedrals over the Inca foundations.
• 1824 AD - After many battles, Peru gained complete independence from Spain.

The massive Inca empire lasted just for a century (highlighted in blue, above).

This vacation was a complete immersion in to Inca's culture, history, Peru and Bolivia's people, food, drinks, the Llamas, Alpacas, Condors, very high altitudes (and the effects of it) and the light pollution free Southern Hemisphere night sky constellations and the Milky Way.  All in all, a dream vacation :)

View of the "Awesome Andes" from the flight from Lima to Cusco.

A Llama at Machu Picchu, making sure everything is all right :)

The Trout around Lake Titicaca, almost looks and tastes like Salmon (:-P...

If you are visiting Peru, don't miss the "Passion Fruit Pisco Sour" :))

Corpus Christi celebrations at Cusco

Souvenir shop at La Paz, Bolivia

Click on:  Google Map of our wanderlust :)

Irisation !!!

A leisurely, cliff-hike-beach-walk at Torrey Pines beach today afternoon turned out to be much more interesting than usual, with the appearance of  a rare atmospheric phenomenon called Irisation.

Cliff hike at Torrey Pines.

Irisation

I flipped this foto upside down and it looks like a "sour face" in the sky :)

@Night: Maui II

Few of my favorites from the March 2013 Maui vacation.

March 25, 2013, 5:32 AM. Even with bright lights near by and the morning sky brightening up, plenty of stars were visible.
 Ursa Major (Subtharishi) on the left side.

Once I saw this view, I decided to try taking Sunset and  Moonset photos
with the Sun and the Moon placed between the coconut trees.

Sunset: March 25, 2013, 6:30 PM

Since the Sunset photo above came up pretty decent, I tried capturing the Moonset over the same location. I really wanted to take a photo of the Moon touching the water. Unfortunately, low level clouds blocked the Moon as it got very close to the ocean.

Moonset: March 26, 2013, 5:39 AM. Moon was setting and Sun was not up yet. Ursa Major (Subtharishi) on right side.
Bright lights were behind me casting my shadow.

Moonset: March 26, 2013, 5:40 AM. Early in the morning and there was no one around to take a photo of me
in this beautiful background. I started the long exposure, ran in to the frame and caught myself.
There is a first time for everything you do :)

Sunset: March 25, 2013, 6:37 PM.

Moonset at the same location. March 27, 2013, 6:19 AM

Just For Nithila :)

Since my niece Nithila asked for it, here are the photos of the Blood Red Moon with Spica, Mars and Saturn :))

Spica is very close on the right side of the Moon. Mars is the bright dot to the right and north of Moon & Spica.
Saturn is little difficult to spot in this pic. If you draw a diagonal line from the bottom left corner, the sharp
palm strand points to Saturn. Saturn forms a triangle with 2 other stars and looks better in the next pic.

Moon, Spica and Mars are obvious. Saturn is towards the bottom left corner and forms a triangle with 2 other stars above it.
In order to get the planets and the stars, I need to use a long exposure and that washes out the details in the Moon.

Spica is towards the bottom right corner. The star just north of Moon is another star in Virgo.

Blood Red Moon !!!

On Saturday and Sunday nights I was anxiously watching the sky. There was too much cloud cover. I was wondering how  Monday (April 14th) night was going to be. Thank God, it turned out to be a warm and perfect clear night. 

All the newspapers and websites were calling the Total Lunar Eclipse as the Blood Red Moon. This is the first of the four Lunar Eclipses we are going experience with in the next one year. The next three are coming up on October 8th, 2014, April  4th, 2015 and September 28th, 2015. Four back to back Lunar Eclipses are called "Tetrad of Lunar Eclipses" and happens once in around 600 years.  The remaining 3 Lunar Eclipses will also be visible from USA.

The eclipse started around 11 PM. Standing outside the house, I  started taking a series of photos at regular intervals. Around 11:45 PM, my neighbor, a retired Doctor, stepped out to watch the eclipse. I showed him a close up view of the eclipse through my camera. At 12:07 AM, totality of the eclipse started and the moon did turn blood red!!! My neighbor went inside and brought out 2 glasses of wine :)) We were sipping the wine, having a conversation and enjoyed the blood red moon for some time. At around 1:30 AM, totality ended and the moon slowly started getting its shine back. I was very sleepy and hit the bed without even looking at the photos I took.


Here is my first attempt at creating a collage of the Lunar eclipse with 9 of my best shots.

BTW, no photo can match the naked eye experience of the truly amazing 3D effect of the blood red moon!

@Night: Joshua Tree National Park #2 !!!

During this weekend, had the opportunity to participate and enjoy a Night Sky Photography session at Joshua Tree National Park ( JT website ) with Dennis Mammana (Dennis' website ). This is the third time I am attending Dennis' session and second time at Joshua Tree NP. Pretty much everything I know about Night Sky Photography, I have learned from Dennis.

Living closer to a big city with plenty of light pollution, almost all of us don't get the chance to feel and experience the real and true night sky. Whenever I get a chance, I don't miss opportunities like this. Usually, all visitors must exit the national parks by sunset (unless staying overnight in camp sites). For these special night sky sessions,  the park rangers escort us in and out and they stay with us all the time.

Some of my favorite shots from this weekend. Click on the photo and watch it on full screen.

The path to Mars,  shining between the the branches of the Joshua Tree.

The leaning Joshua Tree is  pointing towards Big Dipper (aka Subtharishi).
The two stars at the bowl of the Big Dipper (pointer stars) point towards the Polaris (aka Stella Maris)

Dennis informed us that around 8:47 pm, the International Space Station (ISS) is going to pass over head
from Southwest to North. All of us turned our cameras towards North and were waiting for the ISS.
I took this shot right at that moment when ISS blocked Polaris / Stella Maris.

The ISS doesn't have any lights as the planes do :) It is basically reflecting the Sunlight.
At its highest elevation, it reflects the maximum Sunlight and then fades away, as in this shot.
The  Polaris / Stella Maris is unblocked now!

@Night: Stella Maris !!!

Those of you, residents of Chennai or who went to college in Chennai, I know I got your attention. ;) I have come across the name Stella Maris, so many times while living in India but never thought of associating it with Astronomy. As a student in Chennai, Stella Maris had only one meaning for me ;) 

Few years ago, while volunteering as the Science Olympiad Astronomy coach at Swetha and Shreya's middle school, stumbled upon the Latin meaning of "Stella Maris" and was pleasantly surprised! The real meaning of "Stella Maris" is "Star of the Sea" and it refers to the star, Polaris aka North Star aka Pole Star. Since Stella Maris lies very close to earth's spinning axis, it is almost motionless in the night sky.  No wonder, ancient mariners used Stella Maris as a fixed guiding star for navigating the oceans.

Why is all this story for a Star trails photo? When you look at this photo, the star at the center of the concentric circles is Stella Maris. As earth rotates, all the stars seem to revolve around Stella Maris.

This is a series of 93 photos taken in quick succession and put together. Each photo was exposed for 30 seconds.  The long exposure time, camera settings and processing makes the sky look more bluish. The crescent moon was shining little bit reducing the number of stars visible. Otherwise, the concentric trails will be much denser and closer together.

Moonrise !!!

The almost full moon, on March 15th, rises over the neighborhood houses.

Sunset @ Newport Beach

Last Saturday, after a busy week at school and work, spent a nice, relaxing day at Newport Beach, yet another beautiful Pacific Coastal town.  Really loving these day trips to places within a 2 hour driving radius. While driving,  the 4 of us are in the cozy confines of the car having lively conversations about school, people and life!!! 

Lookout Point, Corona del Mar, Newport Beach.

Panoramic view of sunset from Inspiration Point.

The reddish-golden-yellow glow of the setting Sun beautifully brings out the brilliant colors of these houses on the cliff.

VIBGYOR !!!

Last weekend, along with the much needed rain, San Diego received a beautiful rainbow too!!!

Slow Motion !!!

When I got these flowers from the shop, they were little lifeless and hanging their head due to lack of water.

Within a day of drinking enough water, they all perked up, resisting the gravity :)

Running On Water !!!

During the holidays, spent a lot of time at warm and sunny San Diego beaches :)

A bunch of birds were quietly strolling along the shore on Mission Bay beach, San Diego.

Suddenly, a dog being walked by a boy escaped the leash and started chasing the birds!

Pure pandemonium erupted and the birds went berserk.

It looked as if these birds were really running on water :)

  

Walking On Water ???

Never getting tired of watching the golden yellow San Diego sunsets. This is from Torrey Pines Beach. With Boston getting 24 inches of Snow, hopefully, this photo will warm up friends and families in the east coast :)

Bye, Bye ISON!!! Rest In Peace!

Comet ISON is history now! Sadly, ISON didn't survive the Perihelion on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28th).
Please refer my previous post about ISON  here .

Just like thousands of people, I was disappointed by the demise of Comet ISON.  Comets are remnants of the Solar System's formation that  happened 4.5 billion years ago. This is believed to be ISON's  first visit to the Sun and also happened to be the last. ISON went too close to the Sun and has been smoked by our star.

In recent history, ISON has been the most observed comet. It generated a lot of interest among the scientific and amateur astronomy communities. On the day ISON was flying around the Sun (Nov. 28, Perihelion), I was watching the updates on Twitter. NASA had organized a Google+ hangout for ISON updates and around 32,000 interested folks participated from all over the world.


NASA had directed 2 of its Sun studying satellites SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) and SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) to track ISON's journey around the Sun. The following Photo and Video are possible because of these 2 satellites.

Courtesy: spaceweathergallery.com
The yellow circle shows the remnants of ISON.

"Not-to-be-missed", time-lapse video of ISON going around the Sun. Watch it in "full screen" mode.

I am turning my attention to the next Comet coming up - Comet Lovejoy!!! They don't name comets just like they do for the storms :)  Terry LoveJoy, an Amateur Astronomer from Australia discovered this comet and so it has been named after him.

As I always say, on every night, the Universe is putting on an excellent show. All you have to do is look up and enjoy :)

@Night: Chasing ISON !!!

Right from the beginning of this year, there is a lot of hype about Comet ISON. I was patiently waiting for October (when the comet eventually arrives closer to Mars)  for a chance to view and photograph ISON. ISON is approaching the Sun rapidly. It is just travelling at 150,000 miles per hour now and is expected to reach an astonishing ~425,000 miles per hour as it whips around the Sun on November 28th (perihelion).

Since mid-October, at least few times a week, I have been waking up around 4:30. If it turns out to be cloudy, I go right back to sleep.  If not, I step out to the backyard or front yard,  use the star maps and my Binoculars to capture ISON. The problem with doing this from home is the light pollution caused by the street lights.  Now I have started going to couple of dark locations within 30 minutes from home where there is no light pollution.

I was able to take some photos but I really want to lower your expectation. ISON is not very bright yet and barely visible to the naked eye. In these photos,  ISON has a slight greenish tinge and the red arrow points to ISON.

October 16th, Wednesday, 4:30 AM.
On October 16th, Mars(middle), Regulus(right) and ISON aligned up in a straight line.
As I was taking this photo from the backyard, a bright meteor streaked through the sky and
drew a line between Mars and ISON.
I took it as a gift from the Universe for looking up the sky in awe and wonder :) 

November 17th, Sunday, 4:59 AM.
After a month of chasing ISON, I think it is slowly getting brighter.
Through Binoculars, the distinct green tinge was clearly visible.
The star below ISON is Spica.

November 17th, Sunday, 4:59 AM.
This is a cropped close up of the previous photo.

This is a Sun-grazing comet and one of 2 things will happen:
              1) ISON survives the perihelion on Nov. 28th and brightens up.
              2) ISON breaks up due to the gravitational pull of the Sun.

I am hoping for 1).

The famous comet hunter David H. Levy once said: “Comets are like cats: they have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”

If ISON is alive after November 28th, I should be able to watch its return, back to the outer space all the way in to late January, 2014.