MY (PHOTOGRAPHIC) NEWS SECTION:

Welcome to my news photo-blog! Below there is a selection of images, related to my trips, work and other activities that I have carried out or participated in, either in Chile or abroad. All photographs have been taken by myself (© R. Demarco, 2014-2022), unless explicitly stated otherwise.

December 31st, 2015: Mount Hood, Oregon, as seen from the airplane I was on at my arrival in Portland. Clear skies and a cold day! Clouds and an extended snow cap are the evidence of the winter weather at those latitudes this time of the year. The tip of the left wing of the plane can be seen as well.





December 4th, 2015: The South Celestial Pole can be seen right above the 4-m Blanco telescope's dome of the Cerro Tololo Inter-american Observatory in this 30-min long exposure. Also visible around it are the two magellanic clouds and a portion of the Milky Way's plane (to the left). The two bright stars (from left to right) above the magellanic clouds are Canopus and Achernar.





December 2nd, 2015: Sunset from Cerro Tololo Inter-american Observatory, Coquimbo Region, Chile. The 4-m Blanco telescope's dome can be seen to the right while observatory staff, astronomers from Chile and Europe, and undergraduate students from UdeC gather themselves for a photo session with the sun setting to the west as seen from an elevation of 2,200 M.A.S.L.





November 21st, 2015: From top to bottom: a group of attendees to the 2015 LSST conference in La Serena, Chile, at the construction site of LSST on Cerro el Peñon. The telescope platform is right at the top of the solid rock promontory seen in the background; the 8-m diameter primary mirror of the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachon; the Gemini South telescope.





November 15th, 2015: the winners of the 3rd Astronomy Conference for School Kids of the Bío-Bío Region in Chile visit the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The photograph, taken by Sergio Franco (CTIO), shows the participants (including me!) posing with the 4-m Blanco Telescope on top of Cerro Tololo in the background.





October 27th-November 2nd, 2015: Top: the UT-3 telescope of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) complex on Cerro Paranal, Antofagasta Region, Chile. This image was captured at telescope aperture with an 8-mm lens. The main 8.2-m diameter mirror as well as the M3 mirror can be seen near the center of the image. The secondary mirror appears as reflected on the main mirror. A standard procedure is to place the telescope in this position while opening the dome to prevent any possible debris from falling into the telescope. Bottom: me in front of the VISTA 4-m telescope after dome closing at dawn. Photograph taken by Sergio Vera (ESO).





September 24th, 2015: me at the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) site on Chajnantor at an elevation of about 5,100 meters in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Image taken by Juan Pablo Pérez (APEX) after completion of a morning shift of observing at the nearby APEX radiotelescope. In the image, the compact array of ALMA can be seen in the background.





September 16th, 2015: me, right next to the 6.5-meter Clay telescope, one of the two Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The photograph was taken by Alessandro Rettura with an 8 mm fisheye lens, while waiting for the clouds to disappear. Hours earlier that evening, a major 8.3 mag. earthquake struck off coast at a distance of about 350 km south from the observatory.





September 15th, 2015: the Irénée du Pont 2.5-meter telescope at Las Campanas Observatory as seen with an 8 mm fisheye lens from the inner catwalk near the ceiling of the dome. This image was captured past midnight while the telescope was idle due to very poor weather conditions.





August 7th-12th, 2015: times and places in Maui, Hawaii. From top to bottom: a road through the sinuous and green landscape of the island in a cloudy day; the final resting place (graveyard of the Palapala Ho'Omau Congregational Church) of a pioneer: Charles A. Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean; a sunset looking to Lanai in the distance; samples of marine life at the Maui Ocean Center.





August 3rd, 2015: the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. This menorial marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on the USS Arizona (BB-39) during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. This event led the US to its direct participation in World War II. In the photograph, right beneath the white building of the memorial, remains of the sunken ship can be seen.





July 28th, 2015: the moon as seen through the trees on the mountainside of Mt. Hood in Oregon, near Portland. This image was obtained near sunsent on one of the trails leading back to Timberline Lodge, a National Historic Landmark in the US at an elevation of 1,817 meters.





July 27th, 2015: a visit to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, home to the amazing Spruce Goose (in the picture). This aircraft was built entirely of wood due to World War II restrictions on metals, and it's the airplane with the longest wingspan, 97.5 meters, ever constructed. The museum has a very nice collection in both its general aviation and space sections.





March 10th, 2015: the group photo at the Puerto Varas AGN conference that brought to Chile many of the world experts on AGN in connection with galaxy evolution. The Llanquihue lake can be seen in the background, one of the largest lakes in southern Chile surrounded by volcanos such as Osorno and Calbuco.





Fabruary 15th, 2015: the Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, during my second visit to the KSC Visitor Complex in February 2015. This is the actual spacecraft (OV-104) that flew from 1985 (STS-51J) until 2011 (STS-135), completing 33 missions and taking more than 200 astronauts to orbit.





January 30th, 2015: the Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile, during a grey-time run as part of the GOGREEN project (PI Michael Balogh). Observers on site include Julie Nantais and Ricardo Demarco who used the FourStar instrument on Magellan Baade, next to Clay (not in the picture and to the right). The one-night run suffered from gusty winds and a seeing near 1 arsecond.





January 24th, 2015: an afternoon with Chile's National Aerobatic Team, Halcones, from the Chilean Air Force, after a presentation in Concepción. In the photograph, myself together with the leader of the Halcones, squadron commander Andrés Fuentealba, at Carriel Sur airport. Photograph taken by Isabel Rivera.