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 19th, 2019: Concepción is the second largest city (with more than 1 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area) in Chile. It is located about 500 km south from Santiago (the country's capital) and is flanked by the Biobío river to the South. It is very close (a few kilometers) to the Pacific Ocean to the North. Sometimes, weather conditions make departing flights from the city's international airport to take off to the South and then veer North, exposing the whole city, the river and the Concepción Bay to passengers seated on the correct side of the airplane. The top photograph shows the Concepción Bay, with the Quiriquina island (far left) and the Port of Lirquen (far right), the airport, and a part of Talcahuano (near left). The city of Concepción is to the right (off the picture). The bottom image shows Concepción and the massive Biobío river (left). Some of the bridges on the river are the longest ones in Chile, measuring about 2 km in length.





December 5th, 2019: An incredible evening of culture and science with professor Jose Maza, the most famous astronomer in Chile, at the Biobío Theater in Concepción with about 1,000 attendees. It was my great honor and privilege to be the host of the show. Wow! The picture was taken by Angela Jarpa from the Biobío Theatre.





November 23rd, 2019: Lovely Garching! This is the home town to one of the largerst concentrations of research centers in the world: ESO, 4 Max Planck institutes, and the Technical University of Munich. I lived here in 2001 and 2003 during my days as Ph.D student at ESO. At a relatively short distance from the Research Campus, I loved to walk or ride my back to and from work, reagrdless of weather. I enjoyed very much walking around town as well as going out for a run. The pictures below show some typical areas of downtown Garching, including its traditional Maibaum.





November 21st, 2019: The European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching bei München. This is the headquarters of the most important astronomical observatory in the world. Here I spent an important fraction of my life from 2001 to 2003 working on my Ph.D. research. As a world leading institution, ESO operates two mayor observatories in Chile, La Silla and Paranal, and is one of the member organizations of the ALMA observatory, also in Chile. Currently, ESO is building the largest optical/near-ifrared telescope in the world, the E-ELT, on Cerro Armazones near Paranal in the Atacama desert. The E-ELT will be a 40-meter diameter (with a segmented main mirror) telescope whose first light is expected in 2025. From top to bottom, the pictures show: ESO's main entrance, a test bench in Garching that corresponds to 1% of the collecting area of the E-ELT where mirror segment systems are tested, the VLT telescope on Paranal -made out of LEGO bricks! -, and a model of the E-ELT telescope in its dome.





November 20th, 2019: The time of the year for another Christmas cellebration has come! This is the Christmas and Winter Market 2019 at the Munich airport in Germany. With its wonderful Christmas Tree (top photograph) and a number of small and cute shops, offering a variety of typical food, drinks (including the famous and delicious gluehwein) and souvenirs (bottom photograph), welcome people that come to Munich by air. The market even has its own skating and curling rinks, a nice carousel, and a beer garden with Maypole (or Maibaum) and everything! It is located in the central area of the airport between Terminals 1 and 2. Despite the cold, it was very nice walking around, enjoying the beginning of the Christmas season: Fröhliche Weihnachten!





November 18th, 2019: One of my favorite cities in the world: Munich! I used to live there during my Ph.D. student days in the early 2000s, and the last time I visited it was 2008. I enjoyed very much walking again on its lovely streets and bringing back really nice memories from the days I used to call Munich my home. From top to bottom, photographs correspond to: Marienplatz, the Bavarian Opera House and Residenz Theatre, Sporerstrasse, Augustinerstrasse, and the Frauenkirche seen from Frauenplatz. Another beautiful night to remember.





November 17th, 2019: The world of aviation at the Besucherpark of the Munich Airport. A very small but really nice collection of historic aircrafts welcomes visitors, who can also climb to the top of the viewing hill (observation deck) to enjoy the flight operations of one of the largests airports in Germany. The park also offers a playground for children as well as the airport gift shop with a nice selection of items including diecast models of the real aircrafts on display in the park. From top to bottom, the pictures correspond to: an ADAC Luftrettung MBB Bo-105, a Lufthansa Super Constellation (in the background, a DC-3 can be seen), a Lufthansa Ju 52, and the Terminal 1 area of the Munich airport.





November 11th, 2019: The transit of the planet Mercury in front of the Solar disk as observed from Concepción, Chile. This image was obtained with my celphone's camera placed on the eyepiece of a telescope equiped with a Mylar filter. The top photograph shows the Solar disk where Marcury can be seen as a speck on it (can you spot it?). The bottom image is a zoomed-in version of the same photograph where the planet is near the center of the field of view. The transit of Mercury in front of the Sun occurs about 13 times in a century, and the next one will be in the year 2032. Certainly an opportunity that could not be missed.





October 15th, 2019: A unique view of the Universidad de Concepción's main campus, seen from the top level of the campus's clock tower (the "Campanil"), at a height of 32.5 meters. Two directions are shown: South-East (top) and North-West (bottom). Concepción's downtown can be seen to the center and left of the bottom photograph.





October 10th, 2019: The Symphonic Orchestra of the Universidad de Concepción, under the conduction of Jaime Cofré, rehearsing at the Municipal Theatre in Chillán minutes before starting the final performance of "Estréllate con La Música: Cosmofonía Educacional", as part of the 2nd season of the orquestra's 2019 Educational Concerts.





September 26th, 2019: The Symphonic Orchestra of the Universidad de Concepción, under the conduction of Francisco Nuñez, playing at the Regional Theatre in Concepción as part of the second season of its 2019 Educational Concerts. The work, entitled "Estréllate con La Música: Cosmofonía Educacional", is an audiovisual show created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1st manned moon landing. It combines images, actual footage and animations of manned and unmanned space missions to the Moon and the Solar System, together with classical music and soundtracks of space-related movies and documentaries. The full show was conceived and put together by Javier Bustos, one of the musicians of the orquestra, and myself. Javier did all the musical arrangements and adaptations while I produced the image and video editing based on imagery provided by NASA, JPL, ESA, and ESO.





August 23rd, 2019: This was my last free afternoon in Toronto after a successful GOGREEN collaboration meeting. Of course, there were a couple of places that I needed to visit: the main observation deck and the SkyPot of the CN Tower, and Ripley's Aquarium of Canada. At its highest viewing point, the SkyPod, the CN Tower offers an amazing panorama of the city and its surroundings from an impressive height of 447 meters. On the other hand, the aquarium offers a truly immersive experience that takes visitors to almost real dives together with incredible sea flora and fauna, including sharks ... yes, sharks!





August 21st, 2019: The skyline of the city of Toronto, Canada, seen from a sailing boat in a wonderful summer afternoon. Two iconic buildings can clearly be seen: the Rogers Centre with its nice white dome-shaped roof, and the CN Tower. The latter once was the tallest building in the world.





August 11th, 2019: Crater Lake, Oregon. This is a remarkably beautiful place characterized by a lake of deep-blue and clear waters, surrounded by a magnificent flora and landscape. The lake itself was formed by precipitation accumulated over the years in a giant caldera formed about 7,700 years ago by the collapse of the Mount Mazama volcano. It has a diameter of about 9 km on average and an average depth of 350 meters, being 594 meters its maximum depth.





August 2nd, 2019: A nice afternoon in the city of Portland, Oregon. The Willamette River (in the photograph) crosses the city, flowing northward from the Eugene-Springfield area to the Columbia River. The latter creates a natural border between the States of Oregon and Washington. Since the river can be cruised by relatively large ships, the bridges, such as those in the picture, can be lifted to let them navigate through. The Burnside Bridge and the Morrison Bridge appear to the left and right in the image, respectively.





July 23rd, 2019: On the way back home from Washington, D.C. A beatiful sunset seen from cruising altitude. Photograph taken by Isabel Rivera.





July 22nd, 2019: The moon landing celebration could not have been finished without a visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia. One of the outstanding pieces on display is the Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103), the same that in 1990 put into low Earth orbit the Hubble Space Telescope, and the first orbiter to dock with the International Space Station. Of course, I could not let the opportunity of a picture of me (take by Isabel Rivera) with Discovery pass. Another remarkable piece in the museum's collection is the original Mobile Quarentine Facility that received Apollo 11 astronauts from their historic trip to the moon. Labeled as "Hornet Plus Three", this modified Airstream van received the astronauts on-board the USS Hornet Carrier in the Pacific. From there, it was taken to Pearl Harbor and flown from Hawai'i to the Johnson Space Center in Houston where the astronauts were transferred to a more spacious and specially prepared facility for quarentine purposes.





July 20th, 2019: This is the day exactly 50 years after the first human beings set foot upon the moon. An extremely hot a humid day in D.C., but also with very interesting activities. Another visit to the Apollo 50 Fair allowed me to get a portrait of myself looking through the helmet of one of the next generation suits that NASA is developing and testing for missions to the Moon and Mars (top photograph, taken by Isabel Rivera). It also made it possible to look at from up-close a real moon rock (sample 77035,64 classified as Impact Melt Breccia) brought back to Earth by Apollo 17 astronauts. Other interesting landmarks in the city were visited. Capitol Hill offers a nice view of the National Mall toward the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial (3rd picture from the top). This is also the place of the US Capitol, home to the US Congress, characterized by its massive dome, large roman-style columns, and white color. Across from the US Congress building, there is the famous Library of Congress, the largest library in the world. Two of its highlights are an original copy of Gutenberg's Bible and the main reading room.





July 19th, 2019: Another day in D.C. celebrating the first moon landing. The day started with a visit to NASA Headquarters where, of course, I had to get a selfy at one of the entrances (top photograph). Then I went back to the National Air and Space Museum (my favorite museum in the world!) to see one-of-a-kind aircrafts such as the one that started it all, the original 1903 Wright Broders' Flyer, and the very first X-15 rocket plane (2nd and 3rd pictures from the top). After the museum, I visited the Apollo 50 Fair that was set up right outside of it on the National Mall. A number of participants, from NASA centers and space industry contractors, showed and teached to the public a lot of very interesting and cool stuff. In one of the stands, I had the possibility of trying a real Space Shuttle astronaut EVA glove and grab with it and a real Apollo sample collecting tool a piece of a rock, like a moon rock (4th photo from the top). It is impressive to experience how hard it is to work with those gloves, which justifies all the training that astronauts have to do for a mission. Finally, the day concluded with an spectacular show: the recreation of the Apollo 11 launch, with a full-size Saturn V projected on the Washington Monument, high-power sound effects, and thousands of expectators witnessing the launch, the same way it must have been 50 years ago. Incredible sight and experience! The bottom photograph, taken by Isabel Rivera, shows the T-5 minute mark in the countdown.





July 18th, 2019: An evening to remember, a close encounter with three iconic astronauts: Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin and Charles Bolden ... amazing! The event took place at the Lisner Auditorium of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The activity was framed within the context of the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, and focused on the subject of space diplomacy. Incredible: 2 of the 3 Apollo 11 astronauts at the same venue! And to conclude a perfect evening: the amazing view of a full-size Saturn V rocket projected on to one of the sides of the Washington Monument. Very impressive.





July 17th, 2019: The countdown to the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing begins. And the chosen place for the celebration is the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. An almost whole week of related activities started with the trip to the capital from Oregon. The top two photographs illustrate that trip: the sunrise at the JFK airport in NYC during transit, and the city of Washington from the airplane minutes before landing. In the latter, both Capitol Hill and the Washington Monument are clearly distinguishable from the air. The bottom two pictures, in the other hand, show some of the most iconic pieces of the National Air and Space Museum's collection: the Spirit of Saint Luis, the LM-2 Lunar Module, and of course, the real and only one, Apollo A7L suit of Neil Armstrong! Isabel Rivera took the photograph of Armstrong's suit with me posing next to it. During 13 years this suit was off display for conservation purposes. The last time I had seen it was in 2004.





July 12th, 2019: "The Eagle Has Landed". About half of a full-size lunar module reproduction was built at the Interactive Center of Science, Art and Technology (CICAT) of the Universidad de Concepción in Coronel to conmemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. This replica is the center piece of an exhibit fully dedicated to the Apollo Program and the Space Race. The construction of the exhibit took several months and I had the privilege of serving as scientific consultant of the project.





July 2nd, 2019: Hundreds of people gathered at the "costanera" of the city of Penco (near Concepción) to observe the partial phase of a solar eclipse that covered a vast strip from the middle of the Pacific to the East end of Argentina. In Penco, the solar disc appeared 79% covered by the Moon's disc. Whereas, in the Coquimbo Region of Chile, the eclipse reached the totality. In this photograph, Víctor Lamas, an experienced local photographer captures extraordinary images of the phenomenon.





May 11th, 2019: For the first time in history, an official round of FIA's World Rally Championship, and associated competitions (World Rally Championship-2 and WRC-2 Pro class), was performed in Chile. The event took place in the Biobío Region, near the city of Concepción and within the city itself, during 9-12 May 2019. Fifty-five teams started, but only 35 finished. The overall winner was the team composed by the Estonian Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja (first picture from the top). The photographs were taken at the officially designated public vewing area of the "Maria Las Cruces 2" stage (23.09 km in distance) of Leg 2 (121.16 km in total), near the town of Laraquete. The Chilean drivers Francisco "Chaleco" López and Pedro Heller can be seen in the 3rd and 4rd photograph from the top, respectively. The bottom picture shows one the aircrafts used to follow and record the competition from above.





April 14th, 2019: Next to the city of Concepción, at only a short drive from it, there is the Nonguén National Reserve. Created in 2009 and spaning a surface area of about 30 square kilometers, this wonderful natural park is home and provides prodection to a large variety of flora and fauna typical from Chile. A couple-of-hours hike offers the opportunity to come in direct contact with nature and enjoy a variety of living creatures, including wild snails (top photograph) and Copihue flowers (bottom photograph), the latter being considered the national flower of Chile.





April 6th, 2019: Another great visit to Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO). From top to bottom: CTIO on Cerro Tololo (Tololo means "at the edge of the abyss"); the SMART 0.9-meter telescope pointing to some place on the southern sky (the Eta Carinae nebula is visible within the dome's aperture); the center of the Milky Way risin above the horizon (note that Cerro Pachon with SOAR, Gemini and LSST is visible to the bottom right); a star-trail picture with 30 minutes exposure of the South Celestial Pole and the Small Magellanic Cloud above the Blanco 4-meter and SMART 1.5-meter telescopes; and the Milky Way galaxy above the Blanco 4-meter and SMART 1.5-meter telescopes.





April 5th, 2019: 50 years ago, European astronomers officially started operations of their largest astronomical observatory. Attracted by the wonders of the southern sky -the center of our Galaxy and the Magellanic clouds, among others- a major astronomical facility was installed on a remote summit of the Atacama desert in northern Chile: the La Silla Observatory, of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). A large number of domes with their corresponding telescopes (some of them from different European nations) where installed. Below there is a collections of images from La Silla. The top one shows all the domes currently present at the mountain, while the bottom one shows 4 of the largest ones of them. The middle picture is a portrait of one of the native inhabitants of the mountan, a Chilean zorro.





March 27th, 2019: 11:00PM, a historical moment! As incredible as it may sound, an extraordinarily unique opportunity, only reserved for VIPs or taking place in very special circumstances, presented itself: the possibility of observing directly throught the eyepiece with a 6.5-meter diameter telescope. Such an event is extremely rare in modern astronomy, even for professional astronomers. Only a few staff memebers of an observatory may, very occasionally, have that opportunity. Tonight, two Chilean observers -Clement Martinache and myself- were at the right time, at the right place ... whoohoo! The picture at the top is what we could see directly with our eyes through the Magellan Clay telescope: the star named Eta Carinae. This photograph was taken with my iPhone by placing the cellphone's camera in direct contact with the telescope's eyepiece. If you think this image is impressive, it was even more the one obtained with the eye. The picture at the bottom is the Magellan Clay telescope pointing to the star. Eta Carinae is within a large hydrogen cloud in our Milky Way galaxy named after it. This cloud can be seen at the upper-right edge of the dome's aperture in the image.





March 25th, 2019: back at the Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. The top photograph shows one of a few viscachas that love watching the sunset from pretty much the same place every day. Here, the viscacha is close to the Magellan telescopes that are seen in the two photos below: both Baade (left) and Clay (right) explore the sky under an arching Milky Way (middle picture); the Baade telescope with the beautiful Milky Way rising above the South-East horizon delineated by the Chilean Andes (bottom picture).





February 25th, 2019: Finally! The snow arrived to Eugene, Oregon. This was the second largest snowfall in one day registered in town, and the largest in February over the last 100 years: 11 inches! The whole city dressed up in white. Regular daily activities were suspended which allowed people to go out to the streets to walk, ski, and enjoy this specially beautiful winter morning.





February 3rd, 2019: Basketball is a very popular sport in the US, and the University of Oregon (UO) is not an exception to that. The women's team is one of the strongest in the nation. Here the Oregon's Ducks played against the Colorado's Buffaloes in a game that ended up with a comfortable victory for the Ducks. The game took place at the Matthew Knight Arena of UO.





January 10th, 2019: A marvel of modern aviation, the Lockheed A-12 "Blackbird", and the youngest vehicle in the Space Shuttle fleet, OV-105 "Endeavour". The photograph at the top shows a Blackbird trainer version at display in the Los Angeles Exposition Park, whereas the bottom image shows Endeavour in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center, also in the L.A. Exposition Park. This was the third time that I personally saw Space Shuttle OV-105. The first time was some years prior when it was being prepared for museum display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is a photo of that oportunity, taken by Isabel Rivera.





January 8th, 2019: A visit to "Sky Costanera", the highest viewpoint in Latin America. This place offers a singular, 360-degree sight of Santiago, the capital of Chile, from the 61st and 62nd floors (about 300 meters from the ground) of the tallest structure in the country. From top to bottom, the orientations of the images are South-East, North-East, and South-West. A portion of the Andes mountains is visible in the picture at the top. The Mapocho river can be seen in both the middle and bottom photographs.