Ocean streaks and Langmuir's observation and theory; Approaching Quebec and the end of our Viking cruise; Some insights into relativistic simulation paradoxes; Extragalactic source of cosmic rays

Greetings from Palmia Observatory (offsite closing in on our last cruise night in Quebec, Canada),

Well our In the Wake of the Vikings cruise comes to an end the day after tomorrow and we were only able to photograph the northern lights on two separate days.  Nonetheless we had a great time and meet some great folks and saw some great scenery.  One image that turned out to be steeped in physics was the following one of long parallel streaks in the Saguenay River, Quebec, Canada.

Vikings at L'anse aux Meadows; How did Viking sun tracking work? Viking Sea ship cruise map; Great classical mechanics and astrophysics website; Time zones and martini service!

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

Well we just left L'anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland last night and headed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence as our journey "In the wake of the Vikings" continues on the cruise ship Viking Sea.  The stop in the location of the first and oldest Viking settlement there was very educational and I identified at least two topics that i want to study further and they are: (1) Smelting of "bog iron" for weapons, jewelry and nails, and (2) Viking navigation westward by looking at the sun.

Transition to safe harbor at Qaqortoq, Greenland; Viking Sea sails past icebergs; Relativistic simulations of special relativity; Another night of dim green aurora

Greetings from Palmia Observatory (offsite near Qaqortoq, Greenland),

Well the journey in the wake of the Vikings continues and the search for brighter Northern Lights goes on also.  As luck would have it there were gale force winds predicted for our first scheduled stop in Greenland, and many nearby icebergs, so we have to move further down the coast to Qaqortoq, Greenland and spend the night at anchor there.

Great NASA Aurora photo; Hooray, finally saw some green northern lights! Icebergs in the passage to Greenland

Greetings from Palmia Observatory

This NASA photo of auroras around the North Pole is really fantastic.  Wow, if we could see that! Thanks to chance encounter with fellow passenger Valerie who provided the reference for this photo. Thanks, Valerie! Anyway, we didn't get this great space based view, but did have a chance to finally get some more images of the aurora from our cruise ship.

Another day waiting and searching for the northern lights; 10-second exposure of star taken from cruise ship at sea; Finally a glimpse of Northern Lights,

Greetings from Palmia Observatory (offsite some at sea heading from Iceland to Greenland),

Well this has been another great fun day and another day in our search for the northern lights.  How did this day go you ask?  It started off with a great sunrise, then with the onset of rain, a great rainbow.  Oh well, at least the NOAA aurora forecast showed some improvement and offsered some hope.  But as luck