Photonix #2: Chasing Daylight Over The Great White North
"Photonix" is a column emphasizing photos around a theme.
It's a sign of my blog backlog by posting photos from my Christmas/New Year's flights from Norway to the U.S., which makes me wonder if "blog" comes from "weblog" or "backlog".
Taking off from Amsterdam close to sunset meant that the plane would be chasing the sunset since it would be flying west, against the rotation of the Earth. The Earth does spin faster than the average cruising speed of a commercial jetliner, but the sunset lasted something like 6 or 7 hours. On top of that, the planet Venus, the beautiful "Evening Star", was in view after the sunset.
Due to great circles being the shortest path between any two points on a spheroid, flights tend to arc over very high latitudes. I believe the following photos should be while overhead of Greenland. I wonder if I could trace the flight path on Google Maps by following the bends and whorls of the snow-covered rivers. Maybe when I really have a lot of free time.
My flight ended in Detroit in the evening and it was a long time since I saw downtown lit up at night. It's more gorgeous than I remember, and more so than Detroit's reputation. You can see the Ambassador Bridge to Canada, the Renaissance Center towers (standing apart, left of the downtown high-rise cluster), and the angular roads that cut radially across the city. That rainbow bit should be the roof of Ford Field. All of this under the light from Venus.
When I left, Detroit was a bit cold and icy, so the plane was delayed for de-icing. It unfortunately led to another hurried rush to make it through customs to make the connecting flight on time, but the condensation of water droplets and ice crystals reminded me of nanoparticle formation in my research, giving me something to ponder while we waited.
A machine cover blew off in the turbulence caused by the other de-icers. It was surprisingly, but perhaps safely, not recovered.
The red-eye flight means that I arrived in Amsterdam in the pre-dawn darkness, but the airport was lively as ever at 5:40 am. It's a shame that narrow layovers have prevented me from really enjoying the airport amenities.
The daylight-chasing came full circle as I flew into Norway as the sun was rising. I spotted some strange lights arranged very orderly on the ground as I left Amsterdam, almost like a farm of lights.
After zooming in, you can just barely make out the sliver of the sun over the horizon, struggling to keep up with the descending plane.
The rising sun cast a morning light on the deep fjords and bumpy, textured farms. I also just noticed now that I'm sitting on the opposite side of the plane so it really felt like a return trip.
Thanks for checking out the photos and I hope you enjoyed them. If it suits you, feel free to leave a comment about the presentation style of the photos.
