Note -- you have reached the original astrophotographs.com website. Thanks very much for visiting. Logo contact information has been updated (i.e. we moved to Taos, NM) as below:
Willis Greiner
12 Rabbit Valley Road / P.O. Box 1515
El Prado, NM 87529
303-903-8996 or 575-758-3670
taosastronomer@gmail.com
You may also want to visit Willis' new astronomy site at: taosastronomer.com/
"The
Ribbon of Sky"
Today we float from Hance Rapids and the walls of Upper Granite
Gorge begin to squeeze in. We snap photos as the drama of the
rock begins. Here the walls are shiny black and orange, and
the Earth exposes its history to beyond two billion years. I
can imagine how the early explorers must have felt as the river
thunders with new rapids every few miles, and the gorge drops
off in a river corridor seemingly as steep as the ancient walls
themselves. Quite powerful. The towering motor rigs pass us
occasionally, breaking both the silence of the quiet water and
the threatening sounds of the "approaching" rapids. We wonder
why the customers are dressed in full rain gear, for they are
sitting up so high -- it's really unlikely that they will get
wet. Further, the air temperature is now well over 100 degrees
-- nights so warm we lay out naked, perhaps crawling into our
sheets (sleeping bags here in the Grand Canyon summer are much
too warm) only during the early morning hours.
When
I stir, I look skyward. Bright meteor blasts occasionally
disturb the constellations, and many times the full shapes
of these great mythological symbols are difficult to recognize.
This is because we are now enveloped in the great Gorge,
and the sky is but a ribbon. |
When I stir I look skyward. Bright meteor blasts occasionally
disturb the constellations, and many times the full shapes
of these great mythological symbols are difficult to recognize.
This is because we are now enveloped in the great Gorge, and
the sky is but a ribbon. Its beauty is immense, not unlike
this entire place. We have seen at times the Milky Way, lined
up with the ribbon of sky -- completely parallel -- almost
as if by plan. At other camps we are witness to different,
equally fantastic patterns. The true horizon is never visible
so we satisfy ourselves with the Canyon's horizon and the
special configuration which each camp offers. The power of
the night sky, like the water, heat, rapids and rock; this
power has begun to overwhelm us. Days turn into weeks, former
plans are forgotten, former responsibilities seem totally
unimportant here in a place of such great power. This is the
Grand Canyon, where more than two billion years of Earth history
is revealed; a place where humans themselves are but the most
trivial of passerbys in a grander scheme of things.
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