tiabunna's photos with the keyword: copied slide

My Mazda 1500 near Lake Eyre (the salt pans in the distance) on the Oodnadatta Track, way back in 1971. It seems that a large 4WD is now the usual vehicle in this area, but this was just a normal car (hub caps removed) and with a 1 year old child in the back seat. Copied from a slide. I'm just back from my more recent trip and yet to work through my images. Coming soon.

Copied (also PiP) from slides taken June 1971 on the Oodnadatta Track - see the notes with my previous image for more detail. Shortly after seeing the stockmen going out mustering, we were surprised to meet this camel-drawn wagon following with their supplies and camping gear. Camels had been used here extensively in the past in desert areas, but even in 1971 this was rare. Noting that the driver is on a (very basic) bench, I'll wish everyone a Happy Bench Monday and a good week to follow.

Copied from an old 1965 slide. This WF2 (WF short for Wind Finding) radar was in a suburb of Melbourne not far from Essendon Airport. It was used to train people such as me and had a range of 200km. I find myself thinking how inappropriate it would now be considered to have such a potentially dangerous beast so close to houses, with just a fence (seen best viewed large) between. In the PiP, a weather balloon launched from the same site, with (from the top) the 350gm balloon, a parachute, the radar reflector and the radiosonde to send back atmospheric data. Happy Fence Friday and have a good weekend, everyone.

From an old slide. That's me, launching a weather balloon in the Prince Charles Mountains back in 1966. On the tripod I have a theodolite for taking measurements of the balloon's position, allowing me to calculate the upper winds in the area. The PiP shows me taking temperature readings from instruments mounted on the main living caravan - the coldest we experienced on the trip was -39C, accompanied by about 60km/hr winds. The rounded van in the PiP is the second living caravan Unfortunately, Pauline's health is not good, so I expect to be largely absent from ipernity in the coming weeks. I shall drop by when there is an opportunity and maybe even post an occasional image. Best wishes, everyone.

Copied from an old slide. Mt Barney is in SE Queensland near Brisbane and is a National Park. It has been a favourite destination for bushwalkers for many years and I once spent many weekends there. A second image in the PiP. Happy Fence Friday, everyone, have a safe and enjoyable weekend.

My colleague Ken using a Tellurometer for survey work on Mt Lacey, in the Prince Charles Mountains. Obsolete now due to satellites and GPS, back in 1966 the Tellurometers were the best way to measure distance between two points. With two on separate mountains firing a microwave beam to each other, it was possible to measure distances to within a few centimeters. When this was taken, we were in contact with a surveying field party further to the south. Temperatures were about -12 C at this stage.

Taken near midnight, not long after our tractor trains arrived at our main southerly campsite at the northern "Athos" range of the Prince Charles Mountains. The large mountain behind the vans is Mt Bechervaise. To the right is Mt Lacey, where I spent many days helping with the survey of the area. Weasel Gap, shown in my other image (PiP) is immediately to the right of this image. We were here for about three weeks, partly working on the survey and partly held down by bad weather.

Copied from an old colour slide. My workmate and a partly installed survey marker (two fuel drums welded together) on "Peak 7" on our surveying trip inland in Antarctica, November 1966. This site was part of the mountains ahead in my previous image. To quote from my 1966 diary "Arrived at the top and what a view. As far as the eye could see to the south was just mountains, mountains and more mountains! The nearest ones were about 15 miles away, the next lot about 30, and we estimated mountains some 100 miles distant were visible..." OK, this photo was taken in a slightly different direction (the nearest mountains about 2-3 miles / 4-5 km distant), but it gives the idea and shows the two drum survey trig point marker being erected. The guy wires were tightened soon after taking this photo. We were fortunate here that it was possible to drive our motorised toboggan on a snow slope almost to the top of the peak: that meant that the drums, rock drill and survey equipment, battery etc did not need to be carried far.

Continuing my updates of old copied Antarctic slides. Because we'd been delayed so much by bad weather, we continued late into the Antarctic evening (see also PiP). Here we're heading toward the Stinear Nunataks (the mountains ahead), our next major base and survey point. These images also give a good representation of Sastrugi, the name for the wind-carved snow surface of the plateau. It made travelling in the caravans a test of sea-sickness resistance. :-) View large.

An updated copy from an old 1966 slide. The major field trip away from the station was the Spring Trip, here seen at its first stop. The trip was to the northern Prince Charles Mountains and involved seven of us surveying previously unvisited mountains, some 300 km inland - we were away for four months. Everything was moved in caravan trains, drawn by D4 bulldozers. On the right, the large box is the living caravan for three of us, also serving as the meteorology office, surveyor's office, radio shack, kitchen and mess. Behind it is the smaller rounded living caravan for the other four on the trip. The left hand D4 is pulling two Snowtracs on sleds, while the distant third train is the mechanical workshop, plus fuel and other equipment. Only a short distance inland, the blue ice seen at the edge of the Antarctic plateau gives way to compacted snow, carved by the wind into waves known as "sastrugi", as seen here. View large.

Another copied slide from 1966, which I don't believe I've previously posted here. This is an image of a very thin slice of glacial ice, taken with backlighting and a polarising filter on a special viewer in the Mawson glaciology lab, and showing the ice crystals and entrapped air bubbles.

Copied from an old 1966 slide. Snowtrac vehicle fitted with experimental sounding equipment (the booms either side) for measuring the ice thickness. View looking north over Mawson (below the brow of the ice, just right of the vehicle) and showing the relative steepness of the climb to the plateau. Also on skis our glaciologist, who was able to use them like skates on the hard blue ice!

Well, after the "no uploads" problem and the frustration of having to use the original tiny copies for old images I was bringing forward, I decided it was time to replace a few. That was when I found the latest "bug" - it's possible to upload but at present the system cannot handle replacements - the new image won't connect to the old. So, as a workaround, I've included the old (2012) version as a clickable PiP to preserve the original comments etc. Apart from the year, the date is meaningless. :-) Mawson lies under the auroral oval, the annular zone around the south magnetic pole where auroras are most prevalent. In plain language, there was an aurora most nights. They were so commonplace that, when someone entered a building and said there was an aurora outside, the usual question was "is it a good one?" before anyone would consider going out to look! This is from one of the Ektachrome films we "home developed" while there, hence a little grit.

Copied from an old Kodachrome slide taken in mid-1966. Inland from Mawson Station for a day's climbing practice on the plateau, travelling by VW "Antarctica 3". The foreground is hard blue ice, kept snow-free by strong katabatic winds and ablation of the surface. The snow cover begins a little further inland and the PiP shows a photo of the VW driving across the snow, taken some months later. Minolta SR1, Auto Rokkor PF 1.4/58 mm.

From an old Kodachrome slide taken in 1966. The most convenient mountains to Mawson were the North Masson Range, some 24km inland up the plateau. At this point the ice was about 300 metres above sea level and the mountains rose maybe as much again. This was taken not long after our arrival at Mawson, when a group of us took a day's outing there to familiarise ourselves with the area and the vehicles (including a dog team).

From one of the gritty "home developed" Ektachrome slides taken in 1966, this one cleaned up in post processing. Out on the sea ice among the islands near Mawson, for a practice run with the dog teams - here passing an iceberg. Another (more gritty) image in the PiP.

From an old slide. Technically the quality of this is awful, with grit everywhere (much edited out). I've included it partly because of historical value and partly because it helps explain the quality of this and several later shots. In 1966 we still obtained our water supply in the 'traditional' way, by collecting snow by hand from snowdrifts and melting it: I doubt modern Antarctic stations have done this for years. The result was that water was always very limited. This was a daily routine after lunch and there always were a few stray husky pups around. I had a few rolls of "high speed" Ektachrome (160 ISO) and processing those at the station provided the only way to see any of our colour slide photos before our return the following year. But the lack of water meant they were not adequately washed.... hence! It's also fair to say that processing colour slides stretched both our competence and facilities.

From an old slide. Weddell seals are found around the Antarctica coast all year: in the summer on the rocky shores, or on the sea ice once that has formed. They are the only mammals to stay near the coast during winter, living under the sea ice and breathing (or hauling onto the surface) through holes they chew through the ice as it develops and then subsequently keep clear.