In my articles A Lighthouse at Night and Mise Tales Twenty-Four I mentioned how brilliant the meteor showers were in a lighthouse environment because of lack of light pollution. Continue reading Photographing a Meteor Shower
What do you think a lighthouse keeper would do if he spotted this floating on the ocean in front of his lighthouse? My first reaction would be to run and call for help!
This article came from the Military Photography website on Facebook with credit to Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Launched in 1962, the bizarre research vessel Flip (Floating Instrument Platform) can go from a horizontal to vertical position while staying afloat and stable in heavy seas – even in 80-foot waves. That allows it to perform oceanographic research measurements with great accuracy. Inside the crew areas is a strange Escher-like world of doors in floors, portholes in ceilings, and tables bolted to walls. . . more
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Later I was thinking it is too bad that this technology was not available for the Canadian weather ships that used to be off our Canadian coasts. They could have operated nicely with a ship that only rose three (3) inches in eighty (80) foot waves!
More information and links on this Wikipedia article.
The following is a direct copy from the Wikipedia article on lighthouses. It is very comprehensive, and may help you understand why we had lighthouses, and why we still need them – because modern unmanned technology fails!
I have left all the webpage links and EDIT links intact in case someone has something to contribute to the article. It is a long article, but worth reading. never cease learning!
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The lighthouse of Aveiro, west coast of Portugal
The Roman lighthouse at Dover Castle
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, safe entries to harbors, and can also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and replacement by modern electronic navigational systems. Continue reading Lighthouse
The photo above is a screen capture of part of the Tar Sands SOS webpage. Click the photo above to go to the webpage and you can track the tar sands tankers on the interactive map, scroll down the webpage and learn more why the tar sands tankers are a bad idea. One thing I learned is that tar sands oil sinks to the ocean bed rather than floating up on the beaches. This lengthens the time the oil can pollute British Columbia waters!
I have seen an oil spill personally – it is not a pretty sight!