TourReport

More Southern Attractions

This was my first trip south of the equator. From the deck of the Marco Polo, I enjoyed some of the best sights the southern sky has to offer: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the Southern Cross, the Coalsack, the Eta Carinae Nebula, and the great globular clusters 47 Tucanae and Omega Centauri. Seeing the crescent Moon "backward" and Orion standing on his head, I could almost sense Earth's spherical shape.

Photo by Mike Yates

In the days following the eclipse, we made numerous calls at ports in South Africa, including Richards Bay, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town. At each stop we took advantage of shore excursions to game parks, cultural centers, and other attractions. I have to admit that I was miserable while riding through African shantytowns in an air-conditioned bus full of well-to-do white tourists. Children would smile and wave, even as they played in open sewage. But older family members, beset by poverty and disease, would flash less friendly hand gestures. A white guide on one of our city tours in South Africa made openly derogatory remarks about blacks; clearly the country has some distance to go before the scars of apartheid fully heal.

In Cape Town we made special trips to the Cape Town Planetarium and the headquarters of the South African Astronomical Observatory. The world's largest optical telescope will soon probe the universe from SAAO's field station in Sutherland, several hundred miles inland. We also made a pilgrimage to the Grove Primary School in suburban Claremont, formerly known as Feldhausen. There we crowded around a small obelisk in the schoolyard. It marks the site where astronomer John Herschel surveyed the southern sky with a 20-foot-long telescope originally built by his father, William Herschel, discoverer of the
		Photo by Eilean Yates

planet Uranus. In the distance, behind the city, stood flat-topped Table Mountain, the only natural feature on Earth that has a constellation named after it (Mensa).

Photo by Phil Seeger

Photo by John DuBois

The most rewarding aspect of an eclipse cruise is the camaraderie that forms onboard - the sharing of a special moment with a group of enthusiastic, like-minded people in an exotic, almost magical setting. Eclipse 2002 aboard the Marco Polo was no exception. All who experienced it will cherish the memories for the rest of our lives.

Photo by Rick Fienberg


	Photo by Richard Patching

			Photo by Sally Oberbeck

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Revised: December 07, 2004.
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