Communications

Remember the days before mobiles and the internet? We used to have letterboxes, public telephones, amd community noticeboards. This photo was taken last week in Scotland ...

Antenna #3

CERN

Impressions from my visit to the "Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire" (CERN) located on the French / Swiss border near Geneva. Scientists here are searching for obscure subatomic particles using the Large Hadron Collider - a huge particle accelerator ring with a circumference of 27km.

Car wash

Tunnel

Stavtjørn road tunnel

Windmill

Hantum

Kick-sled

The kick-sled is a popular way to make short journeys in northern Norway in winter.

Nullum videndum aurora borealis

I waited up half the night in the hope that the clouds would break just a little so I could glimpse the massive geomagnetic storm that was taking place right above my head. But luck was not on my side, and this is the best aurora picture I can offer you this morning. At its peak the activity reached 8.7 (on a scale from 1 to 9). If you'd like to learn more, follow the "Aurora Forecast" link at the bottom of this page, or visit http://www.spaceweather.com/ Did anyone else out there have more luck than me?

Cablecar #3

Radar

Located just a few miles south of Stavanger's international airport, this radar facility is for aerial navigation. We call it the "golf ball".

Lobster pots

or are they intended to catch something other than lobster?

Motorbike

Antenna #2

Kvitsøy is the site of high power, short and medium wave transmitters of the Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK).

Kvitsøy

The modern grey building next to the lighthouse is the Kvitsøy Trafikksentral or Ocean Traffic Centre, opened in 2000. The whole coast of south-west Norway is supervised by radar from this centre, and it also provides the naval pilots for the whole region.

Lighthouse #6

The lighthouse on Kvitsøy was built in 1829, and is the oldest in Norway. Before its construction (from about 1700 onwards), locals used the "vippefyr", a replica of which is shown in this second photo. The basket was filled with burning coal and then raised 6m in the air. In the olden days, before modern street lighting, it would have been visible from quite a long way off.

Antenna

Tananger

Cannon

One of my neighbours has two cannon in his garden.

Luckily, they are pointing in the opposite direction!