Gentoo penguin webcam in the Antarctic (Pygoscelis papua)

Excellent! How exciting to be able to monitor any visible-sized wildlife that comes around that station. My first thought - could this be a painting? I'm a big fan of Antarctic exploration through history, and PBS (Public Broadcasting) aired a fine documentary last week, on Robert Falcon Scott's final, fatal attempt to reach the pole, only to find Amundson's Norweigan flag and tent planted, before Scott and crew succumbed to 20-30 degr. f. minus temperatures on their return. Also have followed the stories of Shackleton's tries, and the Americans led by Lt. Charles Wilkes 1838-1842 coastal mapping and discovery only. Thanks.

I keep popping in and checking them out.

I feel sorry for the one stood in the middle.

A great looking shot especially as it's from a webcam.

Yes, a marvellous scene from the webcam.

Great shot, thanks! That sunrise makes the scene.

It really does look like a painting. Very atmospheric. Love it.

Excellent cam. I was admiring the icy mountains in this pic, but in the current cam picture they are not there -- they are actually an iceberg!

Apusupa -- in the clearer weather on the current view there are many nearby icebergs, as well as some much more distant icy lumps. Are any of them mountains at all?

Hello Yernagates,

there are some islands in the background and on the left side of the wideangle view from above with the radiotelescope on it there is a part of the coastal mountain range of the antarcitc peninsula. I hope to see some good detailed maps one day to get knowledge of the heights of these islands. They seem to have several hundred meters height as far as I can guess... ;-)

All these pics now are temporary and will be deleted after a while- hope this appears as a link:
http://www.pinguincam-online.de/2004-11/2004-11-29/stationscam1/2004-11-29-1115.jpg
On this pic you can see right from the radio telescope definetly some mountains. In timelapse I can see regular clouds over these peaks.

The glaciers are all left from the cam view just a few hundred meters away! On this pic you can see them - they just end in the pacific ocean:
http://www.pinguincam-online.de/2004-09/2004-09-30/stationscam1/2004-09-30-2315.jpg

I made a small map of the camera view:
http://www.martingrund.de/pinguine/bilder/standort/satbild01.jpg

Wish you some interesting impressions from there!
Martin

Thanks Martin, much clearer now. Is my impression right, that the icebergs sometimes seem to ground, staying in one place but twisting about?

It all looks very cold, especially when it's snowing...

Richard

Hello Richard,

I guess the waters seem to be rather shallow there. The large iceberg which you see on the pic grounded in april and got free in november. The tides in combination with strong winds might cause that a large iceberg runs aground and gets trapped for a long time. For the whole scenery it's not bad ;-) It is said that gentoo penguins love shallow waters much more than the deep sea.

If you have a broadband internet connection check this timelapse serie from the radiotelescope- webcam
http://vlbi.leipzig.ifag.de/ohiggins/dl291104/index.html
Loading starts after you click on the play/button. hope it works well for you

Martin