Meteorological Tower

I spent a day in October 2010 atop a meteorological tower at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD. The purpose of the trip was to perform some measurements of the circular polarization of light, in a test of whether measurements of handedness could be used to sense the presence of life on extrasolar planets. There was a lot of time to spare on the trip, so I brought my camera and shot these pictures. The structure games me lots of ideas for juxtaposing nature and technology, expressing extreme hights, and an occasional shot of turkey vultures.