Dolphins, the moon and stars of the southern hemisphere, dinoflagelate plankton.

One scientist who was studying the chemical content of the atmosphere made this wonderful painting of a dolphin she had photographed. Most of the images we put into the mural were based on things we had actually seen either from the ship or down the barrel of a microscope. Some images were from print outs of scientific data such as the temperature of the atmosphere and ocean from 10km above to 5km below the sea surface. It was wonderful to be in the ocean off Africa in beautiful weather seeing the orange crescent moon ‘upside down’ and unfamiliar constellations of stars crystal clear above. I thought this is what the great European explorers and adventurers of the 15th and 16th centuries must have seen too as they headed into the unknown southern oceans. Eventually the familiar Pole Star of the northern hemisphere, after which our ship was named, disappeared for good along with the constellation Orion which had been with us ever since leaving the English Channel. We had moved from a late European autumn to an early African summer in just a few weeks. Quite a strange feeling which the mural somehow captures with all is energy of colour.