Houston, Texas: Astrodome (Eighth Wonder of the World) in Reliant Park (Home of Offshore Technology Conference) and MetroRail Redline Station 15/16 - a 360 Panorama by David Engle

Canon SX110

My goal for Monday, June 29th, was to spend the entire morning and most of the afternoon taking hand-held GigaPans of the entire collection of the fifteen current MetroRail Stations along the Redline corridor from downtown at the furthest north station located at University of Houston extending south to the maintenance area station located past the South Loop.

The hand-held option was due to the extreme temperature that Houston has been suffering through for a number of weeks and yesterday was so hot that it seemed like Houston was in the hottest days of August, but here it is only late June. I have just celebrated my first anniversary on gigapan.org and I really want to use the robot, but because of the oppressive heat and the un-cooperative clouds (too many and too much at times and at other times, patchwork clouds that don't allow for constant exposure), I will have to wait a few more weeks until we see robot weather.

Yesterday, my plans were is to collect all the MetroRail GigaPans and U/L them all at one time in a series, but a few of them are *very* nice, and instead of U/L all at one time in sequential order, I will U/L a few at a time beginning with this 360-degree panorama of a very special place to me - the Houston Astrodome, the eighth wonder of the world, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Astrodome .
On a personal note, the reason that the Astrodome is so special to me is because of the good times that came our way because of the oil-field industry and the participation often in the Offshore Technology Conference held here in Reliant Park on an annual basis. When the Astrodome was the centerpiece of OTC, rigs surrounded it and each year during this time, it was a time of festivity. Now, OTC is very technical and more people attend than ever before, but sadly, the Astrodome no longer plays the part it once majestically did.

The METRO Rail Redline Stations are identified in the following list:
1.) UH-Downtown
2.) Preston
3.) Main Street Square
4.) Bell
5.) Downtown Transit Center
6.) McGowan
7.) Ensemble/HCC
8.) Wheeler
9.) Museum District
10.) Hermann Park/Rice U
11.) Memorial Hermann Hospital/Houston Zoo
12.) Dryden/TMC
13.) TMC Transit Center
14.) Smith Lands
15.) Reliant Park
16.) Fannin South

Ref: www.ridemetro.org/schedulesmaps/railsched.aspx