Greenhouse

My friend and coworker H is one of the volunteers keeping the station's hydroponic greenhouse running this winter. I didn't pick a very good time to take pictures, as the greenhouse was in a transitional state and isn't looking particularly fecund here. We had a few weeks without lettuce while things were cleaned and sanitized and new seeds started. But this room is very important to us now that we're well into winter and the last of the freshies sent in from New Zealand in February are pretty much gone. From now on, if we want anything that hasn't been frozen and in storage down here for years, potentially, we have to grow it. So I'm grateful for H and the greenhouse!

Weekly snapshot #26

For starters, I have to point out that since I'm at Pole for a year this time, and there are 52 weeks in a year, and half of 52 is 26...that fact that we're on WS#26 means this adventure is about half-way over. I'm kind of stunned; where has the time gone? But in other respects it does feel like six months have passed since I landed here Oct 31.

On with the snapshot. Today is pretty typical for weather as of late.

And my photo out toward the telescopes isn't any better with the camera in night-time mode, unfortunately.

So I'll give you a second shot, looking up and off to the side, in which you can actually see a couple stars.

But my favorite shot of the week is one from a few days ago when I was headed back into the main station for lunch, with the moon rising over the station and a few stars visible (and that's the exhaust from the power plant coasting across the top of the frame). It's feeling pretty otherworldly around here.

Dragon, South Pole-style

When it was still light out, we did as much of what needed to be done outside as we possibly could, and we're not working outside much anymore. But that does not exactly mean that we're inside and warm all the time! One of H's and K's and my primary work spaces is the Logistics Arch, where a LOT of frozen food is kept. It's here we go shopping every Friday morning to pull whatever the galley has ordered for the following week, to be delivered on Monday. And we spend a lot of time moving stuff around in here, etc. Oh, and it's at least -60F all the time these days--if not colder. So recently I discovered that when you have very still, very cold air, you can do this:

Weekly snapshot #25

Dark and cold, people!

That's my expert summary of today. I kept my outdoor walk to work brisk this morning, and though I swear there's a faint horizon glow in the picture out toward the telescopes, I will understand if you can't see it. (Next week, I'll turn my camera to nighttime mode and see if that helps give at least something for you to look at rather than a black square.) On the ground here, it's still possible to tell where the sun is, as there is a definite medium-blue glow just above the horizon in that direction. But the rest of the sky is getting black! 

Stars! Auroras! (Yes, I have already seen some, though none bright enough that my point-and-shoot camera could capture anything decent.) Winter is most definitely here. And here to stay for the next 5 months.

South Pole stats

A very dedicated South Pole historian (who first wintered here the same year I was born!) has put together this amazing website detailing many, many things about South Pole station. The link I embedded in the previous sentence takes you straight to the winter-over trivia page, but check out the website as a whole--so much information! Which takes a lot of pressure off me. :)
Enjoy!

P.S. According to the chronological and then alphabetical lists they keep, I am the 222nd woman ever to spend a winter at the South Pole. My new favorite number?

Weekly snapshot #24

It's getting pretty dark out! The day after posting last week's snapshot, I saw a few stars for the first time in 5+ months. So exciting. Now I need to start using a (red light) head lamp while walking around outside, or I'm tripping over snow drifts I can't see. The ground is always changing, based on wind and whether our heavy equipment operator has been out dragging, etc. I'm still trying to take the outside route to and from work every day (a five-minute bit of fresh air as opposed to walking "indoors" (it's still -50F, regardless) down the beer can, which smells like poop), and it's still very enjoyable, though spending an hour outside today helping to shovel the six sets of stairs that lead into/out of the main station as part of our regular station maintenance was not super-fun. But also not as awful as you might think. Mostly it was just hard to see because goggles fog up but if you take them off the wind hurts the skin almost immediately. And my fingers and toes are extremely glad to be back inside. Such an experience. Anyway, here you go! It's clear out now, so it's not because of blowing snow that you can't see to the telescopes. Now it's just getting legitimately wintery.

Sunset pics

At long last, though it's dark out now (there will be PLENTY of time to cover that topic in the next five months) here are a bunch of pictures of the sunset process during the second half of March. It was such a beautiful time. I was always excited to walk by windows and see what it looked like out. Around the time the sun was finally going down, the full moon was rising and they were just chasing each other in circles around the sky 24/7--the sun getting a bit lower each day and the moon getting a bit higher. What a sight. The final picture in this set was taken not by me but by Adam in IT, with a really nice camera and the aperture adjusted low, allowing him to capture the "green flash" you can sometimes see as a momentary flash at sunset at home, but which here can last for hours. We're all so grateful the weather cleared and we got to see this all happening. So beautiful. Enjoy!

Weekly snapshot #23

It's blackout day! Otherwise known as the day all of the station windows need to be covered up, not to be reopened until the sun starts rising in more than 5 months. I previously said that light from the station would disturb telescope data, but that was incorrect: it's the several aurora (Southern Lights!) projects being conducted down here that would be corrupted by white light from the station.

So I am covering up my window, and it's no shame because I can't see out of it anymore anyway. And I'm going to put in a better insulated panel to keep me a little toastier now that we're really into this.

It's not that cold out today, but the wind is really blowing and the visibility is horrible. Anyway, here's your weekly snapshot; the telescopes are out there somewhere! Just follow the flag line...

Happy belated Easter!

It was a really fun Easter weekend down here. On Saturday night, we had our special Sunset Dinner--people got dressed up and the galley made a very fancy meal and there was great merriment. The next morning, one of our more creative, energetic types staged an Easter egg hunt that was basically a scavenger hunt in and around the station. I stumbled into being on the team that ended up winning, lucky me. And then in the afternoon, the scientists who work on all the various telescopes held an open house. So about 10 of us suited up and headed out into the fading light for the walk to the Dark Sector.

I know at this point I've done half a dozen telescope tours and just keep posting about them, but I can't help it--I find it all so fascinating, and this science is the whole reason we're here, so....

We got a talk from one of the long-time science guys here, in the room that he practically lives in all winter.

Got to climb up to the dish of BICEP telescope to enjoy the view.

Got to go inside the guts of a couple of the telescopes.

Enjoyed the view out to Ice Cube from the roof of the South Pole Telescope building.

Saw the moon shining bright behind South Pole telescope as we walked over to Ice Cube.

And overall just really appreciated/enjoyed the walk outside under these glorious skies. I feel so lucky to be here.