Sunrise dinner

Last weekend was the final major event of our winter before the planes with summer crew start arriving next month: Sunrise dinner! The covers are off the windows of the galley (and everywhere else on station) and even though the week of sunrise was very blowy and overcast and we didn't actually see the sun coming up, you can still tell there is ambient light in the building again, finally! And the luau-themed dinner was mighty delicious (complete with salad from our still-functioning greenhouse--hoo-ray!).

Weekly snapshot #48

The sun is up! I keep gazing at it in amazement and then immediately remembering that it is inadvisable to stare directly at the sun. Have to work on retraining myself on that. But the sun is up!

Scott tent

Like last week's post, I have some pictures from you from awhile ago--these from the end of August, when sunrise was just beginning. Our winter carp put up the tent we have down here that is supposedly very similar to the tents that Robert Scott and company used on their fateful trip to the South Pole in 1911-12. So my Materials girls and I went out one afternoon to check it out, against a pretty amazing backdrop...

...including going inside, where the small space immediately filled up with steam from our breath.

Nothing like crawling inside one of these things to marvel anew at how hard-core all those Antarctic exploration guys really were.

Weekly snapshot #47

It's probably likely that that last cold snap will be our final one for the season and the temps will continue to rise from here. The winter crew has officially started with the procedures for preparing the station to open for summer personnel in just about 6 weeks.



It's kind of blowy today and very overcast particularly in the direction of the telescopes, so this week's snapshot makes it look darker out than it actually looks on the ground...

...as does this shot off to the side where the sky is clearer. I'm actually kind of surprised at how dark these pics look. To my eye it looks like broad daylight, and the sun might actually be peeking above the horizon for real, but we just can't see it because of the clouds. In any case, our sunrise dinner is this coming weekend, so the sun is morally obliged to be risen by next week's snapshot.

Flashback...

...to the days of dark! Pretty soon you're not going to remember that all of my photos were in blackness for so long. But in August during the last full moon of darkness, I got to take a trip out to the SPICECore facility (which I've written about during summertime posts when the project was active) with a couple people who were charged with taking some pictures to send back to Denver so the project supervisors there can assess the state of the infrastructure, drifts, etc. It was an amazing time to visit, as not only was the moon full, but there was an enormous "moondog" surrounding it.

Weekly snapshot #46

Nice gust of frigid wind in my face when I ducked outside to take this week's weekly snapshot.

But it is getting so lovely out, who cares?

And I stayed out long enough to take a second shot in the direction of where the sun is now just a few degrees below the horizon, and the sky is even more amazing.

We're expecting some early-summer-like temps later this week (around -40F) which will be nice for folks who need to get equipment outside and start prepping for station opening, which is just 6 weeks away, now. And by this time next week, it's possible the edge of the sun itself will be visible above the horizon (depending on unpredictable, fluctuating atmospheric effects). In the meantime, this has got to be one of the better sunrises of my life....

Suturing

Another really fun emergency response team training recently: suturing! We also got to play with the staple gun, and the suturing itself was just like sewing. Luckily I have plenty to keep me busy in the crafting department or I would be tempted to spend the last couple months down here just sewing (suturing) station residents together.

Weekly snapshot #45

We had another period of -100F weather that warmed up a few degrees just this morning, so it doesn't show in the snapshot.

These are still winter temps, but the sky is starting to look decidedly spring-like!

And here's an extra shot for you in the direction where the sun is lurking below the horizon. Just a couple weeks, now, till we actually see the sun. In the meantime, that's a sliver of moonlight on the right side of the frame, and unfortunately it doesn't show in the picture, but to the naked eye in real time, Venus is visible in the orangey layer of light, pretty much in the center of the picture.

The sun is on its way!

Igloo

As promised several weeks ago, here are some pics of the igloo that a group of the guys down here built (and which has since been razed). It was ENORMOUS.

And some of them slept in it overnight.

My favorite is this shot of the way it was lit up with red lights from the inside, with the auroras dancing above the station.