There is a World Out There!

It is amazing how much more light appears each day. The sun is now 5.5 degrees below the horizon. By next week it will decrease to 2.2 degrees. Just enough to bring a smile to anyone's face!

The ice pier under construction in natural light from two days ago. This view is looking northwest.

The same view with a 15 sec timed exposure. Poles were installed and steel cable attached to the new ice pier. This will hold the ice together as another 7 feet of ice is added.

Winter Quarters Bay is solid. The ice pier is now seven feet thick.

15 sec timed exposure. McMurdo Sound looks solid all the way to the Transantarctic Mountains. It seems like just yesterday that I was watching whales and killer whales swim by.

Quite a light difference from two days ago.

There is a world out there! Looking across Hut Point.

I have collected several decals, post cards and patches. I scanned them in and will occasionally post a set. Here's the first set.

A friend and I wanted to drive around the other day because of all the light. The weather finally turned decent last Friday afternoon after a 'snowing and blowing' week. So we went up the hill and I took some video of the 10 meter antenna preparing for a satellite track. We also enjoyed driving around viewing scenery we haven't seen for months like the Transantarctic Mountains on the other side of McMurdo Sound! There is also another quick video on this playlist showing the S-band and X-band antenna feeds.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GtXO87_3-k&list=PLBD959F2D25B3E247&feature=view_all




If there was surfing in the Antarctic this is what a surfer would look like and see. There is a breaking peak right under the cloud center of the image.

Alek Parker holds his surf board as he watches the northern lights above Hofn in Iceland. Alek and his friends swapped the golden beaches of sunny California for monster waves in the ice-cold Arctic water.Picture: CHRIS BURKARD / CATERS NEWS

More Antarctic Fun Facts

Eskimos and polar bears are found in the Arctic, not the Antarctic.

The mean annual temperature at the South Pole is minus 56 degrees F. During the Austral Summer, temperatures at McMurdo base, on the Ross Sea, may get as high as 40 degrees F, while at the South Pole, at the Amundsen- Scott station, temperatures may reach 0 degrees F.

The area below 60 degrees south enjoys one long day and one long night each year. The sun sets in March and rises in October.

The seasons in Antarctica are the opposite of the seasons in the Northern hemisphere--summer is October through February. Winter is March through September.