To really enjoy auroras, you want a nice dark sky. And in winter, the South Pole enjoys very dark skies (also great for stargazing). Last week, aurora-viewing conditions were favorable, and the Pole was treated to a variety of displays, including some with a mix of colors and others where big green auroras dominated. But […]
It was a rather quiet week at the Pole. Not in the skies, though, where auroras continued to dance and the multitude of stars competed for attention. The bottom photo gives the stars a little bit more of the glory. Though many of us may have never witnessed a display of auroras, we’ve undoubtedly looked […]
Sometimes it feels almost as if the auroras are trying to say something, scrawling an unintelligible script across the sky. Last week at the Pole, IceCube’s winterovers were out at the IceCube Lab, checking on the IceACT unit up on the roof and capturing some nice images of the auroras and stars. They have been […]
Just as it’s getting dark, the moon appears and brightens things back up. Here, the IceCube Lab casts a shadow on the ice from the bright moonlight above. And the snowdrifts (seen last week) are still clearly in view with the help of the moon. It was a rather quiet week at the Pole, except […]
The auroras keep coming. Last week at the Pole, IceCube winterover Ilya captured this image of the sky full of bright green auroras. IceCube winterover Joe was also taking aurora photos, but with his phone, as in the image below. The phone camera photo is supposedly closer to the impression given when seen with the […]
Ta-da! The skies were ablaze last week at the Pole. It was an otherwise rather quiet week for IceCube’s winterovers. But they made the most of their time outdoors. Besides the light in the skies (from auroras and from…stars!), a flood of red light illuminated the space outside the storage arches as heavy equipment worked […]
And then…the auroras start to get bigger and brighter. Unfortunately, the weather last week at the Pole was mostly bad, clearing up only at the end of the week. That was enough, though, for IceCube winterover Ilya to get outside and capture a few nice aurora photos. It often happens this way, with the first […]
Last week had a mix of quiet days and less quiet days at the Pole. There was a monthly emergency response team drill as well as various IceCube detector tasks. IceCube winterover Ilya also trekked out to the South Pole Telescope, where he captured the above photo, which shows a bright moon nicely centered above […]
Aww, that first aurora of the season—often rather light and wispy, here stretching across a sky that is still lit up to some degree. But it’s exciting nonetheless, holding the promise of more auroras to come as the winter darkness sets in. Last week at the Pole, IceCube winterovers were rather busy, mostly with giving […]
Last week was relatively quiet at the Pole. Even the outdoor photographs have a sort of “quiet” and reflective feel to them, as the sunlight continues to wane. Indoors, the quiet was surely broken, with firefighter training on the schedule. The training was carried out by mixing some fun into the work—dodgeball in the gym, […]