Station life was quiet at the South Pole last week, but not too quiet. They celebrated Christmas in July with a special dinner. Popular in many parts of the world, for various reasons, Christmas in July is only one of numerous celebrations held throughout the year at the Pole. […]
In summer at the South Pole, the traditional place for photo ops is the ceremonial Pole, where a mirrored sphere is mounted on a post and surrounded by a semicircular lineup of flags. But in the dark of winter, any place is as good as another as long as you have a nice aurora as backdrop […]
The sky was not disappointing anyone last week at the Pole; it had it all—stars, Milky Way, and auroras. Work-wise it was rather quiet for IceCube’s winterovers. But they had other activities going on, including emergency response training and showcasing their LEGO creations in a blog post for LEGO fans. […]
South Pole, dead of winter, no sun for months. So, that rules out a rainbow in the above image. Instead it’s an aurora, but it was doing its best, with its graceful arch, to imitate a rainbow. […]
It’s the middle of winter at the South Pole, and not only is it dark outside, but there are restrictions in place to keep it as dark as possible (exterior lights limited to a red spectrum, to reduce interference) for the benefit of research projects that rely on the dark night sky. […]
Last week, they were observing midwinter at the South Pole station, which traditionally includes a fancy dinner and a viewing of “The Shining.” […]
A completed jigsaw puzzle serves as a base for holding a sizeable LEGO creation. This model looks to be of London’s Tower Bridge, but perhaps someone should talk to the LEGO folks about designing one for the ICL (the IceCube Lab). Wouldn’t that be fun? […]
Last week at the Pole the entire winterover crew got together to take a group photo. They normally do this each year, but not always with such spectacular results. This year they chose an outdoor venue with an aurora backdrop. […]
Station life was quiet last week. Outside, the auroras kept themselves a bit quiet, too. Instead, folks were treated to a nice moon halo on display. […]
Space: the final frontier. These are the images of IceCube winterover Mack van Rossem. Well, he’s not in space, and he may not exactly be “boldly going where no man has gone before,” but he is spending a year in one of the most remote locations on Earth—the South Pole. […]