Week 30 at the Pole

tree
NSF/F. Pedreros

Since December is a summer month in the Southern Hemisphere, many countries like Australia and New Zealand hold Christmas in July events in order to have a Christmas with a wintry feel. They were celebrating Christmas in July at the Pole last week, but of course their climate is always wintry so maybe it was just an excuse to bake some sweet treats. They made cutout cookies with IceCube designs and a dessert, bibingka, traditionally eaten in the Philipines at Christmas time. Clear skies yielded some great photos of auroras (bottom two), first of winterovers Felipe and Blaise with the IceCube Lab in the background, then of the South Pole Telescope.

cookie
NSF/F. Pedreros
bibingka
NSF/B. Kuo Tiong
wos_aurora
NSF/F. Pedreros
spt_aurora
NSF/F. Pedreros