Polies are lined up for a photo
during the ceremony to decommission the geodesic
dome after over 30 years of service (I am in
black standing 11th from the left on the top row)
(photo by forest banks)
January: a very busy month
January was an extremely busy month for me and South Pole Station. The
entire South Pole Telescope (SPT) team has been working 15 hour days in
an attempt to finish
the planned telescope upgrades as well as the
installation and characterization of a new set of bolometer detectors
into the receiver cryostat. Also, the other winterover for
SPT, Keith, arrived at the Pole in January. kathryn waving from the
10 meter primary mirror showing the scale of the telescope
brad -
tom assembling receiver cryostat don
and I mounting on of the three pointing telescopes to the primary mirror
lifting
the heavy pointing telescope into place
installing
temperature sensors working
in one of the many small passageways inside the telescope
working
inside telescope steve
inspecting the 1 meter secondary mirror inside the secondary cryostat
showing
SPT to VIP's from Washington
South Pole Telescope also had a webcast on January 18 with the San Francisco Exploratorium. The website is: http://www.exploratorium.edu/poles/index.php .... move your mouse over "archived media" and go to "Ice Stories: South Pole Telescope"
Also, on January 12th we decommissioned the geodesic dome, the second station at the South Pole and dedicated the new elevated station, the third United States research station at the South Pole which has been continuously occupied since 1957. The American flag on the dome was lowered and folded. We then formed a line and passed the flag to the geographic pole where there was another ceremony. The flag was then passed again to the new station where it was raised for the first time to dedicate the new South Pole Station. flag on geodesic dome, the second South Pole Station, dedicated in 1975 (photos 1,2,3,8,9,10 by glenn grant) lowering the dome flag for the last time folding the flag on the dome passing the flag from the dome to the geographic pole Al passing the flag to me passing the flag on folding the flag at the geographic pole Don Potter holding flag Polies at the geographic pole moving the ceremonial pole flags of members of the Antarctic Treaty raising the flag to dedicate the new, and third, South Pole Station flag absent from the now empty dome I am standing in back of the sign that used to be above the entrance to the dome
NEXT
MONTH: February... the last aircraft for
8-1/2 months - winter isolation and telescope observations begin A Real-Time Photo of South Pole Station as Seen
from the ARO
Building (live when satellite is up)
A
Comprehensive
South Pole Web Site by Bill Spindler
Winterover
Web
Pages
(Bill Spindler's List)
