January, 2010....J.
Dana Hrubes...updated January 31, 2010 , 1953 GMT
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The Dark Sector Laboratory with South Pole
Telescope (left) and the BICEP II Telescope (right)
I'm back at South Pole Station for my
5th year. At the end of this season I will have racked up 60 months at
the South Pole. Out at the Dark Sector Laboratory, almost a mile from
the main station, South Pole Telescope (SPT) looks just like I left it a little over one year ago. Once
again, I will be sharing the Dark Sector Lab with my friend Steff,
whom I have wintered with many times. He is operating the BICEP II
Telescope. My co-winterover for SPT this year is Daniel, a PhD student
at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Both SPT and BICEP II
are millimeter/submillimeter telescopes examining the Cosmic Microwave
Background. These telescopes are looking back in time to roughly
400,000 years after the Big Bang or almost 13.7 billion years ago to
provide data to expand our knowledge of the origin, evolution and
destiny of our universe. winterover
co-worker Daniel (from Sydney) and me
SPT as seen from the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory
Before the last aircraft departs on February 14th and leaves us in
isolation for 8-1/2 months, we are getting SPT ready for the winter.
Daniel and I are working with the remaining members of the SPT team,
who are here
only for the short 3 month summer, to familiarize ourselves with
telescope
operation, new observing schedules, and data processing/quality checks
that we will be
doing during the year. In addition, winter preparation has
included mechanical maintenance of the telescope such as greasing gears,
changing planetary gearbox oil for the 8 telescope drive trains and
much more. I'm at my desk at DSL using the control
system daniel and I greasing the elevation pinion
bearings pinion bearing
greasing I am on a cherry picker inspecting the
back of the 10 meter (33 ft) diameter primary microwave
mirror inspection and repair of the
telescope
The Dark Sector Laboratory and South Pole Telescope
The South Pole marker for 2010 was built by the winterover machinist
last winter and has a replica of South Pole Telescope mounted on top.
2010 Pole marker
Also, the geodesic dome that I lived under for three winters is
now gone. We had a photograph taken with all of the summer people here
a Pole in front of the last section of the dome. It was sad to see the
dome gone after spending 3 years of my life living inside of it. The 4
story orange-colored skylab tower that I worked in for several years is also now
gone. dome demolition
I had a visit to the Ice Cube Project building which is also in
the dark sector. Ice Cube is a one kilometer square neutrino detector
that has been installed under the ice surface and reaches almost to the
continent bedrock almost two miles down. scientists and ice cube computer racks between computer racks wearing my anti-static lab coat
February:
The last LC130 Hercules aircraft and 8-1/2 months of isolation!
Recent South Pole Telescope Technical Papers
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)
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