July, 2010....J. Dana Hrubes...updated July 31, 2010 , 0073 GMT
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DSL-aurora-full_moon
Aurora Australis over the Dark Sector Laboratory roof during a full moon

July is usually the coldest and clearest month. This year, however, has been an exception.  We have been hit by storm after storm since the very beginning of July. The only photos taken this month were in the first few days of the month and then during a one day window of low wind conditions on July 28th. Both times were during the period when the moon was up. The moon is above the horizon for two weeks out of every four weeks.  Walking the mile to and from the telescope was sometimes a bit challenging when battling winds up to 48 mph (22 m/s) while tripping over sastrugi and snow drifts with no moonlight. One drift is as high as 10 ft (3 m).  We don't use a headlamp when walking out there because it is actually safer to let your eyes adjust to whatever ambient light exists rather than have the light from a lamp contract your pupils and also reflect light from blowing ice crystals.      aurora over DSL roof with full moon     aurora over the Ice Cube Neutrino Laboratory and full moon      (time exposures make these moonlit scenes appear brighter than they are)

However, South Pole Telescope (SPT) Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations were conducted as usual. During these storms, the 6 story high telescope is above most of the blowing snow and is still able have a clear view of the sky with minimal interference from water vapor, which makes the South Pole about the best site in the world for microwave telescope observations. We have completed scanning several CMB fields since station closing and will continue scanning until the Austral Summer. We repeatedly scan our telescope over the same field until we reach our desired signal to noise value, then move on to another field.  
               control room under the telescope       control room under telescope docking sliding roof  
  aurora and SPT-1       aurora and SPT-2       aurora and SPT-3       aurora and SPT-4       SPT moonlight scorpio   



South Pole Telescope bathed in moonlight under aurora Australis and the stars of the constellation Scorpius
 
       SPT aurora Scorpio-1            SPT aurora Scorpio-2              SPT moonlight     
            


  South Pole Telescope back-lit by aurora Australis and constellation Scorpius

Next Month - August: The Last Complete Month Without the Sun!

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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