June, 2011....J. Dana Hrubes...updated June 30, 2011,  0400 GMT
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lunar eclipse
The moon about half way into its total lunar eclipse as seen from the South Pole on June 16th

During June we had more good weather and a total lunar eclipse at the geographic South Pole.  The sky cooperated until the very beginning of totality, when heavy clouds, normally rare at the Pole, moved in just long enough to ruin the remainder of the eclipse.   going    almost gone  

aurora Australis
An aurora featuring a very dynamic corona formation with four rotating cells at the center

More aurora Australis:   corona dissapating      large bright aurora       aurora Australis over the dark sector  

spt and aurora
The South Pole Telescope backlit by an aurora while scanning the cosmic microwave background
Large Magellanic Cloud
One of our closest neighboring galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud is only about 160,000 light years away


midwinter greeting
The midwinter solstice photograph taken under a bright full moon and a long exposure

The South Pole Telescope continued to operate well this past month as we are nearing completion of our 5 year wide area galaxy cluster survey using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. In addition to conducting normal telescope operations, data quality analysis and computer software upgrade work, we also addressed typical troubleshooting and repair issues.    

Numerous technical papers have been published by the SPT team over the past couple of years on the discovery of massive galaxy clusters, their relation to Lambda-CDM cosmology and the impact they have on the understanding of dark energy. Other results include the discovery of other point sources such as dusty star-forming galaxies and refinements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum at small angular scales. (click on technical paper link below)

Next month - July: Coldest month!
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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