Lynn's at McMurdo

After a couple days of delays, Lynn is on the Ice. She had
her first day at her new job and things are going well. She's
in a temporary dorm room for a while, so she can't really
settle in. However, she's getting back into the swing of things.
Hopefully she'll be able to see some clear nights and lots of
stars and auroras. Maybe even some Nacreous Clouds.

No Sunspots

This is one of those times I'm trying to jinx myself.
We haven't had good auroras all year so I thought I
would write about having no auroras. Sure, we had
some white ones and some fair ones a few Sundays
ago. However nothing compared to the auroras we
experienced last May. To have good auroras, you
typically need sunspot activity on what else...The
Sun. There's been hardly any sunspot activity
lately. This oval that you see should be very bright
red. It's not looking very red...just yellow. So
today I volunteered to host some aurora-sighting
trips up to the Arrival Heights area in the next
few months. My thought process is kind of like washing
your car, hoping for rain. Writing about the lack
of auroras, hoping for them to appear. Maybe...
Could be...probably not.

Dark Days Ahead

Click On Photos To Enlarge

2008


2007


The photos above were taken by Bill, the NSF Station Manager
this May (top two photos) and last May (bottom two photos).
Even though we turned off quite a few lights last year to
conserve energy, this year we've probably turned off twice
as many and it's very obvious when comparing the photos. I
for one am very happy since I am a Dark Sky proponent and we
will see many more stars and auroras here in town. There
are some who would rather turn on all of the lights but I
think it's more how Antarctica should be and not just some
big town on the edge of the wilderness. Safety does however
play a big part of our lives down here and I concede that we
need to have a fair share of lights on so people will not
hurt themselves. For the next few months, this will be our
view when looking over McMurdo as the Sun is long gone and
even the very dim twilight at midday will be gone in less than
a week. However, with the lights vastly dimmed, I'm
looking forward to some fantastic sky shows this winter!

That Time of Year Again

Our friend and aurora-photographer-extraordinaire Antz took
these great photos on Sunday night of the season's first
really good auroras. Typically they're not very visible
here in town, but these were really bright and they happened
around midnight when it's darkest.


Of course I missed them. Lynn was having trouble sleeping
and got up. She told me that there was some really good
auroras visible so I staggered to the window, didn't see
any and went back to my coma-induced sleep. I'm sure there
will be other opportunities in the next few weeks to see
some really bright ones here in town.