The temperatures typically drop quite dramatically over the next month or so as we enter what is normally the coldest time of the year here.

In the mean time, we are starting to see signs of the sun returning. There is quite a glow to the north in the middle of the day now, and many of the stars overhead disappear  for an hour or two at noon.

It is just over a month before the sun actually rises again for us.

Last night a group of us went out in a Pisten Bully to take some photos at Castle Rock...

The Pisten Bully parked at the base of Castle Rock, and other photographers setting up cameras

Castle Rock and stars

Shot taken from a time-lapse sequence I did. Mount Erebus with a small aurora behind it, and red steam being lit up by the lava in the crater at it's peak

Back at McMurdo, the satellite dome on the hill back-lit by the northern noon glow

This is an older photo I just found that I didn't realize I had. Looking south, auroras in the sky, with the lights of the Pegasus Airfield out on the Ice Shelf. The runway will be getting rebuilt very shortly in preparation for Winfly.

Moon dog: the halo around the moon caused by ice crystals in the air

We are past mid-winter now.

Mid-winter day is the premiere holiday in Antarctica. The various stations will send greetings to each other to celebrate the middle of the “longest night.”

Special mid-winter dinner celebrations were held at Scott Base and McMurdo, in which the chefs went all out to put on a suitable feast.

We have finally had a few good aurora displays. I filled up about 60Gigs of hard drive space with photos in one afternoon when I was out at Black Island.

Here are a few photos from the last few weeks…

Not too much out of the ordinary going on.
The sun has gone, and won't be back until the end of August.
We had a lot of snow in town after the storms a couple of weeks ago.

The storms were pretty average for down here, but over at Black Island there was a wind gust of 193 knots, that's about 222 mph, only 9 mph lower than the highest wind speed ever officially recorded on the planet on Mount Washington back in 1936.
We regularly have bigger storms out there, but most the time the wind gauges have not been working as they don't last long down here.

Here's a few general catch-up photos...


Looking out from Hut Point across McMurdo Sound in the last of the daylight

Wind whipping up snow off the hills behind McMurdo in the twilight


ANZAC Day dawn service at Scott Base (like Memorial Day in the US).
At this time of the year we don't actually have a "Dawn", as the sun does not rise, so we just do it in the morning.

Driving to Black Island in the blowing snow and the noon twilight

Solar Panels that were ripped off the roof at Black Island in the 222mph wind.
The rest of the facility was not damaged. It was built to last.

Snow that has worked it's way into the Bunk House at Black Island during the storm.
All this snow came in through the cracks in the window seals. There are a couple of armchairs and a diesel preway heater on the right of the picture under the snow.

Long exposure photo of the Black Island Satellite Station

The Milky Way as seen from Black Island. The green in the sky is from some faint auroras

Back at McMurdo, digging hard-packed snow out of the engine compartment after the storm.

Digging vehicles out of the snow next to the Gym entrance.

The back door to building 159 where I work

TV and entertainment unit that was dug out of the snow that got into Hut 10 that I have been asked to look at to see if it will still work.

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Aurora Photography Exposure Guide:
Here's an exposure guide I put together for folks down here to figure out how to take their own aurora photos.
For those of you living in the northern or southern extremes of the planet, it could come in handy...

We have had a lot of stormy weather here lately, so when I was stuck inside the other night I thought I'd run some of my time-lapse star sequences through a photo-stacking application to see how they looked.
Here's a few results from stacking a couple of hundred photos together each time so the stars become streaks in the sky...

Looking up the communications tower at Black Island.
Note how the celestial South Pole is only just slightly away from being directly up.

Wide angle shot of one of the dorm buildings at McMurdo, with a small green aurora overhead

View of McMurdo Station form out on the sea ice. The extra-bright streak on the left is from the moon.

Bust of Admiral Byrd with the American flag on the left moving about in the wind

The last plane left about 5 weeks ago now. There are 153 people at McMurdo, and 26 at Scott Base for the winter.
The sun is actually rising and setting at this time of the year, but the days are getting shorter by about 15 minutes each day. In 3 weeks from now the sun will go down, and we will not see it for another 4 months.

We have been running into a lot of problems this year with badly melted ice out on the Ross Ice Shelf between here and Black Island.
This makes it very hard for me to do my job here in the winter. Because we have no helicopters available, it means we have to drive across the ice shelf to get to our satellite earth station at Black Island to do any work required. While I can control all the equipment remotely, sooner or later hands-on work is required to keep things running smoothly.
We have been trying for the last couple of weeks to get there, but have had to turn back because the ice shelf melted out so badly this summer. It is the worst I have seen it in the last 10 years.
We will be heading out again next week to see if we can get through on an alternative route.

Here's a few photos from my last trip out...

Sunrise on our last trip out to try and find a safe route to Black Island, looking north towards Mt Erebus.

Looking south-west towards Mt Discovery.
The exposed deeper blue ice (on the right of the picture) often still has water pockets not far below the surface at this time of the year due to a glass-house type effect from the sun over summer. It is one of the things we need to be wary of, and will drill down through the ice to check the thickness in any doubtful spots before driving on it.

Raised up volcano shaped domes like this form when water pockets below the surface re-freeze, forcing the ice up.
Notice the noon sun is only a few degrees above the horizon now.


Driving into some of the melted-out ice fields, and it only got worse from here on out, so we had to turn back.
Even the Pisten Bullies cannot drive up chest-high walls of rock-solid ice.

I'm back on the Ice again after another uneventful flight south.
Ambient temperatures are sitting in the general region of -18C / 0F this time of the year.

The last plane flight out before the start of winter is in a couple of days from now, along with the first sunset in 4 months.

The other day I had an interview appear on CNN, here it is here...

It’s that time of the year now.
After far too brief a time off (it always seems that way), it’s time to head south again for me very soon.


Passengers getting ready to fly south at the Christchurch International Antarctic Center.

Christine just got down there a few days ago to assist with the arrival and unload of the annual supply ship. (She is in the crowd in the above photo somewhere).

The vast bulk of the annual supples are brought in on the ship, and all the trash from the last year is shipped out. We have very strict environmental protocols, so basically anything that is brought down is shipped out again.

This is a time-lapse clip I did back in 2006 of the ship being offloaded over a few days in the 24 hour sunlight...

 
I’m due down there in a couple of weeks, not long before the last plane leaves at the end of the summer season. From then our only contact with the outside world for the next 7 months will be electronic. No plane flights in or out.

It will be my 9^th winter-over, and Christine’s 8^th.

I’ll be spending pretty much every spare moment editing together the "Year on Ice" feature film.

It should be an interesting process working back and forth with the guys at Plan 9 to develop the soundtrack as we go. Check out their website here: http://www.plan9music.co.nz/

We are looking at getting the film ready for release early next year.

We are both off the Ice now, adjusting back to the world of unusual things like liquid water, flowers, green growing things, small furry animals, crowds, children, fresh food, advertising, rampant consumerism, and of course viruses.
The day after I got back I caught the flu, one of the worst cases I have ever had. Your immune system tends to get depressed on the Ice over the winter with no new viruses to fight. I was pretty much bed ridden for a week, but starting to come right again now.
Here's a couple of airplane snaps from the trip north...

Unloading the southbound cargo from the C-17 before the flight north

Flight Crew preparing for the northbound flight

Inside the C-17 on the flight north. Most the cargo is southbound at this time of the year, so there is space for people to stretch out when heading north.

Last view of the Antarctic mainland before heading out over the pack ice then open ocean.

The sun is above the horizon 24 hours a day now, and won't set for another 4 months.
For some reason I find it is actually easier to adjust to 24 hour darkness than it is to 24 hour sunshine.
There is something just plain weird about stepping outside in the middle of the night and having to put on sunglasses.

I am finally due to be getting out of here November 10th for some much needed time off in the real world, Christine will be following a few days later.

In the mean time, last weekend we joined in a trip up the coast to Cape Evans in some Delta trucks to have a look at the newly formed ice caves in the Erebus Ice Tongue Glacier...


Delta dragging a sled of emergency survival equipment across the frozen sea ice.
Later this summer this will be open sea water here.


Christine and I down inside an ice cave


Climbing back out into the light


Outside the cave looking back towards the sun and the Delta parked on the sea ice


Alas the Deltas don't like soft snow and get stuck very easily. This one had to be dug out about 6 times on the way back to town.


McMurdo Station as seen from a recent helicopter trip to Black Island.
Mount Erebus is smoking in the distance in the background.