South Pole
Diary January 26th, Australia Day 5am
From
Michael Burton.....
 Its
now Australia Day, and Craig and I were probably the first
Australians to celebrate it. At midnight (of the 25th) we
both headed over to the flags around the Pole and started
a picture session with all our cameras, posing in front of
the various tourist sites - the ceremonial pole with all the
flags of the original Antarctic treaty nations, the signpost
indicating the way to various locations around the globe (though
none in Oz I'm afraid) and the Pole itself. We probably committed
a federal felony by removing the US flag from the Pole and
replacing it with the Oz flag for the photo session! And we
remembered our masters back home by taking a few pics with
the UNSW banner prominently displayed. Actually I'm hoping
to get to see our AASTO at McMurdo on the way back and have
come armed with both UNSW and ANU banners for a suitable photo
op! Sigh, how image drives science these days!
Its
started to get cooler - the temp gauge dropped to -35 today,
but the wind seems to have stopped making it actually feel
quite warm out here! We've been having a mix of bright blue
sky, to be rapidly followed by extensive cloud cover, and
reverting back to clear skies. Craig keeps oscillating between
thinking this is a good site for 10 micron work and a lousy
one, with each weather change! Just like any mainland observatory!
While
we've at last seen the temperature drop as we head towards
the end of the summer season, on the other hand the temperature
in the MAPO building is heading towards the roof! We must
have close on 50 terminals in operation and my thermometer
is reading 27 deg. Given that we all have our thermals on
it can get a little uncomfortable at times. Not to mention
the 60 degree temperature difference when you head outside!
The temperature has had an unexpected affect on the experiment.
I've been trying to do a number of calibrations before taking
the IRPS onto the roof, and have been thrashing the filter
and aperture wheels around. Until I discovered that the filter
wheel wasn't behaving properly and not ending up in the right
place. I noticed its temperature was over 50 degrees, and
have directed a fan onto it, whereby it nows works perfectly.
I guess Michael Ashley just neglected to design the experiment
for both equatorial and Antarctic conditions - though I'm
sure he'll come up with a modification for next time!
A
major discussion point of late has been toilets! Or `Heads'
as they are called around here (a US navy term, for some reason).
Out in the astro sector we've been blessed with a solar toilet,
a wooden building just heated by the warmth of the Sun. Actually
it quite pleasant inside, though I'll spare you the graphic
details of how the plumbing works. However in winter this
naturally cant be used (no Sun!) and the administrative services
around here seem somewhat reluctant to provide anything more
than a barrel for the winter-overers to use. (its a kilometre
back to the main base - not a journey you can do in two minutes
when the temperature is 60 degrees below!). Meetings have
been arranged between the astronomers and admin (ASA - Antarctic
Support Associates) - to which all that has been achieved
so far is to arrange additional meetings. Yes, bureaucracy
strikes at the South Pole too! If you ever chance on Jamie
in a quite moment and ask him about the situation you will
hear a few choice expletives! Jamie is not proving to be a
good committee man in this instance!!
My
experiment has improved no end since my last report and indeed
I am close to taking the IRPS up on to the roof and installing
the wonderous automatic liquid nitrogen system. I've been
puzzling over all the bits I've been given for it over the
last week - its a bit like a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle
- and I think I have it sorted out now. Though heaven knows
how it will actually work when its all assembled - that's
another piece of Michael A's magic software I have to see
in action!
Jack
Doolittle, Mr. AGO, arrived at Pole last night. We've only
had a brief chat so far, but Jack never expected to be at
Pole right now - rather he thought he'd be in the field installing
AGO number 6 (the last one). However it turns out that the
pilot of the LC130 seemed to get cold feet about landing at
the site, and aborted the mission after having made an initial
drop off of advance equipment. A couple of guys who had been
sent in to clear a runway with bulldozers had to spend 10
days waiting for someone to pull them out!
Michael
Burton
 
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