South Pole
Diary February 2nd, 7pm
From
Michael Burton.....
Well
Craig has now departed leaving me on my own to fend with the
IRPS. Craig's departure was in fact a long drawn out affair.
We had a spell of bad weather; the winds changed (a rare event)
and brought in `warm' moist coastal air from the west (that's
grid west!), raising the temperature to a toasty -25 degrees
and bringing in thick, low lying cloud. All flights were cancelled
for 36 hours, and Craig's departure was put off twice, much
to his frustration. The question he now faces is how many
days does he have to spend at McMurdo? Already he has logged
into the Pole once from McMurdo....
 As
soon as Craig departed I started having some troubles with
the IRPS. I thought all was in hand until I started assembling
the parts for the automatic nitrogen filling system on the
roof, when nothing seemed to work. A string of faults have
been diagnosed, nothing actually to do with the IRPS itself,
but all to do with the bits that are supposed to make things
easier for the winter-overer! At the moment I can't really
say whether they all can be fixed up before I go. My main
nitrogen storage dewar got rather severely damaged when I
left some heaters on inside it while getting it ready for
filling, and now reeks of a foul odour of melted plastic and
other noxious substances! Panic and misery set in - the experiment
was over, we were finished etc etc. But I forgot we are working
with the Americans, who never come down with one of anything
when you could have six! And indeed there are spare storage
dewars of the right size around. So I have been spending the
night wiring up a new dewar to fit our needs. Saved! Though
that being said there are still a couple of other problems
which I'm waiting for Michael Ashley to send me solutions
to......
However
right now Michael and all the UNSW crew are observing on the
AAT, commissioning UNSWIRF, are new imaging Fabry-Perot for
the IRIS infrared camera. And the weather is clear!! Michael's
already sent me the first image obtained, the molecular hydrogen
in Orion - and its great. I've been sending helpful hints
on how to observe at Siding Spring while Michael A has been
sending helpful hints on how to fix dewars at the South Pole!
Tomorrow I'm going to try sending commands to the AAT to run
the FP - its essentially the same software that runs the IRPS
(and even has the name IRPS in it because Michael hasn't yet
got around to changing all the names in the program!).
Actually
I've been observing quite a bit at Siding Spring while at
the South Pole; this is the third AAT run I've been involved
with since arriving! And I was on the 2.3m the other night
too - I believe there have been some complaints about my observing
on two telescopes simultaneously whilst being at the South
Pole! Of course, I have some good collaborators who are doing
the work for me!
The
barber visited town and I got myself a haircut! There are
two hairdressers stationed at MacTown, and I tried to visit
them on my way through, but they were all booked up (Navy
personnel need lots of haircuts!). But it turns out that one
of the hairdressers is an enterprising sort and has managed
to persuade the NSF that personnel at Pole could do with haircuts
too. So she's been posted here for a week, and has had a full
queue of long-haired scruffies to deal with! Next year she's
working on persuading the NSF that personnel in field camps
need hair cuts too - a good way of getting to see Antarctica!
I
also checked out the exercise facilities at Pole. There's
a tiny room under the main dome full of assorted exercise
machines and weights. Not quite up to the standard of the
MacTown machines, but still pretty sophisticated. I climbed
up stairs for a mile (very exciting!), cycled an obstacle
course and ran in circles round a track which kept going up
and down and changing the speed it came past me. I was in
full sweat by the end. I need to time my next session to coincide
with my biweekly shower ration!
Some
big news in astronomy today, SOFIA and SIRTF, the two big
infrared astronomy projects (one airborne, the other space)
that have been the top-rated projects in the US astronomy
priorities have been given a `new start' by congress. That
means they have finally been funded, after decades of lobbying.
Quite amazing considering the budget crisis the US has been
going through. Harvey Mosely, the chief investigator of SPIRAC
has been going around wearing T-shirts of several ex-observatories,
including the KAO (the predecessor to SOFIA). We've decided
not to give him a CARA T-shirt in case that means we get shut
down to fund these new observatories!
Michael
Burton
 
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