time gone by

The last week, or so has been fairly uneventful, but I have had a couple of opportunities to get outside and take some photos that I like in our last pieces of darkness. My main aim was to see the auroras and I had such a treat last Wednesday when I turned my head up toward the sky and saw a green line nearly touch each end of the sky and meet with a brilliant knot in the middle; right above my head. A huge grin also stretched from one side of my face to the other in amazement. I had given up on seeing any auroras so amazing this year. I also made a conscious decision not to bring my camera outside that night so I could save some memories for the mind (as I walked out my door, I also acknowledged that because I did not stow my pocket on this outing, I would likely see some phenomenal auroras).

The evening sky has been tinged with a bit of burning light on the horizon. We gain something like 20 minutes of light on the beginning and end of each day; rapidly, we are moving towards complete daylight.

The second photo is at 23:00. The arcing lights in the foreground are snow blasts (a big snow blower), spitting up snow as they carve out the Sea Ice Runway on the temporary ice. The snow has captured some of the light from the loaders pulling the snow blasts. Within the next week, we hope this runway is open for our "Mainbody" flights. Next week, on September 29, we intend to mark the beginning of the "summer" season at McMurdo with an onslaught of new faces in science and support services.

We have not seen a flight since the end of August. Today, sadly, we have a medevac flight; an unplanned, expensive trip from the Royal New Zealand Air Force, arriving to take a sick fellow to better medical care.