all photos
[11/27(Su) Getting busy!]
3am Woke up, 5:30 Back to sleep, 9am Up for brunch, 1:30pm Work. As I get busy, I have to try harder to keep this journal going!
8pm This week's science talk was about a neutrino astronomy project called IceCube, probably the biggest science project at the South Pole ($250M). About 1/4 of the people here seem to work on IceCube. The idea of drilling many 2-km deep holes on the ice to bury detectors is cool, but I didn't understand how this science was funded!
9pm Sleep
[11/28(Mo) Crane in cryostat - the heart of our telescope]
7am woke up. 2 more of our team members, Ki Won and Cynthia, arrived after being stuck at the McMurdo Station for the whole weekend. Thank you both for sharing many nice photos!
Today, we craned in the cryostat, the main part of the telescope that holds all the detectors, lenses, and liters of cryogens to cool them down. Ki Won's photo of our lab.
 This box has the most sensitive parts of the telescope.
 I'm working on the racks of instruments.
10pm sleep
[11/29(Tu) 600kg Steel plate!]
3am Woke up. Today we began unpacking the big cryostat crate. We also craned in a 600-kg piece of flat steel plate to serve as the platform of our telescope mount.
Cynthia had heard from Greg (another team member who has spent a winter at the South Pole) that when it's very cold, water thrown outside will sublimate away before it hits the ground. So I threw my water from my water bottle in the air outside -- nothing much happened... I guess it's not so cold now. Later that afternoon I got a headache, probably because I threw all my water away and got dehydrated!
9pm sleep
[11/30(We) Telescope Mount!]
6am Woke up. Today was a big day -- we craned in the big telescope mount. Our current group is (from low left): Pete, Ki Won, Evan, John, Cynthia, Yuki
7pm Tonight is the time to sign up for this weekend's snow camp -- only 12 spots available, so I went to the Dome an hour ahead w/ Kiwon and Cynthia. Nobody was there yet, so we explored the Dome and played in the library.
8pm Yey, I'm in for the snow camp :) On the way back, I took Cynthia and Kiwon to the Pole.
9:30pm Sleep.
[12/1(Th) ]
7am Woke up; 8am teleconference;
8:30am-6pm
8:30pm Went to sleep.
[12/2(Fr) Snow Camping Orientation!]
4:30am Woke up. 8am-6pm Installed a motor.
Q1(Mariko). Which time zone do you use there???
=) We use the New Zealand time, which is 4 hours ahead of Japan time, and 3 hours behind (though 1 day ahead) of the US Pacific time. This is because most of the flights and logistics are based in Christchurch, New Zealand.
[12/3(Sa) Work before the snow camp]
6:30 woke up. 8:15 meeting. Moved the racks.
[12/3(Sa) Camp out!]