Weather: It has been cold! Temperatures have dropped to nearly -90F as the weather cleared around sunset. Due to atmospheric refraction, the sun was still visible for a few days after official sunset, though today it’s so windy that blowing snow has reduced visibility to a quarter mile.
We had our station sunset dinner on Saturday March 21st. It was a wonderfully delicious dinner, and it was really nice to see everyone dressed up for the special occasion.
The galley staff worked really hard to make the evening special with a full sit-down dinner, appetizers and a 5 course meal! We even had a bar set up for pre-dinner cocktails.
Our main course for the night was steak grilled in duck fat, on top of cassoulet w/ duck confit and some greens from the greenhouse topped with a balsamic reduction! It was magnificent!!
After the dinner, the weather held out nicely so people could get pictures of the sunset (which takes quite a few days, as it turns out). I shot a short timelapse out the galley window sometime later in the night.
The colors of the sunset really show now. Lots of photos were taken over the past few days as people scramble to collect the last bit of sunlight for the next few months!
And of course, what would a sunset be without a selfie? ….
Besides the festivities of Sunset dinner, we also prepared SPT for winter observing; which is essentially the same thing as summer observing, but over a different part of the sky. We replaced a heater in the receiver cabin, which will hopefully keep it nice and warm during the cold of winter!
Hopefully soon enough I will be able to start posting aurora pics!
Cheers!
Allen's South Pole Winter-Over 2020 (+) 