Glimpses of the South Pole sky through U of T astronomer's lens
Dunlap fellow Tyler Natoli and PhD student Matthew Young test a South Pole Telescope 3G detector assembly in a cryostat in the Dunlap Institute (photo by Chris Sasaki)
The walk to work can be 鈥渟lightly harrowing,鈥 he says, since it鈥檚 bitterly cold and pitch black most winter days. But sometimes the auroras create a spectacular light show.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e stumbling through the cold and the ice and your head is buried in layers and layers of jacket and hat and scarf, but every now and then you just have to stop and look up.鈥
The South Pole Telescope is visible in the far left.
Taking this photo of aurora trails, or of anything else outdoors for that matter, was a challenge.
Using a camera while wearing five pairs of gloves isn鈥檛 easy. He attached his outer gloves to a string running through his sleeves so he could take them on and off more easily. Even that delayed frostbite by a few seconds.
Because of the extreme cold, his camera batteries lasted only 30 seconds 鈥 usually just enough time to make a single long exposure.
What鈥檚 with the red light? Some scientists are studying the auroras, and lights of any colour other than this specific shade of red can skew their data. 鈥淚 took this picture because the red light just made everything else look so blue,鈥 Vanderlinde says.
Don鈥檛 be fooled: That isn鈥檛 a sunrise in the distance. It鈥檚 the moon. Over the long winter, the moon shines so brightly it almost looks like the sun.
鈥淚 was wrapping my head around it getting dark and suddenly that thing came up,鈥 Vanderlinde says. 鈥淵ou do start thinking of it as the sun 鈥 to the point that I started asking people silly questions like, is the sun up today?鈥
The scientists and galley staff who spend the whole season at the South Pole, a.k.a. 鈥渨inter-over Polies,鈥 hold a midwinter feast on June 21. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really lovely chance to just get together. It feels like a Christmas or New Year鈥檚 family reunion,鈥 Vanderlinde says. (Yes, that's the fireplace channel on the elevated TV.) Traditionally, they celebrate with a screening of The Shining, about a writer (Jack Nicholson) who loses his mind after taking a caretaking job at an isolated moutain hotel. 鈥淎t that point everyone can really identify with it,鈥 says Vanderlinde.
When ice crystals in the air align just right, they form a lunar halo cross, reflecting vertical and horizontal bands of light. Vanderlinde photographed the lunar halo cross peeking around the South Pole Telescope.
鈥淚t was just surreal,鈥 he recalls. 鈥淥ne day I walked outside and there was this giant glowing cross in the sky.鈥
What appears to be a shooting star is actually the sun鈥檚 rays reflecting off a satellite that provides global cellular coverage. The orbiting Iridium satellites are known to produce some of the brightest satellite flares.
鈥淲hen I say they鈥檙e incredibly bright, I mean they can get almost to the level of the full moon,鈥 Vanderlinde says.
The climate is so treacherous at the South Pole that it's only safe to fly in or out, between November and February, when it鈥檚 warmer and there鈥檚 greater visibility.
By the end of their stay in Antarctica, those who lived there all winter are so pale, their skin is 鈥渢ransparent,鈥 Vanderlinde says. In comparison, new faces look 鈥渙range.鈥
鈥淭hey鈥檙e tremendously grumpy,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 fairly well known that you don鈥檛 talk to a winter-over Polie when you show up new.鈥