Yesterday was a quiet day, and people were mostly busy on their computers (ie. not doing anything photo worthy). Continuing the record-speed cryostat turnaround, it was filled with liquid nitrogen. A few tour groups visited. […]
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Shortly following the unification of BLAST-Pol, some deunification was required. The rapidly warmed cryostat was unmounted and opened to search for the source of microphonics. The star cameras were remounted, and the inner frame rebalanced so that pointing can continue while the cryostat recools. […] Yesterday was a quiet day with many people spending much of the day looking at noise. Brad and Enzo arrived in the afternoon to join the excitement. Some of the detectors are too sensitive to vibrations (microphonics), and a noisy fan in the star camera exacerbated the problem. The end result is that the cryostat is being warmed up to diagnose (and fix!) the problem. The late night crew discovered that the detectors respond to music. […] On Friday the 13th, BLAST-Pol was more-or-less completely assembled, with the cryo and gondola halves mated. The SIP was installed in the morning, and the cryostat, receiver, DAS, and star cameras in the afternoon. […] Yesterday was a quiet day of waiting for the cryostat to cool, unpacking, and working on code. The most notable event was Joseph bringing the SIP over for testing. […] Yesterday the long-awaited shipment from Toronto arrived, with a leak-checker, solar panels, and other goodies. After leak-checking, the cryostat was filled with liquid helium. This took several transfers and until after midnight. Giles had to leave us early. Best wishes Giles. […] After a long separation, BLAST-Pol and I have finally been reunited! Tristan, Laura, and I arrived in Palestine to find that the initial crew (Natalie, Elio, Tyr, Giles, Greg, and Mark) had assembled the gondola to where it could point. […] Because Elio is in town (Tristan too), he was able to bring me my award certificate from the BIBLICAL category of the 7th Continent (that’s Antarctica) Beard and Moustache Competition. My flight home was the evening of the contest, so I was unable to retrieve the certificate myself. Enjoy! (I know I do.) […] In addition to the “title page” images”, one other already existing set of images I really like are the panoramas. I have recollected them into this post. […] After taking over 13000 photographs—and posting almost 2500!—I have a lot to show for my trip to Antarctica. I would like to fulfill a request to come up with a set of my favourite images, but the task daunting. While that work is in progress, I do have one premade list of images I liked: […] |
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