Some of my favourite photos from the BLAST-Pol launch campaign. November 2012 to January 2013 in McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
This is just a collection of previously-uploaded photos. Titles and captions may not all make sense without their original context.
Pink rose
Juan's cave
Which he soon vacated, because it was getting hot inside
Sled ride
Tyr pulls me back to the highbay from the storage area
Enzo and Mt Erebus
Grinning because he has a snowball
Dessert
One of each, of course!
Posing for the star camera
BLAST was rotated so that the SBSC points towards the mezzanine. Natalie capitalizes on this circumstance
Mark
Takes his pipe on the walk
Juan
Wears his issued "bunny boots"
Inner frame
Mirrors and star cameras
Setting the ladder up the back
Chief and antennas
Our crew chief (Mark) switches from The Boss back to the crane. Amongst the antennas on the top
BLAST and I
Taken by Juan
Tyr
Rocking the goggles, hard hat, and big red style
Me and the snow
Also taken by Juan
Elio
Looking majestic
LDB Panorama
LDB
Has flags now
Greg
With camera
LDB
As seen from Ob Hill
McMurdo
Laura
Colombian flag
Boom prep
Laying the flight train down for Super-TIGER's compatibility test
Team Rotate
Pointing at the sun
A rare and usually avoided occurrence. The telescope opening is covered to prevent explosion
BLAST comes inside
With scenic backdrop
Anne
Was our guide
Pressure ridge
Uplifted ice, with sea water, and mountains in the background
Bunny ears
Two telescopes
On the decks of neighbouring highbays
Group photo
I adopt a normal pose, and Tyr compensates by being goofy
Barth supervises tests
Elio in the crawlspace between the mirror and readout electoronics
You can see that it's not a happy place to be
Super-cool TIGER hat
With sun glasses
Laura comes outside
To watch launch preparations
Person for scale
Serious scale
Scott
Piball released
Done evey 30 minutes in preparation for launch
Piball tracking
Provides profile of wind vs altitude
Bye Enzo
I'm learning to cross-country ski
Photo from Andrei
BLASTPol
The cleaned telescope
In profile, slightly
The Boss picks us up
Tyr and Castle Rock
Stopping to Pose II
"What, you guys don't just leap up mountains?"
Sledding down the hill
Natalie gets some good speed
More cable taping
Timelapse testing Tristan
Stack of connector pins
Mark made this far longer than I expected. Can you tell we're not all busy all the time anymore?
Natalie
Being a NASA cetified crane operator
Laura caroling
At the Christmas Eve party
Obligatory The Boss plus BLAST plus highbay shot
I'm almost out of obligatory shots, the rest will be launch specific
Flightline setup
Antistatic smocks
For dealing with explosives. EXPLOSIVES!
Fire in the balloon
Balloon inspection
This is not a "cool guys don't look at explosions" moment
Thankfully
Inflation panorama
Anticipation
Balloon rising
Launch
With The Boss gunning it in reverse
Penguin!
Briefly does something
Storage shelves
Less empty
Weddell Seal
Frolicking in the sun. This one moved more than all other seals I've watched combined
Arrival heights and McMurdo
As seen from Vince's cross, at the tip of hut point
Laura descending
Tristan
In wide angle
To Castle Rock we go
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