Attempted Beam Maps (Take Two)

Yesterday we went back outside to try taking beam maps again. In the morning, I wanted to test code before everything got set up. Then when BLAST was outside after lunch, we encountered alignment problems between the telescope and alignment laser. Then the weather showed up about 9 hours earlier than had been predicted just two hours before.

With McMurdo’s balmy weather, it’s sometimes easy to forget that we’re in Antarctica. But every once in a while, Mother Nature shows up to remind us who’s boss. She is. The wind picked up a lot (gusts to about 40knots) and snow was blown all around. (Granted, it was still balmy by South Pole standards, but it’s enough to make a point.) We thought we’d have clear skies all day. We were wrong.