TIGER in Antarctica, November 24, 2003

Eclipse

Today was the solar eclipse (it was on November 23rd Greenwich Mean Time, but was about noon on the 24th here). It only reached about 78% coverage here at McMurdo, but it was still pretty neat. We made viewers with a couple layers of aluminized mylar and ran outside ever 10 or 20 minutes. I made a filter for my digital camera but it was really hard to get the focus and exposure right. Here is a sequence of my best photos taken at about 11:20 AM, 11:50 AM and 12:06 PM (at maximum). The light level was about how it is on a very overcast day.

Three different eclipse pictures in sequence

We're starting the final buttoning up of TIGER. First step is to put an electrostatic shield around the entire instrument. This is basically an aluminum box (which starts out as many pieces) that keeps out stray electromagnetic noise. It also makes up much less susceptible to stray light in our detectors (which are called "light leaks"). It's painted black for thermal reasons. This picture shows Garry Simburger (left) and Dana Braun (right) installing the shield. Garry is our mechanical technician and Dana is the electronics technician.

Garry and Dana Installing the TIGER Electrostatic Shield