Week 28 at the Pole

pole posing
Christian Krueger, IceCube/NSF

In summer at the South Pole, the traditional place for photo ops is the ceremonial Pole, where a mirrored sphere is mounted on a post and surrounded by a semicircular lineup of flags. But in the dark of winter, any place is as good as another as long as you have a nice aurora as backdrop. Here is IceCube winterover Christian standing alongside station physician Hamish at the geographic South Pole, flanked by the US flag and the South Pole sign, with a bright enormous aurora bursting above them. They also captured a long exposure shot of the stars directly overhead, forming sharp concentric star trails. Lighting of a different sort gave the back of the station a particularly devilish appearance, bathed in red by exterior lights at Destination Zulu.

star trails
Christian Krueger, IceCube/NSF
Dest Zulu
Christian Krueger, IceCube/NSF