Week 21 at the Pole

Super blood moon high in dark sky over IceCube Lab, lit in red.
Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF

Last week (well, on May 26), there was a rare super blood moon event—the coinciding of a supermoon, when the moon is at its closest to the Earth, and a blood moon, when the moon turns red as it enters Earth’s shadow during a lunar eclipse. The eclipse was only visible in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, and winterover Martin went out to the IceCube Lab to see what he could see. Photographing the moon is always a challenge, but he managed to capture it in the above image with the ICL in the foreground as well as a close-up view in the image below. What else was there last week at the Pole? Most other activities were geared toward upcoming midwinter celebrations, still about a month off. That, and…there were auroras.

Close-up of super blood moon.
Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF
Swirling green auroras in dark sky, icy surface below lit up in red.
Josh Veitch-Michaelis, IceCube/NSF