Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Day Two Musings
I haven't really taken any pictures yet - the Sun is barely scraping the horizon (and even then, only because the atmosphere is bending the light), and I know that the good pictures are a couple of days away. So don't worry, I haven't become so accustomed to the scenery up here that I have stopped photographing. Many photos of different kinds of white objects will be coming your way soon.
I've had a productive couple of days at the lab. Yesterday I was able to convince the french instrument that it was at 86W, not 86E, and today I was able to get my traveling instrument up in its hatch just in time for it to be too dark to get any solar measurements. (The instrument I was here to install in the summer has been back on for about a week now, and is working perfectly. So far.) Hopefully tomorrow it will start taking spectra and I can fall into my data analysis routine. And I will most likely not discuss spectroscopic measurements of any kind again.
It always surprises me how bright it can be when the Sun is below the horizon. I'll look outside and think the Sun must be close to rising and then I'll do some calculations and find out that it's still a few degrees below the horizon. It's certainly not bright enough to cast shadows, so it can be hard to make out the subtle topography of the place. I love that in a few days I'll look back on this post and wonder how I could have thought it was so bright. I find it odd that my previous experience up here teaches me that I'll think I'm crazy in a few days, but somehow not that it isn't very bright out at all.
Another thing that I hope is only a few days away is the return of wildlife. I've spotted bunny and wolf tracks, but no bunnies, wolves, or foxes. Apparently there were some musk ox at the runway a couple of days before we got here, so I'm also hoping they come back to visit. And, as a gift to me on this last trip up here, shouldn't I get to see a polar bear? From afar? VERY afar?
I've had a productive couple of days at the lab. Yesterday I was able to convince the french instrument that it was at 86W, not 86E, and today I was able to get my traveling instrument up in its hatch just in time for it to be too dark to get any solar measurements. (The instrument I was here to install in the summer has been back on for about a week now, and is working perfectly. So far.) Hopefully tomorrow it will start taking spectra and I can fall into my data analysis routine. And I will most likely not discuss spectroscopic measurements of any kind again.
It always surprises me how bright it can be when the Sun is below the horizon. I'll look outside and think the Sun must be close to rising and then I'll do some calculations and find out that it's still a few degrees below the horizon. It's certainly not bright enough to cast shadows, so it can be hard to make out the subtle topography of the place. I love that in a few days I'll look back on this post and wonder how I could have thought it was so bright. I find it odd that my previous experience up here teaches me that I'll think I'm crazy in a few days, but somehow not that it isn't very bright out at all.
Another thing that I hope is only a few days away is the return of wildlife. I've spotted bunny and wolf tracks, but no bunnies, wolves, or foxes. Apparently there were some musk ox at the runway a couple of days before we got here, so I'm also hoping they come back to visit. And, as a gift to me on this last trip up here, shouldn't I get to see a polar bear? From afar? VERY afar?
// posted by Annemarie @ 6:21 PM 
