In Transit

It's a big year for the South Pole Telescope.  We are installing a brand new camera, that has 10 times as many detectors as the current camera.   This means that everything except the main dish of the telescope it getting overhauled.  New optics, new cryostat, new detectors, and new readout electronics.  It's a huge job, but we've also got a great team (myself included) going down to take care of it.   I'll talk more about SPT-3G in future posts.  For now, here are some pictures of the new receiver that I took before it left the US.

This is the SPT-3G receiver during our final testing before shipping.  The big cylindrical tube holds the optics used to focus the light onto the camera.  The camera itself sits in the box shaped structure.  To give a sense of scale, the whole thing end-to-end is about 9 ft long.

This is the receiver from a different angle.  The white circle at the end is the window where millimeter-wavelength light will enter.

The first group of SPT people that I'm traveling left the states last Sunday.  In theory we were supposed to have 1.5 days in Christchurch, 1 day in McMurdo, and then arrive at pole on Friday.  Unfortunately, the weather in McMurdo didn't hold, and our ice flight was cancelled.  A few of us took the opportunity for some hiking in the hills in between Christchurch and the neighboring town of Lyttleton.  The trail was short and steep and we ended up with some fantastic views along the way.

The view from nearly the top of the hills.  Our hike started down at the port town you can see in the middle of the picture.

We did manage to make it to McMurdo the next day, and brought a very special visitor with us on the plane.  Secretary of State John Kerry came to visit Antarctica for two days to see the impact of global warming.  He gave a special meet and greet for McMurdo residents, speaking about his experiences  fighting for the protection of the environment.  He is an extremely dynamic speaker, and it ended up being a fantastic experience and a real emotional lift. 

The inside of the C17 aircraft from Christchurch to McMurdo.  The plane had fewer people than I've traveled with in the past, but was stuffed full of cargo.  The big box in the lower right contains part of the SPT-3G cryostat!

Above are a couple of pictures showing our first view of Antarctica from the window of the plane.  You can see some mountain ranges on the left and the actual coast of the continent.  The picture on the right shows some of giant ice flows in the ocean.  It's my third trip to Antarctica, but I was still really excited to get that first glimpse of ice.   Our flight to pole is now rescheduled for Monday morning, so we're taking the time to experience McMurdo while we wait.  It's a balmy temperature of 18 F (-8 C) outside, so really beautiful weather to enjoy before getting to pole.