Photos before winfly

In the weeks after mid winter and before Winfly we get some amazing sky colours as the twilight slowly gets stronger before the sun finally rises.

Below are some of the photos taken in the last couple of weeks. Some of them are of the twilight sky, others are of some people around the base.

I hope you enjoy the photos and get a bit of an insight into the special time of year this is for most people. I will explain more as I go.

 This photo is of Scott Base from out on the sea ice. Taken on the 6th August 1998, with Erebus in the background, and the beginning of nacreous clouds starting to form. I had to brighten the picture up a bit to get some definition, as it was not this bright at the time.

Looking east out from the Top of Q Hut, one of the two accommodation blocks of Scot Base.

The view is across the top of 3A and the Mess block. Mt Terror is to the left and the thing that looks like the sun on the horizon is actually the lighting pole beside the hitching rail.

Nacreous cloud formation has something to do with nitrogen layering in the upper atmosphere which is also attacking the Ozone. The light coming of these clouds is very intense as the sun reflects of them. The colour ranges from bright pink to yellow and intense white at the core. The picture cannot do the visual effect justice. The pink clouds of to the left are just normal clouds and should not be confused with the nacreous clouds in the centre. This photo was taken from the back of Scott Base on 7 August, 1998 with crater hill in the foreground.

A picture of one of the Skiddoos sitting under the garage door, getting ready to zoom out the front of the base to take some photos

 One of my jobs (among other things) is to maintain the small portable generators and get them ready for the next season. Apart from sparkplug and oil changes they have to be run and load tested in the cold. This is to make sure they are as reliable as possible out in the field during the season.

This is a nighttime photo of the lady of the snows shrine. The small lights of Mactown shine in the background.

 Dan and Esther (from Mactown) have come over to visit the Scott Base bar on Thursday night. Two of many and Dan is trying to show me how to make a Jamaican 10 speed drink. I was a barmen for some of the night and it was free drinks for everyone as we distributed out the tips collected through the season. The Americans are good tippers and because we don’t keep the tips (they just go into a tambourine collection tray) we are able to save most of the money and put on a few shouts for them. How do you make a Jamaican 10 speed you say?.

It's made of 5, almost equal parts.

Glass full of ice

1/5 Vodka, 1/5 Malibu, 1/10 Mudori, 1/5 Vok And top it off with a creamy milk. Use a straw and blow gently under the bottom layer of spirit to mix the layers.

Winter Projects. Over the winter people have had projects to keep them occupied. Mine has been this web site. Others like Chris and Helen have constructed things.

 Chris and his CD rack. You may think this is a big CD rack but Chris already has enough CDs to fill %80 of it. All he has to do now is put a back on it, and varnish it. He made sure he had brought down enough wood for this and the coffee table below.

 Chris and his table at the art show in mactown. The dry atmosphere causes timber to warp and crack so Chris had to build, and then seal his table with varnish as quickly as possible.

Helen spent much of her time making these mirrors, which she also included in the art show at mactown.

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9-3-01