Wow, it is beautiful here...
I know that recent journals have focused on diving preparations and entry into the water, but I thought I should also share a few of the beautiful moments that we have been enjoying. McMurdo Station at WinFly is an amazing place to watch the patterns in the Sun, Moon, and the weather. Here's a little sampling of some of the fabulous memories that we have made over the last few days.
The Moon over Observation Hill.
Memories
Weather and Visibility
The weather has been amazing. We have gone from white-out conditions to the clearest skies you can imagine. These photos will not do it justice, but the mountains you are looking at are part of the Royal Society Range. They are between 50 - 90 miles away from us and they look this clear.
Beautiful sunset on the Royal Society Range.
Mt. Discovery at sunset in the distance. Magical!
Sunsets
We have seen some beautiful sunsets. Yesterday, we saw some nacreous clouds. Nacreous clouds only form in the polar regions and are amazing. They are extremely high altitude clouds, forming between 50,000-80,000 feet above the ground, at temperatures of -78˚C or colder. They can have some unbelievable colors because they receive sunlight from below the horizon and reflect (bounce back) that sunlight to us on the ground.
Nacreous clouds at sunset. Wow!
More beautiful nacreous clouds.
I think this is my favorite picture of the nacreous clouds that I took.
You can learn more about nacreous clouds by clicking here.
Star-gazing
Last night, we hiked with a group outside under the quarter moon (half full). The air was cool but perfectly still. It was a magical time to be hiking. We gazed at the stars. Earlier this week, Dr. Kim was telling me about these events called Iridium flares. This occurs when a satellite passing overhead reflects sunlight down to your location at night. All of a sudden there is a super bright flash in the sky, and then it disappears. While we were out hiking, I saw one! Super cool!
You can check out more about them by clicking here.
Singing seals
After our star-gazing, we hiked down to Hut Point, close to McMurdo Station. Right off of Hut Point is a large crack in the sea ice. Around the crack, we saw 8 seals. Even though we were high above them, we could hear them breathing and making beautiful noises under the ice where there were surely more seals swimming. It was the type of moment you never forget! There simply are no words.
This is the memorial cross at Hut Point, where we hiked and heard the seals!
Team-bonding
There have also been a lot of laughs together as a team. It's the funny moments, like building a snow wall to shelter us while we were drilling our first hole that have been so great!
We had a lot of fun building this snow wall as a team. (Photo courtesy of Steve Zellerhoff)