Astro-Speaker Watch - September 2013

Geoff Sims is a PHD student at the University of NSW who was part of a team which serviced a remote astronomical observing station in Antarctica.

The particular location - Ridge A - in Antarctica was chosen for the instruments because it possesses the best atmospheric observing conditions on the planet., including IR transmission, stable conditions and clear skies.

Disadvantages for the site are aurorae, it can only see half the sky; and it's very low temperatures. 

The site is located on a high plateau, remote from all other human activity on the continent.

Blue contours on the map means high altitude.

Because of its dry, high altitude location, telescopes can measure molecular cloud formations in better detail than elsewhere on Earth.

Atmospheric water vapour is lower at Ridge A than it is at the AAO (Siding Spring), Mauna Kea Observatory, Chile and even the South Pole.

Geoff described the expedition to service the instruments at Ridge A, travelling first to New Zealand, then McMurdo, then South Pole, then Ridge A.

Science owes a helluva lot to people like Geoff. Most of us would give an arm or a leg to get a trip to the Antarctic continent - but to make a trip as perilous as he did requires a lot of courage and skill.

When he left the relative safety of the Base at the South Pole, to travel to a remote elevated plateau in the middle of Antarctica in atrocious temperatures, so very far from civilisation, he was putting his own life on the line, in a similar way to that which astronauts do.

That he survived the dangerous conditions to tell the tale is a tribute to all involved in the planning and execution.

The website for the project is > Here < 

Geoff's expedition diary is > Here <