Tell me this, when you look up in the sky at night what do you see? I know that when I was growing up if you were to go outside and look up, even on a clear night all you would see was black. I am talking clear nights, with not a single cloud in the sky all you would see was black and if you were to drive out away from town and you were lucky you could see the North Star. That was it, no stars, no constellations, no planets, nothing. The glow of the city stretched for miles and miles beyond its city limits. Only if you were far out in the country or way up in the mountains did you get the opportunity to see any stars.
I remember a camping trip I took with my family, we went camping once a year up in the mountains for as long as I can remember growing up. The place we went to was so far off the beaten path and so far into the mountains it took hours and hours to get to. I remember when I was younger I hated it because the drive was so long, all my friends went camping at places that were close by, why couldn't we? I look back now and there is no place I would have rather gone, the place was beautiful and it was what camping was all about. Being out in the woods sleeping on the floor of the forest, waking up to birds chirping, swimming in the pond under the waterfall, fishing the river for dinner, it was great.
This one trip that sticks out in my memory though, I can not tell you when or how old I was all I remember is the moment. My sister and I had hiked up from our camp site to the road. All I remember was that we were laying down out in the middle of the road, no cars, no people just us. The asphalt was still warm from the sun. See the place we went camping was so well forested that the only place you could see the sky was either along the river bank or where the road was. So we laid there in the middle of the road looking up at the sky for hours. We saw the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Orion's Belt, the Milky Way and thousands of others, all the basic constellations that most people get to see every night.
We laid out in the middle of the road hundreds of miles away from civilization to see them. I remember the feel of that night very vividly as we lay there pointing out stars to each other, when all of a sudden a meteor shower began right in front of our eyes. It was like nothing I had ever seen before and I can honestly say I have never seen another since. To lay there and watch what we thought was shooting star after shooting star was amazing. At one point the whole sky filled with bright white streaks and haze as if someone had thrown sugar all over a piece of black paper. So to say the least I have always enjoyed the night sky and I have always wished I lived someplace were I could just sit out and look at the stars.
Well I guess my wish has come true. The sun has set beyond the horizon and we only get a faint glow in the sky for a few hours around lunch time, the rest of the day is dark and it gets a little more like night every day. Around town here in McMurdo the lights burn so bright it has that same feel of home, where the only darkness you stand in is a shadow. You can get away from town and almost find darkness, that is only because the landscape blocks the direct light from town. Even then if you look up in the sky you can still see the glow from town. Although even with the bright lights from town at anytime, anywhere in town if you look up you see stars. It is truly amazing, I have never seen stars so bright in my life, even during the "daylight" hours you can still see stars.
This week has been beautiful, no wind, no clouds just clear nights. I have found myself with the drive to get away from town so I have taken advantage of these nice calm, clear nights. I hiked out to Hut Point which is down past the ice pier and sat out there for almost 2 hours, taking pictures, looking at stars and watching the moon light up the terrain. The moon is so large here and so bright that when your eyes adjust and you are away from town, it lights up the mountains and the sea ice as if it was day time. From town if you were to look out at the Royal Society Mountain range all you would see is black, you can barely see the sea ice. But if you walk away from town and look out at it, you can see everything clear, the moon is that bright. The night I went to Hut Point the moon was sitting just above the horizon and it had a slim cloud line directly above and below it, you cloud see the reflection of the moon on the sea ice and the glow stretching farther than the eye can see.
The moon was a dull orange color, honestly it reminded me of back home when the sun sets into the smog and you see that orange haze on the horizon. It is a sad beautiful, but this was a nice, soothing, peaceful beautiful. From the point I could look out and see three planets I believe they are Venus, Jupiter and Mars. Can you believe that three planets all at the same time in the sky, very distinct. Where else could you see that? Directly above town is the Southern Cross constellation, this is a constellation that you cant see from most of the world, but yet it is directly above me. It was such a great night, I could have stayed out there for hours I was plenty warm the only reason I went in was because it was around 1 in the morning and I had to be up for work in less than 5 hours.
Because the night at hut point was so great I decided to go out the following night as well, this time up to Ob Hill which is the peak on the opposite side of town. I decided to go out a bit earlier this time also that way I could stay out longer. I made my way out and up the hill, just in time to watch the moon rise up and over Mt. Erebus which is the worlds southern most active volcano. This was a site that I highly doubt many people down here have seen. The moon was almost full and was a bright white, just a huge glow in the sky. It was again a clear night not a cloud in the sky but yet it was so bright out that you could see all the way to Mt. Erebus as if it was day.
Erebus was just a black outline in the sky and if you looked closely you could still see the plume of smoke that billows from its peak. It amazes me to think about it even now that it was so dark out and yet it was so bright. This night I sat up on the hill for a little over 3 hours just gazing at the stars and the clear sky and watching the moon change as it moved through the night. I decided to pack it in when a breeze picked up from the south, I had already been outside for 3 hours, I was plenty warm but I did not need to test myself in the wind. As I was hiking back to town the wind started to blow in some clouds that engulfed Erebus and then slowly the moon. I saw a lot of great things over those two nights and it is times like this, that makes you forget about the craziness that is this place.
Just sitting up on the side of a hill overlooking a town all alone at night in Antarctica. It just doesn't get better than that, well I guess if there was Aurora's. I still have yet to see Aurora's, not only down here but at any time in my life. I am really looking forward to that. I took a lot of pictures over the two nights and only a few came out decent, I played and played with settings trying to figure out how to capture what I was seeing but in the end I think I got some shots that paint the picture fairly well. Nothing spectacular but when I leave here and go home I will be able to look back at these pictures and remember that night and that's the point, right?
Tell me this, when you look up in the sky at night what do you see? I know that when I was growing up if you were to go outside and look up, even on a clear night all you would see was black. I am talking clear nights, with not a single cloud in the sky all you would see was black and if you were to drive out away from town and you were lucky you could see the North Star. That was it, no stars, no constellations, no planets, nothing. The glow of the city stretched for miles and miles beyond its city limits. Only if you were far out in the country or way up in the mountains did you get the opportunity to see any stars. 
I remember a camping trip I took with my family, we went camping once a year up in the mountains for as long as I can remember growing up. The place we went to was so far off the beaten path and so far into the mountains it took hours and hours to get to. I remember when I was younger I hated it because the drive was so long, all my friends went camping at places that were close by, why couldn't we? I look back now and there is no place I would have rather gone, the place was beautiful and it was what camping was all about. Being out in the woods sleeping on the floor of the forest, waking up to birds chirping, swimming in the pond under the waterfall, fishing the river for dinner, it was great.
This one trip that sticks out in my memory though, I can not tell you when or how old I was all I remember is the moment. My sister and I had hiked up from our camp site to the road. All I remember was that we were laying down out in the middle of the road, no cars, no people just us. The asphalt was still warm from the sun. See the place we went camping was so well forested that the only place you could see the sky was either along the river bank or where the road was. So we laid there in the middle of the road looking up at the sky for hours. We saw the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Orion's Belt, the Milky Way and thousands of others, all the basic constellations that most people get to see every night. 
We laid out in the middle of the road hundreds of miles away from civilization to see them. I remember the feel of that night very vividly as we lay there pointing out stars to each other, when all of a sudden a meteor shower began right in front of our eyes. It was like nothing I had ever seen before and I can honestly say I have never seen another since. To lay there and watch what we thought was shooting star after shooting star was amazing. At one point the whole sky filled with bright white streaks and haze as if someone had thrown sugar all over a piece of black paper. So to say the least I have always enjoyed the night sky and I have always wished I lived someplace were I could just sit out and look at the stars.
Well I guess my wish has come true. The sun has set beyond the horizon and we only get a faint glow in the sky for a few hours around lunch time, the rest of the day is dark and it gets a little more like night every day. Around town here in McMurdo the lights burn so bright it has that same feel of home, where the only darkness you stand in is a shadow. You can get away from town and almost find darkness, that is only because the landscape blocks the direct light from town. Even then if you look up in the sky you can still see the glow from town. Although even with the bright lights from town at anytime, anywhere in town if you look up you see stars. It is truly amazing, I have never seen stars so bright in my life, even during the "daylight" hours you can still see stars.
This week has been beautiful, no wind, no clouds just clear nights. I have found myself with the drive to get away from town so I have taken advantage of these nice calm, clear nights. I hiked out to Hut Point which is down past the ice pier and sat out there for almost 2 hours, taking pictures, looking at stars and watching the moon light up the terrain. The moon is so large here and so bright that when your eyes adjust and you are away from town, it lights up the mountains and the sea ice as if it was day time. From town if you were to look out at the Royal Society Mountain range all you would see is black, you can barely see the sea ice. But if you walk away from town and look out at it, you can see everything clear, the moon is that bright. The night I went to Hut Point the moon was sitting just above the horizon and it had a slim cloud line directly above and below it, you cloud see the reflection of the moon on the sea ice and the glow stretching farther than the eye can see. 
The moon was a dull orange color, honestly it reminded me of back home when the sun sets into the smog and you see that orange haze on the horizon. It is a sad beautiful, but this was a nice, soothing, peaceful beautiful. From the point I could look out and see three planets I believe they are Venus, Jupiter and Mars. Can you believe that three planets all at the same time in the sky, very distinct. Where else could you see that? Directly above town is the Southern Cross constellation, this is a constellation that you cant see from most of the world, but yet it is directly above me. It was such a great night, I could have stayed out there for hours I was plenty warm the only reason I went in was because it was around 1 in the morning and I had to be up for work in less than 5 hours.
Because the night at hut point was so great I decided to go out the following night as well, this time up to Ob Hill which is the peak on the opposite side of town. I decided to go out a bit earlier this time also that way I could stay out longer. I made my way out and up the hill, just in time to watch the moon rise up and over Mt. Erebus which is the worlds southern most active volcano. This was a site that I highly doubt many people down here have seen. The moon was almost full and was a bright white, just a huge glow in the sky. It was again a clear night not a cloud in the sky but yet it was so bright out that you could see all the way to Mt. Erebus as if it was day. 
Erebus was just a black outline in the sky and if you looked closely you could still see the plume of smoke that billows from its peak. It amazes me to think about it even now that it was so dark out and yet it was so bright. This night I sat up on the hill for a little over 3 hours just gazing at the stars and the clear sky and watching the moon change as it moved through the night. I decided to pack it in when a breeze picked up from the south, I had already been outside for 3 hours, I was plenty warm but I did not need to test myself in the wind. As I was hiking back to town the wind started to blow in some clouds that engulfed Erebus and then slowly the moon. I saw a lot of great things over those two nights and it is times like this, that makes you forget about the craziness that is this place. 
Just sitting up on the side of a hill overlooking a town all alone at night in Antarctica. It just doesn't get better than that, well I guess if there was Aurora's. I still have yet to see Aurora's, not only down here but at any time in my life. I am really looking forward to that. I took a lot of pictures over the two nights and only a few came out decent, I played and played with settings trying to figure out how to capture what I was seeing but in the end I think I got some shots that paint the picture fairly well. Nothing spectacular but when I leave here and go home I will be able to look back at these pictures and remember that night and that's the point, right?
All great photos !...
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