There's genuinely not a lot I'd change if I could do my mission to Antarctica again. The science I went there to do went as well as I hoped it would and I made it back without losing any body parts to frostbite. The only real regret I have is that I didn't pack a pair of jeans; somehow this most inane of oversights managed to cause me a not-insignificant amount of frustration that only grew as the weeks ticked on by.
I began my jeans-less journey in Great Malvern, Worcestershire on 17 November 2021. Four trains, five planes, two quarantines and 31 days later I arrived at Concordia Station on Dome Cin Antarctica, where I would be working for the next seven weeks as part of the Antarctic Search for Transiting Exoplanets (aka ASTEP) telescope summer team.
Goodbye to sunsets
The group I travelled with, mostly glaciologists and seismologists, were all itching to get to Concordia to begin data collection, and they were understandably curious as to why astronomers were headed there during the months of neverending daylight. It's a fair point. Antarctica is a brilliant astronomical site because of the long nights and dry air, but we only get to observe for half the year. So, why bother going in the summer when it never gets dark? Simple: for ASTEP, our annual summer campaigns represent our only opportunity to access the telescope for maintenance and upgrades.
This story is from the August 2022 edition of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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This story is from the August 2022 edition of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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