August 9: Aurora from Wireless Hill

Another starry, yet windy and hazy night. Hoping for a repeat of the beautiful clear skies of earlier in the week, alas the good ol' Macca clouds rolled in pretty quick. Oh Southern Ocean maritime weather how you drive me crazy!



Aurora hiding behind the clouds to the east. Photo: Jacque Comery

Hazy aurora over the plateau. Photo: Jacque Comery

Beautiful green glow behind the clouds over the Southern Ocean. Photo: Jacque Comery

August 7: Stars and auroras

A night of little wind, the clearest skies that I have yet experienced and a spectacular rising moon. Standing out in the crisp air in the wee hours, taking photos, watching the skies dance and the plateau coyly respond to the  building moonlight was a wonderful thing.
Had I been without a camera, I still would have stood out there soaking up the beauty afforded by a rare glimpse past the clouds and up into the skies above.
When you when you can cast your gaze above and see familiar constellations, like old friends, it matters not where you are geographically. We are a  tiny speck on our small blue planet, in a sea of galaxies. Relatively we are always close to home.

Aurora over The Nuggets. Photo: Jacque Comery

The Hamshack. Photo: Jacque Comery

Aurora to the south. Photo: Jacque Comery



Aurora reflecting on the bay. Photo: Jacque Comery

July 27: Aurora

A call of aurora went out over the telephone system from the meterorogical observer on night shift. I bolted outside to witness a most spectacular aurora that crescendoed and disappeared all within 10 minutes. Curtains of purple and red showered down overhead, before the whole thing seemingly flew across the sky and disappeared. It was as if it were a living creature, just passing by to taunt us only to vanish before we fully appreciated it's beauty. It pulsated to the extent that the exposure time required for each photo made it impossible to keep up with capturing the rapidly unfolding scene.

Aurora looking out to The Nuggets to the south-east. Photo: Jacque Comery

Aurora over Hamshack Hill. Photo: Jacque Comery

View to the west over the containers. Photo: Jacque Comery

Aurora over the LARC. Photo: Jacque Comery

View east from the Isthmus. Photo: Jacque Comery

Aurora over the LARC. Photo: Jacque Comery

Aurora and Gentoo Penguins. Photo: Jacque Comery

Thanks to all of the penguins that stayed nice and still for my long exposures!

July 23: An aurora on a windy, cloudy night

An aurora appears....yah!
Oh, it is windy and cloudy and a bit rainy too...oh...
Internet doesn't work, not much else going on...ok...photo challenge!
Now for the challenge part.
Firstly the wind. It buffets and shakes the tripod so much that no attempt of shielding it with your body, hugging it, or hanging from it seems to steady things enough to get 13 seconds of shake free exposure time! (Well we do live in the Furious Fifties I guess). Not to mention that you almost get blown off the vantage points from which you want to shoot from (on this occasion the 'golf tee' half way up Wireless Hill).
It whips an endless spray of salt through the air, which coats your lens, gets into your camera, and all over your face, but also spreads a fine mist overhead which disperses the light in the shots, making everything a big green pile!
The clouds? Well that is obvious. They just get in the way. Although sometimes they do offer some nice contrast in the sky.
And then the moon turns up, flooding everything with light, including the sea mist, trying to steal the attention of the big green aurora lights.

The outcome? Many photos of auroras peeking behind clouds with wiggly stars in the sky that look like a plague of small white larvae, that have escaped into my camera lens!

On the upside though, a fun night was had just being in the great outdoors and making the best challenge of Macca's elements. And good company is always to be found in like minded souls also stumbling around in the dark, trying to avoid elephant seals, just trying to take a damn photo!

And here they are....

Aurora to the east. Photo: Jacque Comery

Moon to the west from Wireless Hill Golf Tee. Photo: Jacque Comery



Trying to make an appearance from behind the clouds. Photo: Jacque Comery

Big green pile! Photo: Jacque Comery

June 14: My first aurora shots

Finally, I managed to capture some aurora shots.  It has taken many nights of experimenting with camera settings, glove combinations, and running about the Isthmus in my PJs and Carhartts avoiding stealth seals. 
Thanks Justin C for the endless tips and encouragement! And to all those who ring the aurora hotline when the sky starts dancing...

Aurora over west beach. Photo: Jacque Comery

Aurora above the LARC. Photo: Jacque Comery

Reds and greens behind the clouds. Photo: Jacque Comery

Aurora over west beach and the plateau. Photo: Jacque Comery

May 11: Yep! This is my home...

Jac and the aurora at Garden Cove outside the house. Photo: Justin Chambers

Cumpston's Cottage - My house. Photo: Justin Chambers

The ground floor is my office (with the deck) and my bedroom is to the right. The rooms above belong to that of the Doc and Chef. The small building on the right is the Seismic hut which has some tremor detecting equipment inside, and is coincidentally the path to the tsunami evacuation route up the hill.

I may need to be forcibly removed from this island in 11 months.  Squatters rights!!

HUGE shout out to Justin "J2" Chambers for sharing with me his awesome pics (and the house!) so that I too may share them.

April 18: Farewell Aurora.....and then there was 13...

Setting off flares to farewell the Aurora Australis on her return to Australia. Photo: Rich Youd.

Smiling at the excitement of our season finally beginning, or because I just let off my first parachute flare?  Perhaps both.  Photo: Rich Youd

68th ANARE team farewelling the Aurora with customary flare show.  Photo: Rich Youd.

 

It is an ANARE tradition that when the ship is ready to leave they will do a 'sail past' North Head, blast their horn, and at night put on a light show with their search lights. In return we blast off any out of date flares in a little fireworks display.  (Being so far from any other shipping, no one else will even see our flares...so boating friends don't be alarmed!)

We gave the AA a fitting send off in gusting winds and driving rain, and a light show that was worth braving the weather for.

April 11: Refuelling the station and the beautiful Aurora Australis...not the ship

Jacque Comery and Ben Golden on the isthmus admiring the Aurora Australis (the southern lights). Photo: Justin Chambers

 A whisper went around the mess that there was an aurora starting to appear.  With my tripod still in cargo I ran outside to try to get some shots...to no avail.  Thankfully Justin our chef was prepared armed with his tripod and mad skills, and caught this great shot of Ben and I.  Longest I have stood still not breathing in my life and not giggled!

Aurora Australis over the isthmus. Photo: Justin Chambers

 The Aurora danced around the sky  for over an hour.  It gave us curtains, and halos and all sorts of colours.  I couldn't believe that in just the 2 days since we landed I had been treated to so many amazing sights.

A Gentoo penguin supervises refuelling of the station.  Photo: Jacque Comery

 Refuelling is one of the biggest events on the resupply calendar.  It requires nice cooperative weather to move over 200,000L of fuel from ship to shore by  floating pipeline.  Our successful resupply was the highlight of the day....well until the show stealing Aurora came along.

Transferring a years supply of diesel fuel from the ship to our station via over water pipeline. Photo: Jacque Comery

This picture shows the IRBs (inflatable boats) patrolling the fuel line checking for any signs of leakage, and the helicopter still sling loading cargo from the deck of the AA to keep operations running. Resupplying a sub-Antarctic station is an impressive logistics feat.