Friday, we were supposed to launch another sonde but we are not in the vortex. This means there is no ozone hole above us and we just have to wait. I finished untangling the parachute and we cleaned up some more instruments. Did everyone hear about the balloon boy? This was the big subject of the day because it was so ridiculous. First off that balloon would never carry a small boy, way too small. Second, what the hell is wrong with those parents... I have no words for the stupidity that went on yesterday.
Friday night we met the seal group at the coffee house to claim our reward. It was a very nice night of visiting and drinking wine, well I had hot chocolate with Amaretto but very good. So that was two nights in a row I was out past 9:30 pm. Crazy! I know... Didn't quite make it to 10 either night but give me a break, I'm up at 6:30 am and I'm tired. I like sleeping.
Today we couldn't launch a balloon again, we are still waiting, hopefully soon... I did some random data analysis, little bit of writing, made some batteries, small things.
Since I have nothing new to tell you, I decided to go back to a subject I talked a little bit about at the beginning of the season, the LIDAR. Give you a little science. The Lidar is a laser that shoots a beam of green light into the stratosphere. The laser light gets scattered on the particles within the atmosphere and some of that light is collected by a large telescope then recorded. We are most interested in PSCs or polar stratospheric clouds and the Lidar can tell us if there are any clouds, how big they are and what they are made of. We all learned to run it and it was kinda cool. This is the sign you see as you walk into the lab.
It is my favorite sign in all of McMurdo. Because of the power of the laser, we are required to wear these kick ass goggles. This is me late one night when I was running it by myself, I was staying entertained at least. God I look so cool. ;)
We asked what would happen if we didn't wear the goggles and Jason, who was teaching us to run it, told us our eyeballs would explode like an egg in the microwave. Needless to say, I always wore the goggles. Here is the actual set up.
The really big cylinder is the telescope and that thing sticking up next to it, is the laser. The box underneath is called a chopper and it "chops" out bad data from other light sources, like the sun. Hence why we had to run it when it was dark and no longer run it because its light all the time. Next pic is a close up of the laser and telescope.
I think I was bored in the next one. I look really dumb but I think we can all have a giggle over it. (Lindsey, this one is mostly for you. Smile! :)
The next photo is one of Leslie's. Here camera has a longer exposure setting. This is what the laser looks like as it shoots into the sky. 
It is pretty neat to watch and everyone always tended to notice when we were running it. Someone said we were trying to shoot down airplanes. Another said we were signaling to aliens. Everyone had their own version of what we were doing. I just liked the goggles. Have a great weekend everyone! Congratulations to Deanna and Ian who are getting married, today for me and tomorrow for all of you. Cheers!
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