Twilight Descends

March brought the setting of the sun, the last we will see of that great orb of flame for six months. The sun takes about a day and a half to set from the time it touches the horizon to when it completely disappears. Sunset can have very sporadic weather, so we did not actually get to see the sun finally disappears, which meant we also didn't get to witness the hours-long green flash. 

Spoolhenge at Sunset

Sunset, being one of the "antarctica holidays" was accompanied by a Sunset Dinner. The galley was decorated and the kitchen staff served a fancy dinner. No, we don't always eat on tablecloths or on a single long table. The next big dinner of this sort will be for Winter's Solstice.

The twilight that follows the disappearance of the Sun lasts for weeks. I'm not sure what the building below is, it is just one of many remnants of past construction projects left abandoned near the station. The extra fuel tanks in the background mark the "end of the world". 

The panorama below shows the Earth's shadow - it is actually taken opposite the direction of the Sun and shows the shadow of the Earth projected into the atmosphere - a phenomenon more easily observed here. The station is directly behind and the view is towards the summer camp, a collection of buildings and storage units mostly left untouched during the winter. The two white domes house the dishes that communicate with satellites and provide us with internet. Apart from being just a station, the south pole houses a large assortment of buildings, and from the air it can look like the station is next to a junk yard.