Sweet aurora!

Last night of the rocket window... and we're out for winds again!! This is so frustrating. We're having nice aurora in our cameras at the moment, and they can't launch any rockets... well, all we can do is continue observing it, and collecting optical data. I was out last night collecting some optical data myself, the aurora was amazing, and I got my first photos of coronal aurora... and I saw blue aurora! I'm posting some of my photos here, so you can see. I think we got some really good data last night, we were pointing toward Kaktovik where Hans and Allison are making measurements with their cameras of some 'whimpy minibreakups' that must be something not a lot of people have studied before! Well, when looking overhead we got more dynamic stuff. It was a Themis conjunction night too, which means this data will be very valuable since there's also satellite and radar data for it.

This is what Kristina calls Sweet aurora! I agree!

Well, I can definitely see some blue stuff in there...

Are those two separate arcs?? Is that black aurora?? This is quite an interesting event!

Today we needed a break again, and went out and helped Scott bring logs to the sauna. The great thing about carrying lots of wood down there is that we got to play with the snow machines again! We took a ride over the lake afterwards and it's soo much fun flying over the snow piles! Here's a photo of the sauna (the view through the window is soo nice when sitting in the heat in there):

Tobbe, getting logs from the sled to bring into the sauna. It was a gorgeous day today!

Well, the last night of the rocket window for this period (the next window starts again 15 March, but I don't know yet if I will be around for that or not) is not over yet, and the winds can still change. Could everyone please do an aurora and wind dance for us, we need some help to get this rocket in the air tonight!