Group shots

It's getting close to the end of the summer season here. The temperature is going down every day, and the station population is falling even faster. Most of the SPT team is still here, but some people have left already, including the "reflector assembly team" from Chicago - Tom, Jeff, Ryan, and Joaquin.

The last few weeks have been the first and only time that all of us on the project have been together in the same place, working together. It's remarkable what can be accomplished with everyone working around the clock like this. But even more remarkable is just how much work has already been put into building the telescope, by huge teams of people here at the station and back in the U.S. It's just something you can't comprehend until you see it: the teams of iron workers, carpenters, electricians, insulation workers, and myriad other specialists who have contributed their time and dedication to this project. It's a wonderful thing to feel like the whole station is pushing for us to succeed, and it's also awesome to see these teams working long shifts outside in the cold day after day. I am especially awed by the iron workers, whom I watch out the windows of the lab all through the night shift. Some of them participated in the test-build of the telescope that took place in Texas, so they've been working hard on this project for months and months. They're fantastic at their job, and just great people. If you read Tom's blog, you also know they throw great parties! I've been having the time of my life.

We've had a few chances to take some group photos, of several different sets of telescope contributors. Below is a group shot of all of the SPT scientists who were here this season. Naturally the only day we could all get together at the same time (not always easy with people on every sleeping schedule) was a day with terrible weather. We're standing on the roof of the Dark Sector Lab, with the telescope dish behind us. It may not strike you the same way, but that telescope is absolutely gorgeous to us. It also looks gorgeous to the cosmic microwave photons we will be collecting - at those wavelengths, the aluminum surface is a close-to-perfect mirror, even though it looks rough when viewed in the optical.


Just a couple of days ago, before people started to "redeploy" back to the real world, I took some pictures of the iron workers along with the telescope specialists and University of Chicago team that worked on assembling the telescope and the main mirror. Again, it was crummy weather (it's not like that most of the time, I promise!). Think about those people, who look so tiny in the pictures, collaborating to design and assemble that insanely huge telescope in one of the harshest places on earth. I love it. I love being a part of this and being able to celebrate the accomplishments of such a genuinely wonderful group of people.


And finally, you may have noticed if you've been following some of our webcasts and online materials that the Chicago boys tend to get a little scruffy when working on location - growing beards and shaggy hair and wearing holes in all their Carharts. As the end of their stay grew near, they started a moustache trend that culminated in the group shot below. Joaquin had the idea that everyone should have moustaches and we should take what he called and "old-timey" photograph, acting like serious antarctic explorers. As far as Joaquin is concerned, the stereotypical photograph of the early polar explorers involves a handful of grave-looking men staring off into the distance, set against a start and opressive landscape. Yet, he claims, they always have perfectly trimmed moustaches. (I have to admit I have not seen such a picture yet, but I tried to play along).


Well, anyway, we might have pulled it off if it weren't for the back row mucking things up with their sunglasses and t-shirts. Humph. (And yes, that's me in the lower left, with a moustache. It's just blonde so you can't see it so well). The back row: Berkeley postdoc Brad Benson, Berkeley grad student Martin Lueker, Jeff, Erik Nichols (the leader of the fearless ironworkers), Case Western grad student Zak Staniszewski. Front row: yours truly, Joaquin, Tom Crawford, and Berkeley grad student Tom Plagge.