Pictures from sunset, around 21 March

Sunset here lasts for days--the sun has been dropping a half degree a day since midsummer, so it lazily makes its way towards sunset--circling around the horizon lower and lower. it officially dropped below the horizon on march 20th, but the earths atmosphere acts like a lens and an image of the sun bobs up and down over the horizon for several more days (also known as the "refracted sun"). its pretty impressive against the great white antarctic plateau. Click on a thumbnail to get a larger version.

some "diamond dust" (ice crystals in the air) floating in the entrance to the dome--the sun was just low enough to come down the tunnel, but not so low as to be obscured behind the 20 foot drift out the tunnel entrance. this was so amazing when i saw it--i stood stock still staring at it for 10 minutes.