June 2010
Antarctic Odyssey: Winter-Over at South Pole Station
John BriggsLong-time Skyscraper John W. Briggs, currently faculty astronomer at the Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Massachusetts, will describe with slides his 1994 experience living at the Geographic South Pole while working for the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica, headquartered at Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago. John was involved building a 24-inch infrared telescope and related experiments at Yerkes. The telescope, known as SPIREX for South Pole Infrared Explorer, was mounted at South Pole in time to observe the July, 1994, crash of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into the planet Jupiter.
With 26 other members of the U.S. Antarctic Program, John weathered the year-long “winter-over.” Once begun, winter-over is an irreversible commitment, since the Program’s special LC-130 ski planes can’t land in the winter temperatures – which in 1994 were sometimes as low as 106 degrees below zero (with wind chill, as low as -190 degrees F.). Wintering at Pole is a fantastic personal adventure, but not without the potential for tragedy. John’s closest collaborator in 1994, young Australian astrophysicist Rodney Marks, later died at Pole during his own winter-over experience.
John holds a BA in physics from San Jose State University. He worked at many astronomical observatories before returning to New England five years ago as an invited visiting scholar at Phillips Academy, where he and his wife Liz were students in the 1970s. Long devoted to astronomy, and in the 1980s a trustee at Seagrave, his hobbies include collecting and restoring antique telescopes as well as photography. John enjoys public speaking and hopes to delight you with his perspective on the total South Pole experience – the strange natural environment, the odd social atmosphere, and the challenging, ongoing science. His photographs have appeared in many publications and have been used by the National Geographic Society. Like all winter-over staff in U.S. Program, John received the nation’s Antarctica Service Medal.
Images: On left, John outdoors during South Pole night with the IRPS infrared spectrophotometer, an instrument used to measure sky brightness. On right, the 1994 observing team with University of Chicago’s South Pole Infrared Explorer Telescope, a 24-inch reflector designed and built specifically for the extreme environment at South Pole Station.
