28 March 2023

Today we pack up and drive to Bodø.  Off to Oslo we go.  After a day spent exploring Oslo, we made it home with no problems.  Looks like we will try to launch the second pair of rockets in 2024.  See you then!

 26-27 March 2023

On Sunday we took down the camera site and packed it back into the five crates.  It only took us a little over three hours.  Absolutely clear skies at night, one day after the end of the window.  

I'm going to miss this view from the couch and the quiet and the beauty of my surroundings.

Today, the crates were picked up.  Amazing how much easier the transfer was with one small woman truck driver, compared to the two men who delivered them.  The rest of the day will be spent doing some cleaning and packing.  Trying to use up the remaining food.  We hope to leave around 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

 25 March 2023

Tonight is the last night of the launch window.  Not sure we'll get this last pair of rockets launched.  Even if we do, it looks like we have a snowy night so wouldn't be able to see the trails.  

Back to Ørnes again today, unfortunately.  Reading an email from the trucking company more closely, I realized that there is another document that needs to be printed.  Luckily, the library is open again today.  It's not a hardship to make that beautiful drive, especially since the roads are mostly clear at this point.  

Our plan is to have the crates picked up on Monday and fly to Oslo on Tuesday. 

Beautiful sunrise.

We are counting tonight.  Unfortunately, we expect to have clouds and snow and high winds.  Sigh.  We will still get everything ready.  We can get the orange boxes out, put the camera shelves in, and get everything tested in 15 minutes.  You never know...

1 a.m.  All camera sites red (clouds/snow/wind). 

3:15 a.m. (actually now 4:15 a.m. with daylight savings) Scrub

It was a long night with no camera sites able to support the launch.  

 24 March 2023

Still recovering from last night's excitement.  We stayed up pretty late, watching the aurora.  At one point, the corona was directly overhead and there were curtains of aurora coming down all around us.  Awesome.

Today we drove back to Ørnes.  It suddenly occurred to me that a library might be a good place to get copies of shipping labels printed.  Sure enough.  It's a big relief to get those in hand.  There's not exactly a copy shop on the corner.  My other option was to drive 1:45 back to Bodø, where my landlord had printed them for me.  So, a very productive morning.

We are still waiting to hear if we will count tonight or not.  The weather isn't great to the north and it's slowly moving this way.

We didn't count tonight but had wonderful aurora.

 23 March 2023

Well, we have finally given in and scheduled the crates to be picked up on Monday.  Our last night to count is Saturday night.  Tonight looks like our best opportunity.  Fingers crossed!  

What a night it was!  Booming aurora and clear skies.  Oh, and we also photographed the barium releases from the BROR launch out of Kiruna, Sweden as well as the releases from our first pair of rockets out of Andenes.  Making sure the releases were in the field of view of the cameras but also sneaking photos of the aurora.  We were lucky that the wind died down a bit so that it was cold but not too uncomfortable.

I wore my lucky chicken socks.

In between all the awesome aurora, we had work to do.

 22 March 2023

Beautiful sunshine this morning.  We plan to head south to a town with THREE supermarkets!  Pretty exciting.  

We drove south to Ørnes.  It's about a 35 minute scenic drive with lots of mountains a long tunnel and of course the fjord.

Not every day you want to take a picture inside a rest room

                                               

We have this taxidermy eagle (is that the right term?) in our living room.  Sea eagles are very common around here.  

1:39 in the morning.  Still waiting for the winds to die down.  They are still too high for the rocket booster.  It's not good to have it land on something other than water.  Here, we have absolutely clear skies.  Cold but no wind.  Brief aurora sighting.  Scrubbed at 3am.