21 March 2023

Spring has sprung!

Less than an hour later...

When we collected rocks to fill the buckets holding the tripods down, we were very careful to not take a rock that had someone living on it.  Life is rough enough here without having someone pick you up and put you in a bucket to die.  We admired the mussels living on the boulders.  Last night, the neighbors were down on the beach harvesting the mussels for their dinner.  Savages.

Perfect snow for a snow woman.  We now have a mascot.  A rocket groupie, as it were.  Female of course.

No launch.  Cloudy, windy, snowy....and repeat.
 

 

 20 March 2023

The forecast for today is rain followed by heavy snow all night.  It's a Range night off so good that we won't be counting.  Last night was cloudy with low winds at all the camera sites and we scrubbed early.

The big excitement today is a trip to Coop to replenish our food supplies.  

Look at the color in this sunrise!  Red sky in morning... Uh oh.

Traveling with Danielle is an adventure.  She seems to get all the special treatment.  Going through security in Oslo, she got the full body scan and swabs and then again leaving Andenes.  Not sure why the red flags go up for her.  Both times we've gone to the local grocery store, when we've done the self checkout, somehow she is randomly chosen to have her bag checked.  Someone comes over and actually counts the number of items in her grocery bag.  The trip back to the U.S. will undoubtedly prove to be interesting.

 19 March 2023

We are expecting high winds again this afternoon so will bring in the orange boxes.  Looks like snow all night.  Not so sure we will be able to participate in the count tonight.  

Shoveled out our path to the front door and the parking area, in anticipation of more snow tonight.  Then took a walk around the neighborhood.  The wind was picking up so it wasn't a very long walk.

It looks like the weather will be changing for the better around Wednesday.  Since the last night of the launch window is Saturday night, it comes at a good time.  

18 March 2023

Today, we will set the camera site back up.  There were some camera issues last night so we will be making some changes.  I woke up from a dream this morning, convinced that I was being moved to a new camera site.  Danielle would stay here alone.  I suspect she'll be happy to hear that it was just a dream.

No wind today but a little snow.  The temperature is getting up to 36 degrees today so we certainly won't be driving anywhere.  Those roads are going to be SLIPPERY!  I think we are good for winds for tonight but tomorrow afternoon the gusts start up again.  Only up to 49 mph but enough that we will have to take in the orange boxes again.  We're getting pretty efficient at securing the site.  We should be able to take them back out around the time the window opens on Sunday night but since it will be snowing.....  You have to love winter weather, if you live here.

Beautiful sunrise tonight, in preparation for the coming clear skies.  No wind makes for a happy camera site.

The 11:00-4:00 launch window is a tough one.  We scrubbed at 2 a.m.

 17 March 2023

We stayed up late last night, hoping for some aurora.  We did see a little bit, but nothing very dramatic.  Still, it's always nice to see that arc across the sky.  The glow to the bottom left is the town of Inndyr.  We drive around the end of the fjord to get there.

This morning is a bit "breezy".  We'll be bringing in the orange camera boxes before it gets too much worse.  Right now, at 9 am, the gusts are only to 28 mph.  We are expecting 60 mph by 5 pm.  Tethering may be in order for us both!

High winds, up to 66 mph, all day.  

 With the start of the launch window, we were completely cloudy and windy.  At some point, the wind seemed to die down and even though we were cloudy we decided to put the camera boxes out and hope for the best.  Once we started the cameras, the wind started gusting again.  So, we had to take them back down.  It's hard to not be able to participate.  They're all seeing great aurora and we have snow in our eyes.  Just hoping the winds die down enough for them to launch tonight.

No launch.  We will try again tomorrow.

 16 March 2023

Testing our camera scripts today.  It may be our only clear night so we are planning to run the cameras a bit tonight to check the exposures.  There's also a chance that we will be able to photograph the Swedish launch release.  Exciting times!  All that and a trip to the store to stock up.  We're supposed to get high winds and snow on Friday night so are concerned that with the drifting snow we may not get out right away.  

At the store, I was trying to determine which container had sour cream (Taco Thursday) and realized that the woman who was trying to help me was using a translator app from Norwegian to Russian.  Seemed surprised that I wasn't Russian, for some reason.  Anyway, I think I chose the right one.  We will see.  

Excellent chicken tacos!  Neither one of us is much into cooking so it's a bit of a free for all.  It was indeed sour cream!

The Swedish launch was canceled, due to high winds.  We face similar problems once our launch window opens, unfortunately.  

The weather forecast for tomorrow, for our site, is not great.  56 mph winds are predicted, followed by snow.  We will bring in our orange camera boxes, as a precaution.  

15 March 2023

Busy day today.  We finished the setup, laying all the cables to the tripods, assembled camera shelves and tested everything.  Realized that the heated floor in the camera control room was not turned on so are now waiting for the tiles to heat up.  Waited for low tide so that we could collect more rocks for weights. Tomorrow we will finish up some small details and do a trial run of our camera scripts.  We are supposed to have snow tonight but maybe clear Thursday night.  Since there’s supposed to be good aurora, we hope to be able to see it.