{"id":201,"date":"2008-03-21T23:31:25","date_gmt":"2008-03-21T23:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/antarctica\/equinox-aurora"},"modified":"2008-03-22T02:02:09","modified_gmt":"2008-03-22T02:02:09","slug":"equinox-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/?p=201","title":{"rendered":"Equinox aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/2008_0321-wide.jpg\" title=\"Wide-angle view of the night sky at full moon, showing a thin aurora\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/2008_0321-wide.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"Wide-angle view of the night sky at full moon, showing a thin aurora\" \/> <\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/2008_0321-aurora.jpg\" title=\"The southern lights glow above our HF radar array\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/2008_0321-aurora.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"The southern lights glow above our HF radar array\" \/> <\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/2008_0321-piggenaurora.jpg\" title=\"The aurora glows green with a hint of red below, above the summit of Lorentzenpiggen\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/2008_0321-piggenaurora.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"The aurora glows green with a hint of red below, above the summit of Lorentzenpiggen\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not a superstitious person, or overly religious, but the longer I live the more I begin to believe in serendipity.  Today is auspicious for many reasons &#8211; it is Good Friday to Christians, falling this year on South Africa&#8217;s Human Rights Day, and it is particularly special to us in Antarctica as it is the autumn equinox &#8211; a milestone in our year on the ice. \u00c2\u00a0 This equinox coincides with a beautiful full moon, and we have been further blessed by open skies and no wind.\u00c2\u00a0  Imagine out joy, then when the final gift arrived &#8211; a lovely aurora.\u00c2\u00a0  This one formed several bands over the south-eastern horizon, and was remarkably active, with rapidly shifting green veils.\u00c2\u00a0  At times, a red hue was visible in the lower reaches.\u00c2\u00a0  The full moon certainly prevented us from seeing the full splendour of the aurora, but it highlighted the landscape &#8211; while the base basked in the cool light of the moon, we watched the glowing southern lights over our familiar southern peaks&#8230; serendipity indeed.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/moonlitsanae2.jpg\" title=\"The author in front of SANAE IV in the moonlight\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/moonlitsanae2.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"The author in front of SANAE IV in the moonlight\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/moonlitsanae.jpg\" title=\"SANAE IV in the moonlight, taken on the roof of the base\"> <\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/moonlitsanae.jpg\" title=\"SANAE IV in the moonlight, taken on the roof of the base\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/moonlitsanae.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"SANAE IV in the moonlight, taken on the roof of the base\" \/> <\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/moonlitchallengers.jpg\" title=\"Caterpillar Challengers doze in the moonlight\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/moonlitchallengers.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"Caterpillar Challengers doze in the moonlight\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not a superstitious person, or overly religious, but the longer I live the more I begin to believe in serendipity. Today is auspicious for many reasons &#8211; it is Good Friday to Christians, falling this year on South Africa&#8217;s Human Rights Day, and it is particularly special to us in Antarctica as it is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antarctica","category-aurora-australis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}