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To observe the total solar eclipse on November 23-24, 2003, the first one to be witnessed in Antarctica in the history of mankind, I went first to Cape Town in South Africa to take a special Ilyushin IL-76TD flight to the russian station of Novolazarevskaya. The weather was perfect on eclipse day: the sky was blue and clear, the temperature in this beginning of the austral summer around -25°C (-13°F). However turbulences caused by the various atmospheric layers made the observations, at high magnification, difficult just over the ice-capped horizon. Click on thumbnails for a larger version
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![Ilyushin Compartment](javascript:openSlideWindow(2, '../SlideWindow.html', '../../site_images/TSE_2003/', 'IL-76TD_Cabin.jpg', 13, 48, 1024, 671, 'centered', 'Ilyushin IL-76TD "Passengers" compartment', '', 'en', 1);)
. The 6-hour rather noisy flight requires ear-plugs, but went perfectly well. The landing of a 130 metric tons aircraft on the ice is rather impressive and requires precision skills from the test pilots: the least mistake can mean we don’t go back!<br>At the back the Tallaksenvarden Mountain is 10 kilometers away: distances are misleading because there is no referral point in the immensity of this barren ice desert and because of the blinding luminosity.<br>The ice thickness is already at 500 meters (1,600 ft) mark.', 'en', 1);)
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. The 6-hour rather noisy flight requires ear-plugs, but went perfectly well. The landing of a 130 metric tons aircraft on the ice is rather impressive and requires precision skills from the test pilots: the least mistake can mean we don’t go back!<br>In the background and to the left, the Tallaksenvarden Mountain is 10 kilometers away: distances are misleading because there is no referral point in the immensity of this barren ice desert and because of the blinding luminosity.<br>The ice thickness is already at 500 meters (1,600 ft) mark.', 'en', 1);)
 is slightly going up.', 'en', 1);)
 and always fly by two for security reasons.<br>The unloading of the 35 metric tons in the cargo bay was just completed on the Ilyushin IL-76TD.', 'en', 1);)
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.<br>The double-walled tents are heated by hot air driven inside by a turbine from outside. Red tents are the sleeping quarters, while the yellow one is the mess tent.<br>In the background to the right, more than 500 meters (1,600 ft) lower and 80 kilometers (50 mi) away, you can see the ice shelf around Antarctica.', 'en', 1);)
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', 'At the exit of the Petermann Range valley (Wohlthat Mountains), you can find this huge and distant mountain of nearly 500 meters (1,600 ft) over the ice sheet of the valley already at an altitude of 1,700 meters (5,500 ft): the ice sheet thickness is over 1,000 meters (3,300 ft).<br>You can see ice crystals blown over the ice by a southerly light wind: this is only a prelude to katabatic winds. The temperature reading was -32°C (-26°F) and -46°C (-50°F) with windchill.', 'en', 1);)
', 'Those mountain shapes are mostly found in Antarctica. It is the result of rock erosion by huge ice sheet glaciers coming all the way from the center of the continent a good thousand kilometers to the south. One can think that the traces on the rock, show the ice one day covered the bottom of this photo.', 'en', 1);)
Guest BookXavier M. Jubier
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