This is a free and open to the public online event, to attend please register with zoom by clicking here.

In a lavishly illustrated presentation, John W. Briggs of New Mexico will describe his year-long experience living at the Geographic South Pole while working for the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica.  In preparation for this at Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago, John was a team member building a 24-inch infrared telescope and related experiments that were set up at the Pole in time for him and colleagues to observe the July, 1994, explosive crash of fragmented comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into the planet Jupiter.

John weathered the “winter-over” with 26 other members of the U.S. Antarctic Program in an experience that many believe approximates what life will be like someday at a lunar or Martian outpost.  Once begun, South Pole winter-over is an irreversible commitment, since the Program’s special LC-130 ski planes can’t land in the winter temperatures — in 1994, sometimes as low as 107 degrees F. below zero (with windchill, as low as -180 degrees).  John will delight the audience with his perspective on the total South Pole experience — the strange natural environment, the odd social atmosphere, and the challenging, ongoing science.