During my deployment to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica in the Austral Summer 2012-2013, my good friend Blaise was working with the Daniel M. Soref Planetarium at the Milwaukee Public Museum and the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center (WIPAC) of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Throughout the summer season, Blaise worked with a RED HD Video Camera and a very wide angle lens to film daily lives around the station- including mine, as well as various aspects of the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory.
The footage Blaise captured was produced into the planetarium presentation “Chasing the Ghost Particle: From the South Pole to the Edge of the Universe“, released December 2013, and playing at planetariums nationwide. (Full Dome Database Listing)
Deep in the ice at the heart of Antarctica, IceCube, the biggest and strangest detector in the world waits for mysterious messengers from the cosmos. Scientists are using tiny and elusive particles called neutrinos to explore the most extreme places in the universe. These ghostly neutrinos give us an exclusive way to study powerful cosmic engines like exploding stars and black holes.
In this 30-minute show, stunning simulations of the most energetic places in our universe, and the galaxies around us, are the prelude to a thrilling journey inside IceCube, looking for traces of neutrino collisions in the ice. From one of the most remote locations on Earth to the unexplored regions of the cosmos, Chasing the Ghost Particle: From the South Pole to the Edge of the Universe will take you on a journey you won’t forget.
Since I was working on the station during filming, I’m actually in the planetarium movie a few times, which is very cool! Screen grabs included, and a “demo copy” of the film is included below.
(Full show demo is from Full Dome Database, and I claim no rights or permissions)