I have just returned from Barrow, where Tim Buckley and I put in an observatory at Imikpuk Lake. Tim is a science teacher at Barrow High School.

We put in the observatory in grim weather at dusk on Wednesday. It was windy even by Barrow standards, but we successfully drilled 21 holes, measured the ice thickness and froze in 21 wooden stakes in a fairly straight line. We also installed the hot-wire ice thickness gauge. We were fortunate to be assisted by Clayton Lambrecht, the father of one of Tim's students and the person responsible for the distillation plant that draws water from Imikpuk Lake. Without Clayton it would have been more of a struggle for Tim and I to get the work done.

Bright and early on Thursday morning (7:40) Tim and I were interviewed on KBRW by Earl Finkler. We talked about the snow and ice project, and its dual science education and research role. It was a very useful thing to do, and you might want to think about something similar with your radio station or newspaper. Getting out the word and gaining community support is always worth doing. Later on Thursday morning we took Tim's freshman general science class out to the observatory to demonstrate the use of the snow probes and reader, the snow sampling tube and the ice thickness gauge. This morning, Friday, when asked what they thought of their trip to the observatory, they agreed that it was cool (and the weather too, although it was calm by Barrow standards). Running the observatory will be the responsibility of this class and their project for science fair.

Martin with Tim Buckley's freshmen general science class after a training session at Imikpuk Lake.

Having had a successful visit with Tim, I am looking forward to visiting everyone else in due course when the ice allows. With a bit of luck we will have most of the observatories set up by the end of November. As I flew in to Fairbanks at noon today I noticed that Aurora Pond had new ice on it, at last. We will start monitoring its early thickness and soon have Deb Bennett and the home-school students busy running their observatory.

We will visit Poker Flat tomorrow to make measurements. As yet there is no snow on the ice so we will be making just the ice thickness measurements, but at least it's a start. We will also be installing thermistors in the ice at two ponds to measure the ice temperature during the winter.