Tales from U of T's Antarctic Astronomer

He's one of the few people in the world to master the art of astronomy at -70C. Keith Vanderlinde spent 11 months working on-site with the South Pole Telescope in Antarctica before joining U of T's Dunlap Institute and Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics a few years later. The newly hired assistant professor, just arrived in January, will share stories from his time at the South Pole as part of the U of'T Graduate Astronomy Students' Association's celebration of World Astronomy Day on April 20th. In addition to Vanderlinde's lecture, the group will also host planetarium showings, viewings through dome and balcony telescopes, demonstrations of the curvature of space-time and more. (Find more event information here. Vanderlinde spoke about his adventures and his reasons for coming to U of T. What will you be discussing at the International Astronomy Day lecture? A lot of my work uses a 10m microwave telescope located in Antarctica, only about a kilometre away from the geographic south pole. A few years back, I spent a year living and working with the telescope, keeping it running through the long, dark Antarctic winter.