Dome C

Dome C, also known as Dome Circe or Dome Charlie, (<math> 75^\circ\rm S, 123^\circ\rm E<math>) is a local feature of the Antarctic Plateau, and site of the Concordia scientific station.

Dome C is notable for being the site of an astronomical observatory, which is capable of extremely accurate observations; the transparency of the Antarctic atmosphere allows stars to be observed, even when the sun is at an elevation angle of <math>38^\circ<math>.

Writing in Nature, astronomer Jon S. Lawrence and coworkers discuss the suitability of the site for astronomy in terms of the seeing and state:

...the median seeing is 0.27 arcsec, and below 0.15 arcsec 25 per cent of the time. A telescope placed at Dome C would compete with one that is 2 to 3 times larger at the best mid-latitude observatories, and an interferometer based at this site could work on projects that would otherwise require a space mission.

(Nature 431, 278 - 281 (16 September 2004); doi:10.1038/nature02929).

Lawrence considers other features of the site and concludes that "Dome C is the best ground-based site to develop a new astronomical observatory".

The experiment was controlled by a computer system that had to supervise the generation of its own electricity using a jet-fuel powered stirling engine. The computer, running Linux, communicated with the outside world using an Iridium phone.