Tent with unifilar magnetometer

This is a photograph from the first British National Antarctic Expedition, also known as the Discovery Expedition. The Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society jointly organised this scientific expedition to the Antarctic which lasted from 1901 to 1904 and was led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott and included Ernest Schackleton, Tom Crean, and Reginald William Skelton who took most of the expedition photographs.

The photograph shows the set-up for the magnetometer held by Captain Scott. One of the scientific aims of the expedition was to take magnetic observations across the Antarctic. Magnetometers are the instruments used to measure the magnetic field at a specific place on the Earth.