Orion

Orion is one of the easiest constellations to find and, luckily for me, appears in the southwest sky which is the direction my windows face.

I was never able to capture the whole constellation in the frame but I could get the major stars and "objects" such as Orion's belt and sword.

You will need to click on the images to enlarge them.  Hopefully you have a touch screen or other way to further enlarge the first photo.  The four outer stars from upper left clockwise to lower left are:  Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, and Saiph.  The inner stars can be seen better in the second and third photos.

Orion 

 

Orion's belt (first without names and then with names)

Orion's sword (first without names and then with names)

Ice Patterns

I've discovered that the best place to look for interesting ice patterns in the neighbourhood is in parking lots.  I even know which parking lots provide the best patterns along with which particular areas within those lots.  Retirement and the pandemic have given me the time and the motivation to make these discoveries!

Note: A few of the photos have been converted to grayscale to remove the brownish color of tiny patches of mud.

Note 2: You can click on one (to enlarge it) and then scroll through the photos to see them in a larger format.

The following pictures have a blue tint that is naturally produced by the shade.

Snowflakes and Frost

With little to photograph while I stay within my neighbourhood limits, I have turned to closely examining ice and snow.  This post will show some snowflakes and frost and a future post will show ice patterns.

The best place to find snowflakes with a dark background (for contrast) is on pavement.  I find that usually the flakes melt quickly but if there is "black" ice, the temperature is lower than the asphalt and that helps to keep the flakes intact long enough for a photograph.  Sadly, many of the flakes break apart either on the way down or when they hit the ground.  I managed to see a couple of these flakes shown below as they fell and landed near me.  I find that more interesting than just coming upon them already on the ground.  Some how I feel a connection to these tiny snowflakes.

These are pictures of frost that appeared one morning on my living room window.