February 26th, 2010
Kids + Snow = Generally an awesome time (and soreness).
Tag Archives: winter
Mid-winter photography
February 3rd, 2009
Before a dinner with some family at my mother-in-law’s this weekend I had the chance to walk around her backyard, which just happens to be a very large field with two streams and a small tree covered hill on it, and take a few photos. Here are some that I am choosing to share.
Snow covered lamp
February 3rd, 2009
Date taken: February 3, 2004 | Carbondale, Pennsylvania.
Five years ago today: This photo was taken just outside our home in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. We then lived in a house on Wyoming Avenue that had no off-street parking and no yard. It did have an above ground pool that we only seldom used. This lamp, which was just outside our front door next to the entrance of our white-fenced-in “side yard” pool/deck area, lived among the bushes and gave us just enough light to get around outside at night.
This particular snow storm lightly covered most everything with enough snow to make it look like winter. If memory serves, only a few days later we got a fair amount of snow.
The first day of Summer, I mean, Winter
June 20th, 2008
Today is the first day of Summer here in North America. Â The sun will shine longer today than any other day this year. Â But one must not forget about the rest of the world. Â Those on the other side of our planet are experiencing the direct opposite; the first day of Winter and the shortest day of the year.
So, by way of review here are the many names of the solstice. Â This being copied directly from Wikipedia.
- Summer solstice and winter solstice are the most common names. However, these can be ambiguous since seasons of the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere are opposites, and the summer solstice of one hemisphere is the winter solstice of the other.
- Northern solstice and southern solstice indicate the direction of the sun’s movement. The northern solstice is in June on Earth, when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere, and the southern solstice is in December, when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere.
- June solstice and December solstice are an alternative to the more common “summer” and “winter” terms, but without the ambiguity for which hemisphere they are intended. They are still not universal, however, as not all people on Earth use a solar-based calendar where the solstices occur every year in the same month (as they do not in the Hebrew calendar, for example), and the names are also not useful for other planets (Mars, for example), even though these planets do have seasons.
- First point of Cancer and first point of Capricorn. One disadvantage of these names is that, due to the precession of the equinoxes, theastrological signs where these solstices are located no longer correspond with the actual constellations.
- Taurus solstice and Sagittarius solstice are names that indicate in which constellations the two solstices are currently located. These terms are not widely used, though, and until December 1989 the first solstice was in Gemini, according to official IAU boundaries.
- The Latin names Hibernal solstice (winter), and Aestival solstice (summer) are sometimes used.
Now you know. Â If you live anywhere in the northern hemisphere get outside today and enjoy the first day of our summer. Â If you live anywhere in the southern hemisphere find a good book and a cup of soup.
Aurora Borealis in Murmansk
April 22nd, 2008
The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, is a natural phenomenon worth researching. The hows, whys, and whens are not as stunning as just sitting back and looking at it though. This series of photos gives us a glimpse of what the Aurora looks like from Murmansk, Russia.
I’ve never had the opportunity to shoot the Aurora, but I plan to one day have my own photos of both auroras borealis and australis.