Hoar Frost

Another morning where we woke up to freezing conditions. About -3C and much outside covered in hoar frost.

A couple of my attempts to take some macro shots of the frost on the Summerhouse roof:





Otherwise there has been little of interest to photograph recently.

A Splash of Winter Colour

Walking through the churchyard a couple of days ago I spotted that the Winter Aconite are just beginning to flower:

All Clear

Madam relaxing with her Christmas penguin after our visit to the vet where one of the nurses checked that she was progressing well after her tooth job last week:



She was given the all clear so it was £160 well spent! Unlike Bobby, Penny hasn't been put off visiting the vet even after two sets of extractions in eleven months. She goes bonkers if there is a car trip and a possibility of meeting people in the offing.

Looking Up

Just after Sunset yesterday I could see there was a fairly clear view of the Moon so I lugged the 70D with 100-400mm lens plus tripod outside for a few shots:



Then I happened to spot what, at first, I thought was a bright star. There was too much light in the garden to see much else so I had a go at photographing it to see how it would turn out. Every time I took a shot I could see what looked like reflections or refractions on the photo which I couldn't see in the sky:



I tried different positions and extra shade in front of the lens until the penny finally dropped. That was no star. It was Jupiter and with the camera taking about a 1/3 second exposure it was also picking up four of Jupiter's moons which I couldn't see with the naked eye. Probably Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa. The above is quite a small crop from the full photo. Definitely an improvement on my last attempt in November 2010 when I failed completely to get any recognisable still shots of Jupiter.

The Return of Mr P?

Of course this may not be the same pheasant which visited a few times last year. He was doing a grand job of clearing up the seeds scattered by the smaller birds. It must have stayed well over half an hour which gave plenty of time for some still and video shots:









Pheasant and Blackbird - which gives a good idea of their relative sizes:



Finally some silent video, shot hand held with the Canon 70D fitted with 100-400mm zoom lens:

First Frost of the Year

This morning we had our first real frosty conditions of 2014. When I got up the outside temperature was -2.7C and most things were white over with frost.

By the time we went walk-about it had risen to -1.7C with a thin cloud cover:



On our return I took a few photos of the frost crystals.
The lawn:



Most plants:



A frozen cobweb on the greenhouse:



 Ice crystals on a water barrel:

 

Macro view:



Macro view of frost pattern on the summerhouse window:




Penny



This was Penny still a bit dopey and sore on her return from the vets last Wednesday. Nice sparky white teeth but two less than she went with. Poor lass, that is now four less than she had a year ago.  Tooth decay can be a major problem with retired greyhounds. She is still a bit sore but that hasn't blunted her appetite though she is on soft food until everything has healed.

Storm Warning, Possible Aurora Conditions

Looking at SpaceWeather.com today I see that NASA has estimated a 90% chance of geomagnetic storms tonight. The speed of the solar wind around Earth could peak at 1.6 million mph compressing the Earth's magnetosphere. Given a clear sky an aurora might be seen from northern parts of the UK. I have seen one photo of a faint aurora which was taken in Scotland within the past week.

Unfortunately it looks as though many areas will be under cloud cover as shown in a tweet from AuroraWatchUK.