Snowy University of Illinois

Another strong storm system trekked across southern Illinois tripping Winter Storm Warnings all across the Ohio Valley. Up north in central Illinois we were left with only a couple inches of the white stuff. After sitting around for a while watching the snow I decided to make use of myself and headed out to the University of Illinois campus to take in some of the scenery being covered with the at times, heavy snow. Of course, during most of the time I was walking around the snow had let up considerably. The winds of course, did not so it was again another brief outing. I started near the Engineering Quad north of Green Street.



Soon I ventured south a couple blocks to the intersection of Green Street and Wright Street. Below are a couple shots of the Alma Mater and Altgeld Hall. There was another photographer walking around the same area at this time.





After spending a chunk of time in this area I ventured further south to the Quad near the center of Campus. I ran into the other photographer in this area again, as we both nabbed a few shots of the Quad, and surrounding areas.

Eclipse Minus the Moon

With the lunar eclipse moving in over the area I had planned on doing some night photography tonight. Of course wouldn't you have it, a clipper system moved in earlier in the day dropping temperatures considerably. I had already been out once today, and now the temperature would be a good deal cooler, and I'd have no warm sun rays. The eclipse was set to peak around 9:30 CST so I headed out the door around 8:00.

I wasn't sure where I wanted to head so I just started driving east back in the direction of Homer Lake, where I had been earlier in the day. I found a decent spot with not too much light pollution and a decent view of the sky with some not so bland topography.

With the lens I'd be using, getting some really good shots of the eclipsing moon would be hard so I decided to enjoy the eclipse myself and let others capture photos, while I focused on getting some shots of the night sky in general. Temperatures now were near zero so everything had to be done in quick bursts between sitting in the car and warming up. I was wearing double layers of everything but that didn't seem to do a lot to combat the cold which was really biting.
The first two shots above are looking south down the country road that I had pulled off on south of Ogden. The constellation Orion is visible in the top shot.



The red glow in that top photo is actual from Danville, which is a good 30 miles away from this location, and not related to the sun. The Big Dipper is pretty evident in that same shot. Below that is another zoomed in shot of the Orion constellation. If it were warmer I'd have tried to get a little more artsy or tried more with Star trails.

This was about as bad a night for night photography as I can think of, unless maybe we added in some sideways precipitation. I couldn't take anymore of the cold and was thoroughly frozen through so once the eclipse hit it's peak I headed back home to warm up for the night. Congrats to everyone who nabbed actual shots of the Moon, unlike myself.

Snow Covered Homer Lake

After a very busy beginning to the week I was finally left with some down time Wednesday afternoon so I decided to head out and get some shots of the freshly fallen snow. I had not been over to the Homer Lake area in a while so I decided that'd be where I'd go first.

Light snow had fallen earlier in the morning and had left a nice dusting across the area, and with the always fluctuating temperatures the lake had no idea what it wanted to do with itself and was a mix of thick ice and flowing water.

After walking around the northern peninsula for a while I decided to venture down a trail leading around the southeast corner of the lake. There really wasn't a lot to see down on that end, and with temperatures hovering in the single digits I was ready for a break from the cold. The trail was frozen solid, and covered in a thin layer of slick snow and I almost bit it a couple of times which could have potentially been bad in a couplp\e of spots where the trail goes right along side the lake. Once I got back to the car I warmed up for a bit and then drove around to the west end of the lake where I found another trail and got walking again.