A Parhelion

Just a fancy way of saying a sundog. The sun has started to peek above the horizon and with the sun shinning through the floating ice crystals it makes for a nice display of atmospheric optics. I know the sundogs are called parhelion or parhelia for plural and the dove shaped burst at the top of the 22deg halo is an upper tangent arc. I don't know the name of the outer halo arc. This is the fist time I've ever seen it. If you know the name of it please let me know and I will acknowledge you on the blog.

You can see the outer arc in this panoramic. It was very dim and I didn't notice it until I had my goggles on.

I should have straightened this photo. It shows a sun pillar coming up from the top of nipple mountain. Yes I meant to do it. :o)

A closer look at the sundog.

Tagged: Sixes

We have been tagged by Shelley from The Big Move. The rules are to go to your pictures directory pick the 6th folder and the 6th photo, post it on your blog and then describe it.

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This photo was taken by Michele during a trip to New York, USA last year with her sister to go see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The rink is outside of Lincoln Center.

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As I was surfing the northern blogs it seems almost all of the ones I read have been tagged. I'm glad Shelly remembered me!

:o)

1st Aura Borealis Photos of 2009

Went out tonight to take some photos of the northern lights. Had to fight an ice fog that muted the brightness of the lights but I managed to get a couple of nice shots. I think the red is a reflection of the hamlet lights that are behind a hill and 2 km away. The red wasn't noticeable when we were there and I was using exposures of 60 seconds that probably picked up the hamlet reflection.

I finally got a photo with the Aura Borealis across the Orion constellation.

Michele Zoom Zoom

Michele on her machine. Photo was taken by Vimel, a friend of ours, a couple of days before it was stolen so the windshield is in perfect shape. Michele was up on T Lake racing around on the smooth snow. When I got up there the next weekend was covered in drifts so I couldn't get up to full speed. My machine is still down and out while waiting for parts. The kids must have jumped my machine a few times because the front and mid shocks are shot. I'll be up and running soon.

Brain Freeze

After my little outburst regarding the service of our Internet provider I figure we need something fun again. I came across this cartoon during some web surfing and thought it was pretty funny. Enjoy.

*NOTE* Sorry Mark Parisi I didn't get permission to use this cartoon so let me know if you want it removed.

*NOTE #2* I can't believe I spelt brain wrong in the title. What may be funnier is if anyone even noticed!

*NOTE #3* I did correct the spelling error.

Letter to Qiniq

Dear Qiniq,

Blow me.

Sincerely Yours,

M&M

Happy New Year

We hope everyone had a safe and fun New Year's.

Snowmobiles and Grinches.

Michele and I were out on the Ski-do's today. It's the first good run we've had with them since they were both stolen. Yep both machines were stolen from us last week. We got them back the same morning they were stolen but of course out of fuel and damaged. The four kids responsible for the thefts were caught the same afternoon. One boy is being charged the other is going to community justice and the two girls involved have not yet been charged with anything. Community justice is just a slap on the wrist but at least one of the kids is going to a real court. It is unlikely that we will get any compensation for the damages. Also on a good note we do have both machines running with help from friends and neighbours. Michele's Ski-do is working almost like new and just needs a new windshield. Mine still has a problem with the tread and I think it is just the drive belt. At least that's what I hope is all that is wrong with it. Both of us were lucky the kids just unhooked the ignition and DESS caps instead of cutting them.

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One of the great things (or bad things..depends which side of the coin you're on.) about living in an isolated, small community is when someone screws up most likely someone knows about it. When we were heading to the tuck, to find the machines, a co-worker of Michele's stopped and yelled out "I know where your machines are and the kids that stole them!". Even when we were fueling up the machines to try driving them home people were stopping to tell us they seen who had stolen them. At least everything ended okay.

Michele standing by her machine a 2009 Scandic 550 Ski-do.

Me standing by mine a 2006 Expedition 550 Ski-do

It is very cold on the machine. I have given up wearing a helmet because it fogs up my glasses so bad I can't see where I'm going. The helmet bi-law isn't enforced but it is still much smarter to wear one.

Off shore ice fog bank
Michele was waiting for me to finish taking photos.

It's Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY

HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!!

(Sorry for shouting but it's Christmas)

Vacation 08 - Animals

This will be the last vacation photo. I had planned to do one more post but I want to get back to blogging about Cape Dorset. The photos below are just some random photos of animals we seen on our travels. The first photo of a bird (help I don't know what kind) is the best photo I have ever taken. This was just a quick snap and it wasn't until later that I discovered it. The detail in the full size photo is amazing. The file size is unfortunately shrunk for the blog. Enjoy.