Nanook of the North

Night sky in the arctic...spectacular!

Night sky in State College...not so much.

All this talk of snow and the imminent arrival of winter had me pouring through some pictures and video from a few years back in Fairbanks, AK. Enjoy some multimedia from a place that defines the word "winter".

This video is a Fairbanks right of passage. Tossing water into the air at 40 below zero makes for quite a visual experience as the water freezes in flight. I boiled the water first for effect but you don't need to do that. Room temperature water will still have a difference with the ambient air of around 110 degrees which is sufficient to make for a nice show. Boil the water and you increase the temperature difference slightly - to about 250 degrees. Not too shabby.

This aurora was really cool. I was working a midnight shift on one of the most active solar periods of the year and brought the camera and tripod to work hoping to get some good pictures. El Sol did not disappoint. The aurora was so intense that my coworker and I closed the lights in the office, shut down all but two monitors and cranked up the music. The aurora danced overhead and into the southern sky. Typically it stays overhead or across the northern sky.

I got this shot about 12:45 AM from the roof and then had to scurry back inside with the equipment as it was a bit nippy (-18F). The aurora was dancing wildly and this long-exposure image just blurred the edges.

The coolest thing about this night was that you could hear people cheering in the distance as the aurora swirled wildly. It was definitely a show to remember.

Here are some other pictures...

Just so I can give summer equal credit, here is a picture taken on the drive to work for another midnight shift in June. It was about 9:45 PM and the sun is about two and a half hours from setting. Oh yeah, it was about 78 degrees.

October Snow

While snow in October isn't completely rare in these parts, it's always "cool" when the first arctic airmass plunges out of Canada this early.

We got our first flakes of the season on Wednesday October 29th with generally a coating around State College. Areas to our east got crushed with as much as 17" in the higher elevations. Areas to our west got in on the lake effect with over 6" in Somerset, Elk, and Warren counties.

While we only had about one-half inch of snow, it was our first accumulation. A powerful nor-easter affected New York and eastern Pennsylvania the previous day. We were just little too far west to get in on the best action. Here's a look at a traffic cam south of Wilkes-Barre, PA on Tuesday morning where just about 6" of snow fell.

It was "Fan" tastic

The Penguins are by far one of the best teams in the NHL with respect to fan relations. This past weekend they opened the Mellon Arena for open ice skating, a tour of the locker rooms, and the ability to watch the Penguins' first regular season game (in Sweden) on the Jumbotron. Oh yeah, and all of this was free. You just had to bring your own skates.

Another cool program is Student Rush. They set aside several hundred seats on many games for gameday purchase by local students. The students line up as much as 12 hours ahead of time (missing classes, of course) to gobble up a $20 ticket that normally costs near $100.

The kid's, especially Claire's, fascination with hockey really took an upswing during the playoffs last season. You can check out some of their fun in previous posts from last April. Claire would watch the beginning of a playoff game before bed, try to negotiate staying up a little later to watch more hockey, then ask who won right when she woke up the next morning while waving her stuffed penguin in the air.

When the Pens lost Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, I had to break the news the next morning and she was none-too-pleased with the Detroit Red Wings. Sometimes the passion for your home team is equalled by your disdain for the team that beat them in the biggest games. That sticks around for a long time (Don't even ask me what I think of the Atlanta Braves). Claire reminded me of me at the same age when I listened to Pirate and Penguin games on my Snoopy AM radio. The best ones were the west coast games. I would try to stay up as long as possible with the radio next to the pillow. I would always fall asleep a little way into the game, but if I was lucky, I would wake up to catch the post game recap before falling back to sleep.

Snoopy radio

Hey Iceburgh!

Temporary locker room.

Joey gets two minutes for tripping and Claire gets two for embellishment.

Joey and Claire check out the replay of the penalty on the Jumbotron.

They obviously didn't watch the NHL official rules video...

Hockey Rules

A day at the rink comes to an end.

After dumping our skates back in the car, it was time to take the Arena tour. We got to experience the Igloo Club, learn that the ice is only 3/4" thick, and then we got to see the other side of the venue.

Our tour moves us through the bowels of the Arena.

Huh, huh, he said, "Bowels".

Who wants to drive the Zamboni?

This wasn't the Zamboni that barfed hydraulic fluid during last season's playoffs.

This was.

It was then time for the jewel of the tour. The Penguins' locker room.

Relaxing on the locker room couch. Just like the players do in between periods.

If you step on the Penguin in the dressing room, five guys come out and beat you. Then once they're finished, they beat you some more for good measure.

After losing Marian Hossa to the hated Red Wings in the off season, the Penguins signed several scoring forwards. One of them just happened to be...

Oh, I don't know...ummmm...

That's Miroslav Satan (Sha-tan).

In a tradition to honor local high school hockey and the parents who shuttle their kids to the rink at 4 AM for practice, area sweaters are displayed prominently. Here's dad's Alma Mater.

The kid's future Alma Mater?

Let's watch some hockey!

Once we got back to the empty house, a re-creation of last season's Stanley Cup Finals took place. This time the Penguins won.

Hockey 101 - Slapshot



The following pictures of the Seven Springs fall Festival will be broken out into a new post shortly.

Fried dough!