Solar Halo

June 23, 2012.  The Wabash is calm and very low.  I looked over the side of the pedestrian bridge and saw a strange arc in the water.  Then I realized it was a reflection of the sky.  I looked up overhead and sure enough saw that the sun was surrounded by a halo.

Link to solar halo: 

Link to solar halo:

Just so happened that the edge of the halo was at zenith when I took the picture.  This is evident because you can see the reflection of the observer/photographer (me), at nadir.

Link to zenith:

Link to nadir:

The sun is never at zenith because Lafayette is north of the Tropic of Cancer.  The halo is at an angle of 22 degrees from the sun.  How many days in the year is it possible for the edge of a solar halo to be at zenith?  What months are they?

Notice not only the reflection, but the shadow of the bridge and the observer is evident.  From the information given, can you calculate the height of the bridge?  Can you estimate the time of day?

 

Another view of the solar halo a few minutes later, from a point in downtown Lafayette.  Inside the arc the sky is grey and outside it is blue.  Why is this?

These pictures were taken June 23, 2012.

Link to Wabash River levels:

Link to another scene from the bridge on a different day:

dry conditions at Celery Bog Park

Been rather dry around here, here is a scene at Celery Bog Park, the dessicated plants in the foreground are jewelweed (Impatiens).  This spot is normally moist in the summer and these plants would be green and succulent.  The pond in the background still has standing water but the south end near Lindberg Road is dry.

Picture taken June 19, 2012.

Link to what jewelweed normally looks like in the park:

Painted turtle

This painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) is crossing the trail at Celery Bog Park on its way back to the wetland (it's not a bog).  The dirt on its hind end suggests that it recently laid eggs in the ground.  These pictures taken May 15, 2012.  A week or so before taking these pictures I noticed a baby turtle squished on the nearby motor access road, apparently it had just hatched and was making its way to the water. 

Link to Chrysemys picta:

Link to previous post on painted turtle:

Link to previous post on painted turtle in Delaware County:

Link to previous post on turtles laying eggs:

Cecropia moth

Cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia).  At West Lafayette, May 2, 2012.

Link to Hyalophora cecropia:

Pineapple weed

The usual places to find pineapple weed (Matricaria discoides) are at the gravelly edges of parking lots and pavements.  This pineapple weed is at the edge of the parking lot at Davis Ferry Park.  It's as big and robust a pineapple weed as I've ever seen.   Usually they're little scrubby plants.  Some of the central flowering heads have an unusual fasciation, never seen that before in a pineapple weed either.

Picture taken April 29, 2012.
 
Link to Matricaria discoides:

Link to Matricaria discoides:

Link to Matricaria discoides:

Link to fasciation in plants:

Another link to fasciation:

Yellow lady's-slipper orchid in Happy Hollow Park

Here's a single yellow lady's-slipper orchid happily growing in Happy Hollow Park. Probably the large yellow lady's-slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens).  It would be quite a find to encounter one of these growing wild within the city limits.  But then it occurred to me that someone could have decided to plant this here, so who knows?  It's close to a well-traveled area.  The needle-leaved plants surrounding it are Equisetum.

Pictures taken April 26, 2012.

Link to Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens:

Link to Cypripedium parviflorum:

Another place to find yellow lady's slipper is at Clegg Gardens, just east of Lafayette.  At Clegg Gardens the lady's slipper is not wild but has been planted.

Box turtle at Scifres-Maier Woods

A box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina), in Scifres-Maier Woods, part of Celery Bog Park.  Is it a female laying eggs?  Looks like it could be.

A human step away from the turtle is this freshly overturned dirt on the forest floor.  Is it another turtle nest?

Pictures taken April 12, 2012.

Link to previous post on box turtles:

Another link to Terrapene carolina: