Are you enjoying the current winter weather? If you live in the Northeast US, most likely you are finally dug out from the recent snow storm. If you are in the Midwest, you are probably preparing to deal with a large amount of snow. Seems like most of the southern portion of our country is dealing with lower than normal temperatures, with Florida experiencing some freezing temperatures over this past weekend. Stay warm and safe if you are traveling.

For those who are interested in astronomical interesting facts, there will be no New Moon this month - this can occur only in February since teh month is shorter than a lunar month and is experienced every 19 years. When this occurs, both January and March have two New Moons. Some may hear this called a Black Moon, which actually has multiple meanings, could be the second New Moon in the same month, third New Moon in a season of four New Moons, no New Moon in February or no Full Moon in February - keep that in mind for your next trivia night!

The first image was captured last winter in St.Joseph MI along Lake Michigan. The black structure is a power cables support for the light house and outer light on the break water wall. All of the ice in the image would be from high waves in windy conditions, water collecting on the structure, freezing in the winter temperatures and building up day after day. Since weather patterns are never the same, the ice is always a little different, some years ice does not exist at all while some years it's incredibly thick with ice. The mobile image is taken from this capture. Camera Data: 135mm 1/40 sec F32 ISO200

Staying with the cold and ice theme, the second image is from two days ago in East Peoria IL of a motorcycle rider on the frozen Illinois River with downtown Peoria in the background. Every year, when the river freezes thick enough (at least 4.5-5"), a local group of flat track racers create a couple of tracks on the ice to maintain and build on their skills. If there is snow on the ice, they will bring out 4 wheelers with plows to clear snow down to the ice surface. The ice studs mounted to the tires do not work as well when snow builds up between the lugs of the tires. Camera Data: 70mm 1/400 sec F10 ISO400

Here's a link to download the appropriate version of this month's image for your desktop, one for standard screens and one for wide-screens along with a Mobile Phone Image. For desktop computers or tablets, Right click on the text for the format you need and select Save As, save to a location on your device and change the background as needed for your OS.

For Mobile devices, most mobile phones are straight forward to download images but Apple users might need a few tips.
Apple iOS Downloads - click the Mobile Phone link to open the image:
Without 3D Touch enabled - tap and hold on the image, select Save Image
With 3D Touch enabled - tap and hold but with no pressure on the screen, select Save Image

If anyone has problems or questions with their mobile device, let me know and I will try to assist.

http://www.timlesterimages.com/calendar/february.html

Enjoy the images this month and let me know if you have any questions and comments!

Tim Lester

TIM LESTER IMAGES
Email: tim@PROTECTED
Website: www.timlesterimages.com
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