A letter from heaven - A letter from heaven

09.10.2009 15:50 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
Short explanation to Cématyi, Hungary: First take your camera in your hand. Then take the objective lens away. Find old microscope. Put microscope´s objective lens to your camera. Wait until winter comes. Wait again, when the snow is falling. Wait again when it is snowing and the weather is enough cold. Then catch the most beautiful snowcrystal direct from the air. Stop to breath. Run as fast as you can to your camera. Put this tiny miracle under your camera. Do not melt the crystal with your lights! Then only take the photo. Look if the picture is all right. If it is not, you have time to take another shot. Look if the new picture is all right. Then start to breath. And quite soon this unique beauty will be disappear, and there will be never another snowcrystal exactly like this. From: Pekka H

09.10.2009 21:11 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
Till gusestju, Sweden: Ta bort objektiv av kamera. Installera små mikro-objektiv. Leta efter vackra snöflinga. Andas in inte. Montera ljuset. Ta fotograf. Fortsätt andingen. Förlåt min svenska : ). Pekka H

10.10.2009 19:03 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
To ham_good, Sweden: Thank you for your interest and thank you for your question. There is only a snowcrystal and light. You can see six folded transparent snowcrystal on the surface of oridinary window class (of course in horisontal position). I mixed normal white light to a little amount of blue light, but from another direction. In this way I can show you wery beautiful details on the surface of the snowcrystal and nice inner structures as well. You have very sharp eyes, ham_good : ) From: Pekka H

16.10.2009 04:59 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
to antejaak and others around the world: Is it ture that there is no two similar snowflakes in the world? Well... Yes (and no). FIRST YES: When a snow crystal grows bigger and more complex - it is true that there is not same kind of snow crystal in the whole world. PHYSICIST: Physicist write in books, that there is not enough time in our whole Universe - to develope exactly same kind (in atomic level) snow crystals. SECOND NO: Near our home is a lake. It was once a very very cold winter day. There were men pumping water on the ice of this lake. There was plenty of water on the surface of ice. Soon I saw a cloud formation above the ice. Suddenly thousands of very very little "baby crystals" falled down on my jacket. They were small white dots, hardly to be seen by nacked eye. They were not so big as the dots above i-letter in this text. Under the microscope they were little six corned plates. Because they were so simple, they look very same kind. In books there are photos and physicist write, that this kind of snow crystals often fall down in Antarctic region (very cold and suitable huminity). So it is possible to see same kind of snow crystas, but when they grow bigger, it is true that there is not two exactly same kind of snow crystal. LAST THE BEST: Farmer Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (1865-1931) was the first person, who photographed a single snowcrystal in 1885. He told all above in poetic way: "Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpeace of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind". - - - I like this explanation most! --- from Pekka H.

16.10.2009 19:42 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
to mpx, Czech Rebublic: Thank you! Some snowflakestorys are very interesting. For example rabbit (white animal) hair and snowflake story is fascinating. from Pekka H

16.10.2009 19:54 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
to Cématyi, Hungary: Thank you! Please, do not hold your breath until winter comes - - - because I like to see your photoes also later : ). Explanations are quite charming, because the snow crystal it self has been so long time mysterious - for example reason for six corner (not seven or five) is almost a detective story. from Pekka H

17.10.2009 15:53 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
to Softice, Finland: My light was long away from the snow crystal. Too much heat is very dangerous for the snow crystal. The main light filter was oridinary white baking paper (what you use when you bake a bread in your oven). Between the snow crystal and the camera was old microscope lens. from Pekka H

21.10.2009 18:39 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
to Vadelma, Finland, and all the others: Thank you! It is nice to hear, that you like the beauty of snow crystals. You all are in very good company --- HAN YING from China said in year 135 B.C. "flowers are generally five corned, but the flower of snow are always six corned". OLAUS MAGNUS from Sweden said in 1555: "ice and snow crystals are very beautiful". JOHANNES KEPLER (may be somebody else knows when) from Germany said that "our planets goes around the sun in elliptic orbits and by the way snow crystals are nice six handed stars". Philosopher RENE DESCARTES from France noticed in 1635 that some snowcrystal are like wheels of his watch. Famous physicist ROBERT HOOKE from england "fall in love" with snow crystals in about 1655. ISAAC NEWTON, the man who get an apple in his head, watched these crystals very carefully - may be because the apple hit to his head : ). In Nobel Laureate Sir Williams Bragg´s laboratory in London they show 1929 that inside ice six water molecules locked them selves together. Professor UKICHIRO NAKAYA from Japan was a great snow and ice lover. LINUS PAULING (1901-1994) from USA is one of the few person in the world who had got two Nobel Prizes (1954 Chemistry, 1963 Peace). He like to look molecular structures very near - as well the crystals of snow. And many many more. --- Mean while (1865-1931) farmer Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley took 5381 snow crystal photoes during 47 years in his life. He wrote: "Snow cystals come to us not only to reveal the wondrous beauty of the nature, but to teach us that all earthly beauty is transient and must soon fade away. But thoug the beauty of the snow is evanescent, like the beauties of the autumn, as of the evening sky, it fades to come again". --- so you really are in brilliant company!

28.10.2009 04:52 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
to crymanenator, Ireland: Thank you! This story is for everyone, but especially for you! In books they say, that Professor Ukichiro Nakaya (1900-1962) from Japan was the first man in the world, who make snow crystals himself on the ground level. He was the first, who understand better why all snow crystals are different. ---- COLD ROOM: He had a cold room. He had a glass tube. The tube was about 2-3 times longer than normal 1 litre lemonad bottle. Of course he had water. He put water on the bottom of the tube. Water vapour start to go up in his tube like a cloud. On the top part of the tube he put a thermometer and a little string. He looked by microscope, what kind of snow crystal will start to grow in his string in different temperature and in different humidity.---SAHARA: In normal clouds, snow crystal needs something from where to start to grow. If you look the middle part of my snow crystal photo, you can see a little round point. If you now say: "There is sand or clay from Africa Sahara desert inside this liittle round point", you will be about 80% correct. In books they write, that inside this point there is usually clay or soil, but sometimes flowers pollen or smoke dust. ---- PROBLEM: Professor Nakaya had a problem. He had no Sahara dust or smoke inside his glass tube. He put many kinds of different things inside his tube. Cotton strings. Different kind of filaments. Even spiders net. But rabbits hair was the best. Snow crystals like most rabbits hair! Then he photographed snow crystals hangin on rabbits hair in different temperature and different humidity. --- I like this story very much.

30.10.2009 15:29 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
to mariana_gamyi, Mexico an all others: Also young children understand the message: "Too much heat is not good for snowflakes --- too much heat is not good for our planet earth". But there is also a historic strory behind the tittle.

30.10.2009 19:58 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
to mariana_gamyi, Mexico and all others: IN BOOKS they write that Professor Ukichiro Nakaya was the first who use the statement "Snowflakes are letters from heaven". DIFFERENT TEMPERATURE --- DIFFERENT FORM: Nakaya noticed in his tube, that six corned plate type of snow crystal hanged from rabbit´s hair between temperature 0 ... -4 C. Between -4 ... -11 C he saw totally different kind collum and needle type of snow crystals. Between -11 ... -22 C Nakaya saw again plate like, but very beautiful six handed stars. Sometimes snow crystals had christmas tree like hands and sometimes plate like hands (like the picture above). Below -22 C Nakaya saw again different kind of little colums. DIFFERENT WAY: Usually different part of cloud has different temperature and different humidity. When "baby snow crystal" fly inside a cloud, sharp corners start to grow more than smooth sides. That´s why you can see six growing hands. When snowcrystal falls in different temperature and humidity, crystal starts to grow in different way (as Nakaya showed to us). Every change to new temperature and humidity causes new kind of growth. That is why you can see six same kind of plates (in equal point) in every hands of photographed snow crystal above. Because every snow crystal has different and unique way from cloud to ground --- that is why there are hardly two exactly same kind of snowcrystal in the world. After Nakaya´s work, we can really read from snow crystal´s shape, what kind of way snow crystal has travelled. Before Nakaya snow crystals were "hieroglyphs" from heaven. After Nakaya snow crystals are letters from heaven! from Pekka H.

01.11.2009 15:31 pekkahonkakoski från Finland säger:
to dbab, Russia: Thank you. Sometimes one picture tells you more than thousand words. Sometimes thousand words tell you more than one picture. Sometimes both together are surprising couple. --- This is for you and all others who like stories: WET SURFACES: Between 0 ... -22 C there is water on the surfaces of snow crystals. But the water is not normal and the layer is extremely thin. I call it "false water". If you look the photo above, you can see a dark blue line around the whole snow crystal. It is not false water. But if you split this line in your mind about ten times - one of them is about the thickness of the layer of false water. NOT WATER, NOT ICE: False water is not water, not ice. No, it is not supercooled water either. In books they write, that false water has different viscosity and refraction properties than water or ice. It is something between them. False water is not real name of this layer. The real name is "quasi liquid layer" or "qll" or "unorganized ice" or "apparent liquid layer" or "premelted ice layer" or... --- I think that loved child has many names : ). NOBEL AGAIN: In the atom force microscope (idea, Binning, Rohrer, Nobel Prize 1986) there is a very little spike. You can put this spike on the layer of false water. In this way you can measure how deep the false water is. When the temperature go down, deepness of false water (qll) become smaller and maller. But it become smaller in different way on the top of the crystal (the face of picture above) than on sides of the crystal (dark blue line). They write in books, that this is one of the few main reasons, why we can see so complex snow crystals: plates, needles, stars and so on. But that story is very very long. SLIPPERY: But you can say, ice and snow is slippery because quasi liquid layer - and you are 100 % correct. ROBERT SCOTT: British Royal Navy officer Robert Scott didn´t know that in 1912 when he went to South Pole. On the way home, temperature falled extremely down -42 C --- there were no false water (qll) on the surfaces of snow crystals --- it was like to try to ski on the sand (no slippery at all). They write in books, that this was one reason among the many others why Robert Scott and his mens did not survive back to home. SNOWMEN: Above story is sorrow. But it is good to know, that if there is enough thick false water (qll) layer on the surfaces of snow crystals, you can make snowballs, and you can build snowmens too : ). from Pekka H.