Marching Into Winter

The constellation Orion (right center) dominates the early morning sky at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as the season of winter quickly approaches. In Greek mythology, the great hunter Orion's prey is Taurus the bull (upper right), and he is followed by his dogs (one of which contains the bright star Sirius at left center). The sky at this moment held a thin veil of haze, and indeed within the hour heavy ground fog began to develop in the 30-degree air. This photo, looking southwest, was captured around 3:55 AM, Tuesday, November 16, 2010. It is a 30-second exposure at f/3.5, a focal length of 18mm and an ISO rating of 500.