Snowflake

[jnh]

This has been a long time in the making...my first somewhat successful attempt at stacking a snowflake. Certainly plenty of room for improvement, but it's a good start. Have tried this for a couple of years and these things always vanished just by looking at them. Incorporating a Peltier element into the stage was the game changer. Getting snowfall with decent looking snowflakes is surprisingly rare as well - at least here in MA.
We just got a light dusting this afternoon, but the flakes looked decent, and I just managed to get a stack in before I had to hop on a Zoom meeting for work.

WeMacro rail and controller, Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13, 140 frames PMax (probably should try DMap too):

[abpho]

Beautiful work. First stacked snowflake I have seen. Just taking a single exposure is hard, never mind 140.

[MarkSturtevant]

Well done! One of the more challenging things to do in the hobby, I would wager.

[jnh]

Thanks!
The snowflake was sitting on top of another ice crystal (I think, that's where the fuzziness in the upper right part of the flake comes from) and was tilted quite a bit. As a result I needed almost 2 mm stack depth. In the future, I hope to catch some lying flat on the cooler surface, which will require much less depth.