Catch snowflakes and look at them up close

Snowflakes are ice crystals, and up close most of them are six-sided. You can see this without a lab. All you need is a day of light, cold snow, something dark to catch the flakes on and your phone. It takes about ten minutes, and it changes how you look at snow.

When to go

The best snowflakes fall on very cold, calm days when the snow is light and dry. Warmer, wetter snow tends to clump flakes together, so you get lumps instead of single crystals. If the flakes are big, soft and sticky, wait for another day or just enjoy the snow.

If you don’t get snow where you live, this one has to wait for a trip. A day in a snowy hill or mountain town is the closest option.

Go out while it’s actually falling, and keep it short. You want to look at each flake before it melts.

What to bring

• A dark glove, a piece of dark wool or a dark piece of card. Dark shows the white crystals best.
• Your phone, with the camera ready
• A magnifying glass or a clip-on macro lens, if you have one
• Warm layers, boots and a hat. You’ll be standing still.
• Chill the dark surface outside, or in a cold porch or garage, for a few minutes beforehand. A warm surface melts flakes straight away.

How to do it

1. Put the dark glove or fabric outside for five or ten minutes, so it matches the air.
2. Hold it out in the falling snow, and let a few flakes land on it.
3. Look closely. Breathe away from the surface, because warm breath melts the crystals.
4. Pick the flakes that look most like stars. Many will be broken or odd shapes, which is normal.
5. Zoom in with your phone camera, hold it steady and take a few photos. Tap the screen to focus.
6. Try a few different flakes. Some have six arms, some are flat plates with six corners and some are tiny columns.
7. Count the sides or arms on your best one. Almost always, it’s six.

Why six?

A snow crystal is a single crystal of ice, and the way water molecules lock together when they freeze leads to six-fold shapes. As it falls through the cloud, the flake grows in changing temperature and moisture, which is why the arms grow in such varied ways and why two flakes rarely look alike.

Types of snow crystal

Not every crystal is a star. Snow can fall as flat six-sided plates, as long thin columns or needles, and as stars with six arms, sometimes with fine branches. Which one you get depends on the temperature and moisture in the cloud. Spotting two or three different kinds on one glove is part of the fun.

Looking closer

A phone’s zoom is enough to see the six-sided shape, but a magnifier gets you further. A clip-on macro lens for a phone is cheap and shows fine detail. A real microscope can be even better, though flakes melt quickly under its light, so work fast and keep everything cold.

What goes wrong

• The flakes melt instantly. Your surface is too warm, or you’re breathing on it. Chill it longer and hold your breath for a second.
• You only see lumps. The snow is too wet. Try again on a colder day.
• The photos are blurry. Rest your hands on something steady. Take lots of photos.
• The flakes look tiny. Use a magnifying glass, or clip a macro lens onto your phone.
• Your hands are freezing. Keep it quick, and take a break to warm up.

Keep what you find

Pick your best photo and keep it. You could make a small collection over the winter, and notice how the flakes change from one snowfall to the next. If you like paper crafts, you can use your photo as a guide for paper snowflakes, with six arms rather than four or eight.

Make it a winter morning

Make it the first thing you do when you see snow, then go inside for something hot. Or combine it with a walk in the first snowfall, and look at the flakes as they land on your sleeve.