December 13 and oh, what a night!
The sky was clear, the temperature in the 30’s. Being new moon meant no moonlight to overpower the stars or the Geminid meteor shower. I bundled up in my heavy winter Gortex outfit and headed out at 9p.m. My only gear was flashlight, camera and lawnchair. By the time Orion reached overhead there were so many stars visible that it was hard to find.
My first activity was making a loop of the backyard, taking pictures, hoping to capture orbs.

Orbs were numerous! I wondered if it was because of the new moon, the 12-12-12 portal the day before, the meteor shower or all three combined.
The tree on the left in the picture above is a large elm, and for some reason it usually has more orbs than the other trees in the yard.
Orbs are thought to be emanations from spiritual beings according to Dr. Klaus Heinemann. He’s co-authored two books — The Orb Project and Orbs, Their Mission and Messages of Hope. I have the latter. For some reason orbs are able to be photographed with a digital camera and flash.
When I first started taking orb pictures the orbs were darker, and the didn’t show as much. Then lately I read to be sure to use the nighttime setting on your camera. I didn’t know I had such a thing. I found it and now the orbs show much better.
Since learning that, I go out most nights and some mornings. I’ve taken pictures when it’s just getting light or just getting dark, and when it is dark. I’ve experimented with clear skies and cloudy. I’m new at this and have a lot to learn. Now I’m waiting for increasing moonlight.

This view goes across part of the back of our backyard. We have 2 acres. There’s a blue orb on the left just above the barn roof and a green one at the upper edge of the picture above the blue one. Dust particles can cause orbs in pictures. They are usually brighter and lack any interior details. Dr. Heinemann says the air-born particles must be within 4 inches of the camera to make the orbs.
Orbs are spheres, not disks

A lot more of the orbs will show in these pictures if viewed in a room with low light. The orbs above and to the right of the old garage are in/around a hackberry tree. The bright white orb below the window was square. I captured it on the back of the house in 3 pictures that night.

The picture above shows orbs over my what my husband calls my “weed patch.” I only took 133 pictures that night in 4 picture-taking sessions. The number of orbs varied in each session. The orb numbers declined by the fourth time.
I have commonly taken a picture that ended up with a lot of orbs, and immediatley taken another picture of the same area and there’d being only a few.

Orbs usually congregate around the pine too. I included this picture to show the bright blue orb to the side of the tree and a pink one above. Another picture that night had a bright pink one over a small branch. I’ve gotten pictures of blue, turquoise, pink, orange, shades of green, white, and this night even a few earth-tone ones. A blue orb of a certain size shows up in a lot of my pictures. There must be a reason.
In my less than 2 months of taking orb pictures, I’ve never gotten anywhere near this many orbs. Not all the pictures were as crowded with orbs; the average was still way above previous experiences.
After 2 hours of all this fun … I saw 34 meteors. I realized too late that I would’ve seen more if I had been laying on the ground in a different location.
But,
OH what a night!