Three Planets and a Moon

 

5:43 am CDT, Saturday, April 26, 2025. Looking east from south of Alburnett Road and Bowstring Drive in Marion, Iowa. At left is thin crescent moon, right of the moon toward center is the dim 0.46 magnitude planet Mercury. At upper right is the -4.24 magnitude planet Venus. Below and right of Venus is the 1.40 magnitude planet Saturn. Image is a 1/320 second exposure at f/7.1, ISO 4000, 56mm focal length. Air temperature was 40 degrees F. The previous evening the celestial bodies formed a "smiley face," but it was unfortunately cloudy. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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Ran Out of Steam

 

Two severe warned storm cells were moving relentlessly east toward my home area in Iowa during the evening of Wednesday, April 23, 2025, so I quickly took up a spotting position to intercept it at the Linn Cooperative Oil Company facility on Burnett Station Road, just west of Highway 13, and about 3.3 miles east of Alburnett, Iowa. And wouldn't you know it, minutes later it weakened and the severe warning tag was dropped. The 7:27 pm CDT Radarscope image from above shows the severe warned polygon to my west (my location is the blue target icon), just before it ran out of steam.

A west facing view of the approaching storm from my location at 7:26 pm--corresponding to the radar image.

7:44 pm. Despite no longer being severe warned, this storm produced frequent lightning and prominent rain shafts (seen beneath its base). Nikon Z6ii camera.

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Jupiter, Moon, Contrail

 

Appearing prominently in the dwindling light of this image on the evening of Wednesday, April 2, 2025 was the -1.69 magnitude planet Jupiter (left), quarter-moon and a ghostly contrail from a high flying aircraft. This image looks west over Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is a 1/25 second exposure at f/4.5, ISO 400, 70mm focal length. Air temperature was 54 degrees F. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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