The morning sky was loaded with aircraft contrails on Sunday, November 28, 2010. The three contrails at left center are diffuse--the usual result of higher humidity aloft. Persistent contrails are mainly composed of water naturally present along the aircraft flight path. This view looks southeast as seen from Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 7:45 AM.
A waning moon, two days removed from full, shines in the eastern sky through cirrus clouds left of the constellation Orion--the great hunter in Greek mythology. The bright star at top right is Aldebaran in Taurus. At lower left partially obscured by the tree top are the stars Castor (upper) and Pollux-- the twins--in Gemini. The main image in this composite shot was a 13-second exposure at f/8 with an ISO rating of 1000. This photo was captured from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 10:35 PM on Tuesday, November 23, 2010.
A rainbow stretches over a roof and weather station following a light rain shower just after 6:30 PM on Friday, August 21, 2009. This view, taken from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, looks northeast.
A waxing crescent moon sets in the southwest sky over a tree line containing a nature trail near Boyson Park in Marion, Iowa. At center bottom is a beacon-topped power line tower located along the trail. Note the earthshine on the moon's dark area. This image was captured around 8:15 PM on Monday, October 11, 2010. It is a 1.3-second exposure at f/4.5 with an ISO rating of 640.
Westbound traffic on Collins Road NE near the intersection of C Avenue in Cedar Rapids, Iowa seem unaware of the presence of the mushrooming cumulonimbus cloud behind them around 5:40 PM on Monday, July 7, 2008. The storm cell was very isolated and very concentrated. The intersection in this image is located near the Rockwell-Collins facilities complex, toward the left. I took this photo from my driver's side window.
Fog shrouds this scene looking west into Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 6:20 AM on Tuesday, November 16, 2010. The fog had formed from a relatively clear sky only in the last two hours or so. Temperatures at this time were around 28 degrees F. This was an eight-second exposure at f/8 with an ISO rating of 500.
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.
Not as in Great Britain. This nearly-full moon is shown rising over neighborhood homes at English Lane NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:20 PM on Monday, August 23, 2010. In the background at left is the water tower located near the Granite Valley Apartments near Boyson Road and C Avenue NE and the Century Communications LLC tower. The foreground of this composite image was shot at 1/6 second at f/10 with an ISO of 400.
Workers on Wednesday, June 12, 2008 gather brush and debris in heavy rain from the swollen Dry Run Creek along the south side of Boyson Road, just east of Brentwood Drive NE at the border of Cedar Rapids and Marion, Iowa. The flood conditions here were part of the same weather conditions that inundated downtown Cedar Rapids for the next three days. This view looks west on Boyson Road. The water came close, but did not wash over the road.
The rising sun colorizes this altocumulus undulatus formation with orange around 7:35 AM on Sunday, October 31, 2010. The brilliant colorization was short-lived however, as overcast skies quickly reclaimed the sight. This capture looks east over Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Clouds roll in from the west in this five-second exposure (f/6.3, ISO of 200) at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 12:20 AM on June 18, 2010. This narrow storm front was the trailing southern extension of a larger and much more powerful system that produced some 82 tornadoes, four of which were rated at EF4, in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota the previous evening (June 17). The swiftly approaching storm in this photo produced nothing more than some brief heavy rain and wind.
Stars in the northeastern sky stand out with stark clarity in this 40-second exposure taken around 12:35 AM on Sunday, October 31, 2010. At left center is the constellation Auriga. The Pleiades star cluster is at upper right. A portion of the constellation Gemini is seen just above the roofline at left. The bright star at right center is Aldebaran in Taurus. The bright star immediately right of the main structure of the weather station at bottom is Betelgeuse in Orion. This photo, shot at f/4.5 with an ISO of 400, looks over Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
No, this was not the aftermath of a formation of U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, but it was the result of five or six high-altitude aircraft paths occurring close to one another from the perspective of the camera. This shot of the north sky was taken from the grounds of Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 10:45 AM on Sunday, November 7, 2010. Contrails are formed from a combination of water vapor in aircraft engine exhaust and air temperatures below -40 degrees F, typically above 26,000 feet.
This five-minute exposure of the comet Hale-Bopp in the northwest sky at 8:25 PM on March 30, 1997 shows that it nearly outshines the artificial light emanating from a parking lot out of the picture at left. This photo was captured from the grounds of Northbrook Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hale-Bopp is flanked in the sky by the constellations Perseus (left) and Cassiopeia (right). The faint fuzzy blob just above the smallish Y-shaped tree at right center and at the comet's 5 O'clock position is M31--the Andromeda galaxy. Hale-Bopp shone at a bright apparent magnitude of -1.79 on this night.
The western flank of the powerful storm system that produced an EF5 tornado in Parkersburg, Iowa an hour and a half earlier is spread out on the southern horizon along US Highway 218 just south of the US Highway 18 interchange and northwest of Charles City, Iowa. Photo was captured around 6:30 PM, May 25, 2008. The encounter with the back end of this system was not a product of a storm chase but a return from a fishing trip in northeast Minnesota.
A thin waning crescent moon with a hint of earthshine rises in the eastern sky just ahead of the sun around 7:20 AM on Thursday, November 4, 2010. This capture was made from Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa.
It may look as if a forest fire is raging out of control behind this line of trees. In reality, the scene was merely a large bank of clouds moving swiftly away from the camera toward the southeast. The three-second exposure at f/3.5 with an ISO of 500 created a pastel colorization of the clouds, a reflection of nearby parking lot lights at Bowman Woods Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In less than a half hour, all clouds were gone. Peeking through the partial clearing at upper left are dimmer stars and the bright planet Jupiter. This image was captured around 10:35 PM on Wednesday, November 3, 2010.
The Comet Hartley 2 (103P) was not itself visible without a telescope on Wednesday night, November 3, 2010, but some of its effects were. This 23-second exposure captured the streak of a meteor (left) in the western sky--part of the comet's debris field which passed over the Earth from November 2-3. The radiant point for this two-night activity was the constellation Cygnus, seen pointing upward at lower left. Cygnus' brightest star, the 1.25 magnitude Deneb, is located just above and right of the meteor streak. The meteor was traveling right-to-left from the camera's perspective. The brownish smudges at right are small drifting clouds moving into the field of view. Clouds had nearly covered the entire sky just a little over a half an hour earlier but moved out quickly. This image was taken from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 11:05 PM. Shot at f/3.5, 18mm focal length, and an ISO rating of 500.
A halo rings the rising sun as seen from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 8:40 AM on Saturday, October 30, 2010. From the camera's perspective, the new aircraft contrail at left center appears to be climbing vertically, but in reality it was on its way west--directly overhead and beyond. Note how the sky, covered in cirrus clouds and crisscrossed with other contrails, has the appearance of a hanging bed sheet rippling in the wind.
Cumulus clouds exhibit vertical growth as they approach Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids around 5:25 PM on Tuesday, October 12, 2010. The clouds were part of an unusual summer-like line of thunderstorms which moved in a northeasterly direction and nearly stretched diagonally across the state of Iowa. Temperatures were in the low 80s at the time of this capture. This view looks west over Bowman Woods Elementary School.
Actually, I meant "hardly a speck"-- The Comet 103P/Hartley 2 continues to elude the spectacular and remain barely visible to the observer using binoculars or a tripod-mounted camera. This 30-second exposure at f/3.5 with an ISO rating of 500 barely detects the comet's light (inside small circle at center) in the east sky just before 3:00 AM on Monday, November 1, 2010. Hartley 2 was positioned on this night just below and right of the constellation Gemini and left of Orion. The bright star below Hartley and near the bottom is Procyon in the constellation Canis Minor. The fuzzy blob just above the right corner of the yellow box at bottom left is M44--the Beehive Cluster. This photo was shot looking over Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Posts
All Comments
© Blogger template On The Road by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009
Back to TOP
