The day's waning glow is shown in this view looking west from the grounds just west of Christ Community United Methodist Church in Marion, Iowa around 5:25 PM, Tuesday, December 27, 2011. Sunset had occurred about 45 minutes earlier. The city lights in the direction of Cedar Rapids at right are located along the East Robins Road area. This image was a 1/3-second exposure at f/8, 800 ISO and 22mm focal length.
The planet Venus shines above a street adorned with Christmas lights in clear conditions around 5:15 PM, Saturday December 24, 2011. Venus, glowing at magnitude -3.97, effectively competes here with the artificial light below. This view of the southwest sky is seen from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, just south of Boyson Road.
A setting sun illuminates a sky laden with altocumulus clouds in this view of the southwest as seen from a future housing development area located just south of Boyson Road at Timber Oak Court in Marion, Iowa around 4:25 PM, Thursday, December 22, 2011. This was the shortest day of the year and heralded the arrival of winter.
A crescent moon and the planet Venus line up vertically as seen in the western sky from just west of the grounds at Christ Community United Methodist Church in Marion, Iowa around 5:25 PM, Tuesday, December 27, 2011. This view looks toward the neighboring city of Cedar Rapids. A smattering of Christmas lights are still evident just below the horizon. Venus gleams at a bright -3.98 magnitude. Also faintly seen in the sky are two ghostly contrail streaks. This image was shot at 1/3 second, f/8, 800 ISO, 22mm focal length. Air temperature was a relatively mild 35 degrees F.
Merry Christmas! Stars wheel around Polaris (the North Star, seen just right of the branches at left center) in this two-minute exposure at f/3.4, 500 ISO and 18mm focal length taken around 2:25 AM, Friday, December 23, 2011 from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The two bright stars at upper right are Aloith and Mizar, located in the handle of the Big Dipper. Now, normally I would not get up at this hour and go out into 20-degree F temperatures with a freshly sprained left ankle, but this was supposed to be peak time for the Ursid meteor shower. As it turned out, in about 45 minutes of observing, I saw nary a one in a clear sky--not even a faint streak--so this image became one of my "consolations."
The southwest sky is painted with altocumulus undulatus clouds as the sun begins to disappear behind a hill and trees at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 4:15 PM, Thursday, December 22, 2011. Sunset was at 4:38 PM. Winter solstice had arrived less than 24 hours earlier, at 11:30 PM CST on December 21. The lack of snow cover kept temperatures around freezing at this hour. (Compare this photo with "Winter Solstice Sky" from last December).
The constellation Orion (top) rises over Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as seen from Bowman Woods Park around 9:10 PM, Saturday, December 17, 2011. Just above the houses at center, some decked out with Christmas lights, is the -1.47 magnitude Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. This image looks southeast. It was captured shooting a 10-second exposure at f/5, 1000 ISO and an 18mm focal length. As can clearly be seen, snow cover continues to elude the countryside.
The planet Venus, shining at -3.96 magnitude, sets in the southwest sky amid passing clouds as seen from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 5:40 PM, Thursday, December 15, 2011. This image was captured by shooting a ten-second exposure at f/13, 500 ISO and 26mm focal length.
A waning gibbous moon rises over a neighborhood decorated with Christmas lights just north of Boyson Road in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just before 7:00 PM, Sunday, December 11, 2011. This view looks northeast. In the foreground is Boyson Lane and in the background at right is Boyson Court. The image is a composite shot with the foreground being imaged as a five second exposure at f/8, 500 ISO and an 18mm focal length. The moon was shot separately at 1/800 second at f/5.6, 500 ISO and 200mm focal length.
This stab of lightning was part of a brilliant display around the outer fringes of a mesocyclone located just out of the image at left. The image is a video frame capture looking NNE along US Highway 71 a quarter-mile south of 280th Street and about 5.3 miles south of Early, Iowa. It was shot around 8:50 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. I had been capturing video of an amazing lightning display through the window of our vehicle here, unaware that the meso just to our north was already disgorging a wedge tornado as we chased along the storm's SE flank. Tornadic activity lasted well past 10:00 PM on this night.
The setting sun sends out rays from behind a large cumulus cloud in this image from Fredericksburg Road (Highway 16) just northeast of Kerrville, Texas around 5:00 PM, Monday, November 21, 2011. This view looks southwest toward town.
Scattered cumulus clouds drift past resort buildings as seen from the beach on the island of
Though the official sunrise occurred a little over an hour earlier, the sun just peeks over the rocky and hilly terrain as seen from Alvin Drive in Kerrville, Texas around 8:12 AM, Tuesday, November 22, 2011. This view looks southeast in the direction of San Antonio. Temperatures at San Antonio would rise to 82 degrees later in the day. Our family was in Texas for a vacation.
Swiftly passing clouds move across the southern sky in this view from Alvin Drive in Kerrville, Texas around 7:10 PM, Monday, November 21, 2011. Thicker clouds brought heavy rain and some lightning several hours later, a welcome occurrence for a state which had experienced very dry conditions for months. The dark shrubs at center are cedars and at right foreground is a century plant. This was a six-second exposure at f/4, 1600 ISO and a focal length of 22mm.
The headlights of a vehicle emerges out of the fog in this view southbound along US Highway 281 just north of Lucy Creek in Lampasas County, Texas around 1:15 PM, Monday, November 21, 2011. Our family was enroute to Kerrville, Texas on this day. Conditions were mostly foggy in northern Texas all morning and into the afternoon.
It may not have been turkey with all the trimmings, but this vacation day at Galveston, Texas on Thanksgiving Day more than sufficed. A previously overcast morning was beginning to break up as this view of scattered cumulus clouds over the Gulf of Mexico shows. This image, located along the beach about two miles northeast of Seawall Boulevard and taken around 11:15 AM, November 24, 2011, looks southeast.
Looking very aurora-like in this five second exposure, fast moving clouds move across the southeast sky as seen from Alvin Drive in Kerrville, Texas around 7:10 PM on Monday, November 21, 2011. The clouds would bring rain and a little lightning in the coming hours. Silhouetted in the foreground are shrub-like cedar trees that dot the rocky terrain here. The bright object shining through the cloud cover at upper left is the planet Jupiter. This image was shot at f/4, 1600 ISO and 22mm focal length. Kerrville, where at this hour conditions were balmy at 73 degrees F, is about 40 miles NW of San Antonio.
The bright planet Jupiter (center, lower) peeks out from behind trees in this west view from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 3:15 AM, Friday, November 18, 2011. At top center is the Pleiades star cluster. Jupiter was shining at a -2.86 magnitude. This was a 15 second exposure at f/4, 800 ISO and an 18 mm focal length.
The Leonid meteor shower was nowhere to be seen here at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa during prime viewing time around 3:15 AM, Friday, November 18, 2011. The nearby last quarter moon (upper right) bathed the night sky in its light, washing out meteor streaks. The shower, whose namesake comes from the constellation Leo the Lion, (left of the moon), appears to emanate from that point. Not overcome by the moon's glow was the 0.91 magnitude planet Mars (the lower bright object at the moon's 7 or 8 o'clock position). This image, which looks east, is a 20-second exposure at f/4, 800 ISO and 18mm focal length. The night was very breezy with the air temperature at 35 degrees F.
This view south along 335th Street
The rising sun created this painted look to an isolated group of cumulus clouds around 7:00 AM, Tuesday, November 15, 2011. This view looks east from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Elsewhere, the sky was generally clear.
Not a wall cloud, but resembling a miniature version of one, this churning cloud was the product of very unstable air present in western Iowa on the afternoon of Saturday, April 9, 2011. The image was captured around 3:35 PM, about one hour and 40 minutes before a real wall cloud dropped a tornado SW of Mapleton, Iowa. This view taken from a U-Stop convenience store looks east from about .20-mile south of Interstate 80 and 1.5 miles north of Minden, Iowa. The sky soon cleared at this location and the sun came out. This was a storm initiation stop for our chase team. From here, we would proceed west, north, then northeast in pursuit of a significant tornado outbreak throughout the evening.
The rising sun tries to shine from behind low stratocumulus clouds in this view looking southeast from Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 7:55 AM, Sunday, November 13, 2011. At right are higher altocumulus clouds. Just in front of the tree line at left is C Avenue NE.
Heavy rain showers and a faint streak of lightning is shown behind this large bank of clouds as seen from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:50 PM, Sunday, October 23, 2011. The view looks northeast. Though the rain appears to be a drencher in the background, not one drop of rain fell at this vantage point as the unusual spring-like thunderstorm skirted east of town. The band of light at lower left was created from vehicle lights on Boyson Road NE, in this 15-second exposure at f/5, 800 ISO and 34mm focal length.
This late autumn sky as seen from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa had a very winter-like look to it around 4:42 PM, Thursday, November 10, 2011. These stratus clouds toward the west are weakly illuminated by a setting sun.
This unintentional image frame capture of the edge of a mesocyclone at left was the result of taking night video of a brilliant lightning display in NW Iowa around 8:50 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. The vivid lightning display was a testament to the power of a tornadic storm system occurring in this part of the state on this evening. The video, taken through the rear passenger-side window of our chase vehicle, was looking NNE along US Highway 71, a quarter-mile south of 280th Street and about 5.3 miles south of Early, Iowa. The meso produced a wedge tornado in the Early vicinity about ten minutes later. Lightning flashes allowed the details of this image to be seen.
A half-moon peeks out through a thin veil of cirrus fibratus clouds as it rises in the east as seen from the eastern border of Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just after 4:30 PM, Friday, November 4, 2011. Technically, the moon's phase was a waxing gibbous, 9.45 days old, and at this moment was 17 degrees above the horizon.
A powerful cloud-to-cloud bolt of lightning discharges from beneath a low hanging cloud layer in the northeast sky as seen from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:48 PM, Sunday, October 23, 2011. The autumn storm system, whose western edge is seen here, was moving left-to-right in the image and missed this location completely. Trees below the lightning bolt line Boyson Road NE. The image was created from a 7-second exposure at f/3.5, 800 ISO and an 18mm focal length. The air temperature at this time was a mild 63 degrees F.
Storm chaser and Iowa State University meteorology student Ethan Milius looks north from the parked chase car he was riding in along Keystone Avenue at 330th Street--about 8 miles south of Ida Grove, Iowa--around 8:10 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. In the distance at left is an intense rain shaft illuminated by a lightning bolt striking in front of it. Minutes later a tornado would form behind the rain shaft, maturing to a wedge shape then changing to a stove pipe as it moved northeast between Ida Grove and Arthur, Iowa. Here our chase team experienced strong sustained RFD winds and intense lightning displays. This image is a video frame capture.
Twin bolts of lightning emanate from a cloud northeast of Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:50 PM, Sunday, October 23, 2011, as an autumn thunderstorm rages, seen from Bowman Woods Park. The storm, though appearing very close in this image, actually skirted east of the city and left nary a drop of rain at this location. The photo was captured shooting a 12-second exposure at f/3.5, 800 ISO and an 18mm focal length.
The planet Jupiter, shining at a bright -2.91 magnitude (main image) is shown in the ESE sky around 10:18 PM, Thursday, October 20, 2011 from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The inset image at right shows an enlarged view of the planet (200mm focal length), including a bright streak at its lower left caused by the reflection of two of its moons Callisto and Europa. The main image was a 20-second exposure shot at f/5.6, 3200 ISO and a 55mm focal length.
With a smattering of altocumulus clouds in the western sky, low shadow angles are created on the grounds of Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa by the setting sun around 5:00 PM, Friday, October 28, 2011. Temperatures were in the mid-50s.
Cirrocumulus undulatus clouds
Lightning lashes from the underside of a rolling bank of clouds as torrential rain falls behind it around 8:50 PM, Sunday, October 23, 2011. The spring-like thunderstorm was created from spring-like conditions, which included temperatures in the lower 60s. This view looks northeast from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Two storm systems passed to the west and east of Cedar Rapids, missing the city, with the eastern system being much more extensive in size. This was an 8-second exposure at f/3.5, 800 ISO and an 18mm focal length.
Having received reports of Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) activity as far south as the state of Arkansas I grabbed my camera and set out in hopes of catching the spectacle for myself just after 9:30 PM on Monday, October 24, 2011. This view of the northeast sky was taken around 9:43 PM about a half-mile north of County Home Road on the C Avenue Extension north of Marion, Iowa. Cloud streaks along the horizon show up reddish, possibly illuminated by the Aurora? Also splashed across the sky here was the constellation Auriga (left), dominated by its bright 0.06-magnitude star Capella; the Pleiades cluster at right center and the -2.92-magnitude planet Jupiter at upper right. Below the Pleiades is the constellation Taurus. This image was a 20-second exposure at f/5, 1600 ISO and an 18mm focal length.
Cloud-to-cloud lightning forks from the underside of passing cloud cover looking northeast from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:47 PM, Sunday, October 23, 2011. Warm conditions (63 degrees F at this hour) helped ignite a line of thunderstorms whose SW edge is seen here about 10 miles distant, with the rest of the line stretching northeast to nearly Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The storm missed Cedar Rapids, passing east of the city as it moved in an ESE direction. Another smaller cell located southwest of Cedar Rapids also missed the area. This image was captured with a 10-second exposure at f/3.5, 800 ISO and an 18mm focal length.
Passing mid-level cumulus
This image is a shorter exposure version of my October 4 posting. It shows the planet Jupiter (bright object just above the roof) located in the eastern sky just SE of the zodiac constellation Aries as seen from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 9:45 PM, Monday October 3, 2011. The exposure settings for this shot was: 20 seconds at f/3.5, 800 ISO and an 18mm focal length. Jupiter held an apparent magnitude of -2.86. The planet is the fourth-brightest object in our skies.
Iowa State University meteorology student and storm chaser Sam Schreier walks hurriedly back to his vehicle while keeping an eye on a developing wall cloud (upper right) as it prepares to cross 210th Street a couple miles west of Ute, Iowa around 7:10 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. Note the rain shaft in the distant background. In about five minutes the wall cloud would drop a tornado, eventually growing in strength to an EF3, and would significantly damage the town of Mapleton about 15 minutes later. Shortly after this photo was taken our chase teams jumped back into our two vehicles and headed north, staying just outside the storm's SE flank but coming no closer than five miles of Mapleton, where we had actually driven through the town from the west about a half hour earlier. This view looks southwest.
A dark gray bank of cumulus clouds in the sky contrasts sharply with the vibrant autumn color and sunshine on the ground as seen from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 4:25 PM, Friday, October 14, 2011. The clouds were moving in an ESE direction. This view looks northeast.
A tornado churns the ground northwest of the town of Arthur (city lights) in western Iowa around 8:28 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. The track of the storm was to the northeast, between the towns of Ida Grove and Arthur. This view, a video frame capture, looks NNW from along County Highway M31, about one mile south of town. Our two-vehicle chase team was stopped on the road after having followed the twister, which minutes earlier had a wedge shape. The brightness of this image was made possible by a flash of lightning.
The planet Jupiter (center) withstood the bright onslaught of a full moon as seen here looking east from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 10:12 PM, Tuesday, October 11, 2011. The apparent magnitude -2.88 Jupiter is in actuality 41 times larger than the moon, but is also about 460 million miles farther away. The 2.06 magnitude variable star Algol ("The Demon Star"), in the constellation Perseus, is seen at upper left. Clear skies of eastern Iowa were a contrast to the rainy skies in western Iowa at this hour and mild conditions prevailed (58 degrees F). The silhouetted tree in the foreground at left is an European Larch. This image is a composite of the background sky and the moon. The background was an 18-second exposure at f/6.3, 200 ISO and an 18mm focal length. The moon, 1/2,000-second exposure at f/5.6, 640 ISO and a 200mm focal length.
At left is a sequential set of images captured from three video frame stills at
Dry corn vegetation debris is caught in midair above a row of stalks in front of a sky dotted with cumulus humilis clouds around 1:56 PM, Sunday, October 9, 2011. This view looks east from along the Boyson Park trail in Marion, Iowa, about .25 mile south of Boyson Road and about .6 mile west of Alburnett Road. Unseasonably warm temperatures (lower 80s) and breezy conditions persisted here in a dominant high pressure system in the midwest.
Light from a mobile floodlight plays across the bottom of this image in Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:12 PM, Wednesday, October 5, 2011. The floodlight was being used to illuminate a soccer field in the direction of the right side of the picture. The bright star at lower right is the -0.07 magnitude Arcturus, in the constellation Bootes. A half-moon (toward the left) washed out a great number of fainter stars. This was a 17-second exposure at f/5, 500 ISO and an 18mm focal length.
Clear skies, dry conditions and mild temperatures (53 degrees) produced this photo-stacked image of the eastern sky from 9:33-9:45 PM, Monday, October 3, 2011. The image is a product of three four-minute exposures. The bright object just above the roof (left center) here on Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is the -2.85 magnitude planet Jupiter. Settings to achieve this picture included an f/3.5 aperture, 200 ISO and 18mm focal length. The two bright streaks at upper left are the stars Almach (left) and Mirach in the constellation Andromeda.
A group of Iowa State University meteorology students observe the approach of a forming wall cloud (background left) from 210th Street, about one mile west of Ute, Iowa just after 7:00 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. The storm chasers were using this position as a storm initiation vantage point. They are, from left: Ethan Milius, Ryan Alliss, Bryce Link, Tristan Morath, Nick Carletta, Sam Schreier and Tyler Roney (I was part of car #1 at left). This view looks southwest and the storm's movement was left to right in the image. About 15 minutes later a tornado from the wall cloud touched down and would arrive at the town of Mapleton as an EF3 around 7:30. Note the airborne pieces of corn vegetation near the utility pole at right center. The high inflow winds were causing the power lines to whine, causing all of us to wonder if it was the sound of a tornado.
Unlike the higher ground of the bordering residential areas in the foreground, a white coating of frost covers the ground in the lower lying areas of Bowman Woods Park (background) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 7:50 AM, Sunday, October 2, 2011. Clear skies, light winds and temperatures in the lower 30s created this effect.
The sun peeks over the horizon in this view looking east along Boyson Road from Doubletree Road NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 7:12 AM, Saturday, October 1, 2011. The short streaks in the sky at left center are aircraft contrails.
Faint zodiacal light (center) competes weakly with artificial light from the horizon in this view looking east from Echo Hill Presbyterian Church in Marion, Iowa around 4:53 AM, Friday, September 30, 2011. Zodiacal light, also known as "false dawn," is the product of sunlight reflected off meteoroid dust particles in the ecliptic plane. At upper right in the image is the bright (1.30 magnitude) planet Mars, located just right and above M44--the Beehive Cluster. At center lower is the "head" of the constellation Leo the Lion. Located about 10 degrees above the horizon at center is the brightest star in Leo--Regulus--shining at a nearly identical magnitude to Mars. This image is a 15-second exposure at f/3.5, 800 ISO and 18mm focal length.
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