Turbulent Beauty

Small openings in turbulent cloud cover around sunset on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 allowed brilliant illumination of a low-hanging portion of it.  Conditions were much worse about 110 miles to the south: a supercell in Clark County, Missouri produced a brief tornado and hail. This image of the southwest sky was taken from Friendship Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 7:57 PM. Boyson Road is shown in the background as well as a communications tower operated by Century Communications LLC.

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Distant Danger

Much of the southern sky is occupied by the cloud structure of a supercell thunderstorm as seen from Friendship Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 7:57 PM, Wednesday, April 25, 2012. The cell began to form around 5:55 PM south of Ottumwa, Iowa and began moving in a southeasterly direction, eventually producing a brief tornado around 7:15 PM southwest of Kahoka, Missouri, near the border of southeast Iowa. The storm, extended about 80 miles from anvil tip to rear as it began to move into the state of Illinois just after 8:00 PM. The distance of the storm cell from the camera in this image is about 110 miles.

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It's Big--Even From This Distance!

The spread anvil of a distant severe thunderstorm cell looms huge, even from a distance of about 110 miles in this view looking south from Friendship Baptist Church at 700 Boyson Road NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The time was 7:57 PM, Wednesday, April 25, 2012 and the storm, located in Clark County, Missouri just across the Iowa border, would intensify further a few minutes later producing a hail core. The anvil, spiking to an altitude of around 50,000 feet, is reflecting the fading sunlight. The isolated storm was moving away toward the upper left portion of this image.

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Earthshine Moon

The dark portion of a waxing crescent moon (lower) is highly illuminated by sunlight reflected off the Earth in this view of the west sky around 9:36 PM, Tuesday, April 24, 2012--seen from just west of the grounds at Christ Community United Methodist Church in Marion, Iowa. The moon's mare are clearly visible. Accompanying the moon in this image is the brilliant planet Venus, separated in the sky by a mere six degrees. Venus shines here at magnitude -4.50. This image is a two second exposure at f/5, 800 ISO and 145mm focal length. The cloudless sky became almost completely overcast in just over an hour from
the time this photo was taken.

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Lyrid Leftover

A meteor streaks out left-to-right from behind a cloud around 3:22 AM, Monday, April 23, 2012 as seen in the east sky from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Clouds from the west had begun to encroach on the Lyrid meteor shower radiant at this hour, further inhibiting viewing of all but very bright "falling stars" on this night--once removed from the peak display. The Lyrids, so named because they appear to emanate from the constellation Lyra, are dust debris shed from the tail of Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. Overcast skies here the previous night precluded any observation on the peak night (actually early morning). This image is a 30-second exposure at f/3.5, 250 ISO and 18mm focal length. The cluster of stars below and right of the meteor streak make up the constellation Delphinus.

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Misleading Sunrise

These "happy little clouds" and a unobstructed sunrise would give way later in the day to thundershowers and rain--about .20 inch worth. The temperature was around 52 degrees F. This image looks east over Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 7:05 AM, Thursday, April 19, 2012.

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Dangerous Discharges

Two separate discharges of lightning are combined into a single image following a bow echo thunderstorm which passed through the area on the evening of Saturday, April 14, 2012. This image looks north toward Bowman Woods Park and Boyson Road NE (streak of lights from car traffic below the tree line) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I photographed the storm, with its powerful and dangerous strokes of lightning, from beneath the overhang of our back porch (upper right). Surprisingly, no hail fell from it and wind speeds never exceeded 30 mph. Heavy rain did fall though--around and inch and a half in about 15-20 minutes. Exposures were shot between 9:00-9:30 PM. One exposure was a 22 second shot at f/13 and the other a seven second shot at f/14; both at 250 ISO and 18mm focal length. This storm system produced scores of tornadoes in Kansas, Oklahoma and even SW Iowa on the same evening.

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Spanning the Globes

Scores of stars appear as bright trails above the abandoned and dilapidated former railroad trestle near Thomas Park in Marion, Iowa on the evening of Monday, April 9, 2012. The trestle, which spans both a nature trail and Indian Creek, once carried train traffic which included that to the town's downtown depot--about .6 miles to the east. Train service ended there in the early 1970s and the depot was demolished in the late 1980s. The star streaks are the product of 68 30-second exposures shot at f/7.1, 250 ISO and 18mm focal length, and "stacked" into a single image using StarStaX software. I "light painted" the bridge structure in a few of the exposures with my flashlight. Total exposure time was from 9:00-9:38 PM. I did feel a little "creepy" at this hour in the dark woods standing just a few feet off the trail which was still be used by some, but my photo session was thankfully uneventful! The bright trails just above the bridge approach at right center belong to the constellation Orion. The tree at far right appears blurred because of wind. (The trestle, owned by Canadian National Railway, was sold to the city of Marion about two weeks later to become a new bicycle trail.)

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Venus and the Abandoned Railroad Trestle

The -4.43 magnitude planet Venus (right) offset the shadowy hulk of an abandoned railroad trestle nicely in this view of the west sky as seen from a nature trail about .10 mile south of West 8th Avenue in Marion, Iowa and about .20 mile north of Thomas Park. Barely visible below and right of Venus is the Pleiades star cluster. This image, a five second exposure at f/5.6, 3200 ISO and 18mm focal length, was shot around 9:42 PM, Monday, April 9, 2012. (The "abandoned" trestle would not stay abandoned for long as work began less than two weeks later to convert it to a bicycle trail bridge.)

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Vanishing Act

A wall cloud-like lowering hangs beneath non-rotating altocumulus clouds in the southwest sky as seen from the Shueyville United Methodist Church at 1195 Steeple Lane NE in Swisher, Iowa around 4:42 PM, Sunday, April 8, 2012. The benign high wind-created formation was short-lived, almost being totally dissipated a few minutes after this photo was taken. The bright area at center is the position of the sun, located behind the patch of clouds.

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Wispy Evening

A combination of cirrus clouds and contrails created this wispy appearance to the evening sky looking northwest just after 8:00 PM on Thursday, April 5, 2012. Photo taken from the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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Pleiades: The EIGHT Sisters?

Nope, it's still the Seven Sisters, but the Pleiades star cluster (M45) had an extra object in it around 8:40 PM, Tuesday, April 3, 2012, as the planet Venus was positioned within the cluster. Venus far outshown the others though, as it blazed away at -4.40 apparent magnitude. This view of the celestial spectacle looks west from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and was a three second exposure at f/5.6, 3200 ISO and 200mm focal length. Venus finds itself in conjunction with the Pleiades once every eight years.

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Cloud Discharge

Cloud-to-cloud lightning forks in the east sky as seen from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 10:06 PM, Saturday, March 31, 2012. The storm was moving out of the area and was beginning to lose its strength. The leading edge of the storm brought hail less than an hour earlier. This is an eight second exposure at f/11, 320 ISO and 18mm focal length.

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Lots Of Lightning

This image is a "stacked" combination of three separate exposures of lightning, each about ten seconds long at f/11, 320 ISO and 18mm focal length. The view looks east from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just after 10:00 PM, Saturday, March 31, 2012. The storm, which was producing this lightning display had less than an hour earlier dumped dime size hail at this location in a duration of about five minutes. The hail began to fall without any rain preceding it!

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