Halloween Moon

Trees and clouds give this image of a rising full moon a very spooky Halloween-like appearance. The "Hunter's" moon was taken just before 7:00 PM, Monday, October 29, 2012 from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The image is a 1.6-second exposure at f/7.1, 2000 ISO and 55mm focal length.

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Chilly Balloon Ride

This multi-colored hot air balloon was making little headway in near-calm wind conditions around 5:20 PM, Sunday, October 28, 2012 as seen from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The sky was clear, the temps were chilly and the balloon was drifting east-to-west very slowly. This image looks east.

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Before The Big Change

The scenery here was very autumn-like but weather conditions were more like spring. At the time of capture of these two images at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 6:04 PM, Wednesday, October 24, 2012, temperatures were at 78 degrees F, dew points at 66 degrees, humidity at 67% and the wind was out of the SE at 20 mph. But things were about to change. 24 hours later temperatures were at 42 degrees, dew points at 38 degrees, and humidity at 83% due to the passing of a cold front earlier in the day. The cold front also brought about .25-inch of rain to this location. Snow fell in NW Iowa.

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Cold Shower

This image is a composite of a foreground image plus the far right meteor streak (and) three other separate meteor streaks during the peak time of the Orionid Meteor Shower early Sunday morning, October 21, 2012. The main image/right meteor was shot at 2:03 AM. The three other streaks from left-to-right occurred at 2:11 AM, 2:05 AM and 2:20 AM. The main image was a 71-second exposure at f/3.5, 400 ISO and 18mm focal length. At upper right is the nearby constellation Orion, from whence the meteor shower gets its name. At lower right is the -1.47 magnitude star Sirius. At upper left are the two Gemini stars, Castor (top) and Pollux. Castor was shining at magnitude 1.56 and Pollux at 1.15. The location for this east-viewing image was at the T-intersection of White Road and North Marion Road (left-to-right), about four miles north of Marion, Iowa. Despite my being well insulated with several layers of warm clothing, inactivity while watching the shower--which was rather unimpressive overall--began to allow the 37 degree F temps to slowly creep through. I became chilled to the bone, with no real bright fireballs or bright streaks captured.

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Holy Mackerel!

A fine example of an all-altocumulus (mackerel) sky displayed itself just after 7:00 AM on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 as seen in this image from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. These two images look northeast.  These types of clouds form when there is moisture present at middle levels, and when temperatures range from somewhat colder than freezing to a little warmer than freezing. Larger areas of altocumulus usually accompany the more important moving weather systems and the flow of significant moisture over hundreds of miles. Altocumulus range from 6,500 to 16,500 feet above ground.

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Sunrise, Sunset

What kind of confused weather forecasting was this anyway? "Red sky at morning, sailor take warning," AND "Red sky at night, sailor's delight." Both did in fact happen on Wednesday, October 17, 2012. The top image looks east at the sunrise as seen from North 18th Avenue in Hiawatha, Iowa around 7:15 AM. The bottom image, taken around 6:15 PM, shows the sunset as seen from the parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids. The locations for the two images was about three miles apart. Some light rain occurred in the hours between the two beautiful spectacles.

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Soggy October Trail

Layers of stratus clouds create this chilly look across an open field located just off the Boyson Park Trail in Marion, Iowa just before 2:00 PM, Sunday, October 14, 2012. A nearly steady rain from the previous day had just ended before this image was captured. After many months of drought conditions, this large system, which produced some brief tornadoes in neighboring states on Saturday, dumped 2.5 inches of rain at our location. This image looks east.

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Nonstop Flight To Venus?

I was setting up my camera and tripod on my front porch early Friday morning with the intent to capture the beauty of -4.06 magnitude Venus (upper left) and a crescent moon resplendent with earthshine, the pair only six degrees apart in the east sky. As I did so, the illuminated contrail of a rising jet aircraft appeared from the horizon, on a "collision course" with Venus. The top image was shot at 6:30 AM and is a 5-second exposure at f/8, 400 ISO and 55mm focal length. The bottom image was shot a minute later and is a 1.3-second exposure at f/8, 400 ISO and 145mm focal length. Both images were shot from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sunrise was at 7:16 AM CDT.

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A Walk In The Park

Clear skies accompanied by crisp temperatures in the 50s made for a idealistic autumn afternoon as seen from a hiking trail at Palisades Kepler State Park, southeast of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and just south of Highway 30 on Sunday, October 7, 2012. The top image was shot at 2:30 PM, the bottom at 2:50 PM. Autumn foliage was at near peak, a little early because of the dry conditions that prevailed during this year.

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Bright October Morning Sky

The morning sun illuminates this bank of cirrocumulus clouds in the northwest sky as seen from about .2-mile southwest of Interstate 380 (right background) in Hiawatha, Iowa. In the foreground are spent sumac trees, at far left is the Sport Zone building and at right background is the 1,000-foot KCRG TV-9 transmitter tower. This image was captured around 7:10 AM, Thursday, October 4, 2012.

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