2014 Christmas Star

The 0.75 magnitude star Altair (center) in the constellation Aquila shines through an area of altocumulus clouds which appear to rotate around the roof star on our house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Christmas evening, Thursday, December 25, 2014. The clouds were partially illuminated by a crescent moon which was hidden by the darker clouds at left. Air temperature was an unseasonably warm 43 degrees F. This image looks west.

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Drizzly Anticipation Of Christmas

A steady-to-heavy drizzle on Monday evening, December 22, 2014, created the misty appearances seen in the three images above. A warmer than usual December in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has kept the ground free of snow and indeed at the time of photo capture of these images, the temperature was around 37 degrees F. The top image looks NE toward Bowman Lane NE as seen from Bowman Woods Park just before 8:00 PM, and is a .6-second exposure at f/9, 1600 ISO and 55mm focal length. The middle image is of similar direction and exposure. The bottom image looks the other direction in Bowman Woods Park, showing the misty surface appearance among the trees. This image was captured just after 8:00 PM and is a 13-second exposure at f/9, 1600 ISO and 55mm focal length.

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