Phony Funnel

What appeared to many nervous onlookers as a funnel cloud in the western sky in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Tuesday evening, July 6, 2010, was in actuality a steam plume emanating from the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo. The plume, which formed funnel-like, dissipated and regenerated itself several times, was interacting with humid air around it. The cloud finally dissipated for good around 7:15 PM. This photo looks northwest and was shot from Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids. Several people phoned in funnel cloud reports to area news stations even though the structure never moved from its position and exhibited an obvious lack of rotation.

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'Orion Can You Hear Me?'

The constellation Orion (left center) appears to be receiving signals as it is framed by two transmitter towers on Boyson Road NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, between C Avenue and Council Street on September 22, 1999. This short time exposure, looking south, was taken at 5:15 am from the entrance of Friendship Baptist Church. The tower on the left, and the FOX Network television transmitter building below it, were both removed about eight years later. The 703-foot tower on the right is currently operated by Century Communications LLC. The bright star at lower left is Sirius, "the dog star."

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Mammatus Moment

Resembling lava lamp globules, these very pronounced mammatus clouds filled the sky over the western horizon at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Friday evening, July 24, 2009. The clouds appeared about an hour before a strong storm moved through the area and captured the gaze of many curious backyard sky observers. Mammatus clouds often form in a very moist and unstable middle or upper level in the atmosphere, overlying a drier layer below an adjacent cumulonimbus anvil. Large mammatus formations can be indicators of imminent severe weather.

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Eve of Destruction

This is how a segment of the flooded Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa looked shortly before noon on Wednesday, June 11, 2008. A corner of the Third Avenue bridge is seen at left foreground while City Hall and the Second Avenue bridge is at background right. The water level was around 20 feet at this time, heading for an unbelievable crest of 31.3 feet on June 13. The inundation caused widespread damage of homes and businesses in the city, covering about 10 square miles. Shortly after I took this photograph with a co-worker's camera, the Third Avenue bridge was closed and would become awash from the flood waters on the following day.

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Extra Credit For Astronomy Class

These rising celestial bodies appear on parade in this time exposure photo I took for extra credit in my high school astronomy class. I shot about 22 exposures on the same film frame-- each about seven minutes apart--from about midnight on the early morning of October 8, 1974, until 2:15 am. At left (brightest object) is a waning gibbous moon. The speck just left of the moon is the planet Saturn. The row of stars at right make up the constellation Orion. This photo, taken along 30th Street Drive SE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a B&W photo converted into a duotone.

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Didn't Get 'The Shaft'

Two backpacking buddies and I saw this large rain shaft in the Chisos Basin from a lofty hiking trail at Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas on May 27, 1984. Although striking in appearance, we all hoped the rain would stay where it was in the park's lowlands because we were in search of a camp site for the night on our two-day stay. It did, and the trio stayed high and dry the entire time.

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Non-Stop Hale-Bopp

Hale-Bopp, one of the brightest comets of the 20th century, could be seen in our skies for a record 19 months--from May, 1996-November, 1997. The comet received its name from its co-discoverers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp. The comet can be seen at center in this photograph taken from the grounds of the former Cedar Rapids Friends Church (now Living Hope Wesleyan Church) in NE Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 7:15 pm on March 30, 1997. The houses in the background are a part of the area's Northbrook II residential development. Although the sun had set 45 minutes before, its glow was still evident on the western horizon. The yellowish splotch just above the tree line at extreme lower left is the planet Mercury, often difficult to observe.

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