Stormy Weather Ahead

I had intended to set up a storm spotting position at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the evening of April 6, 2010 after storms began brewing to the northwest. But as I turned my vehicle north on C Avenue NE just a couple of blocks from the church, conditions ahead of me at once became a lot more promising. This view, just a block up from Noelridge Church, shows the churning sky in the distance. My mini-chase ended about a mile north of this spot as I finally stopped to watch an unusual low hanging scud cloud, mistaken by many in the area as a funnel cloud and prompting sirens to sound, drift by me. This photo was taken at 7:15 PM.

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October Star Trails

Star trails were created in this image by aiming the camera's lens toward Polaris, the North Star, and leaving the shutter open for 12.5 minutes. Originally intended as a 20-minute exposure, an unexpected meteor streaked downward nearly across Polaris, causing me to disengage the shot. The faint diagonal streak can be viewed by zooming in on Polaris at the center of this picture. The night was crisp, clear and dry, producing good visibility. The dark area at upper right is the underside of our house's roof gutter. The two very bright streaks at lower left are part of Ursa Major. Captured from the Bowman Woods neighborhood of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and started at 9:20 PM, October 5, 2010, this image was shot at f/8 with an 18mm focal length and an ISO rating of 640.

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Calm Before The Storm

The western sky had this appearance just under two hours before a squall line arrived at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, bringing thunderstorms to the area. This photograph was taken around 6:20 PM on June 1, 2010.

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Take Cover!

Dry conditions at Fay Clark Park in Hiawatha, Iowa were soon to change as a gust front quickly advanced on the location just after noon on Friday, June 18, 2010. Rain, high winds and lightning ensued as the front blew through. This was the first of two storm fronts affecting the Cedar Rapids metro area on this day--the other arriving in the evening. Note the well-defined layers in the approaching shelf cloud in this view looking northwest.

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Ominous Southern Sky

Skies to the south of the retail complex located near C Avenue and Boyson Road NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa darkens at 4:15 PM on Wednesday, June 23, 2010, as a severe storm cell slides east (left). Though tornado warnings were issued in Lone Tree, Iowa--southeast of Iowa City--at this time, the northern edge of this system never quite reached this location and caused no damage here.

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Hail Jupiter!

The planet Jupiter glows bright in the eastern sky, positioned in the constellation Pisces in this image captured around 9:20 PM, Friday, October 1, 2010. Upon close inspection, Jupiter shows a slight bulge in the lower left part of its disc--caused by the camera's inability to fully resolve the moons Europa and Ganymede, in close orbit around the parent planet. This ten-second exposure was shot from the eastern boundary of Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at f/5.6 with a focal length of 62mm and an ISO rating of 640. The brownish-gray smudges at left are drifting clouds moving from left to right.

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Laced With Lightning

A shelf cloud is laced with CTC lightning as it approaches the observer at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This image, an exposure of about a minute-and-a-half, looks toward the northwest at 11:30 PM on Friday, June 25, 2010. Rain and wind accompanied the line of storms as it blew through the area. The houses in the background are located on 74th Street NE in Cedar Rapids. The image was shot at f/6.3 with an ISO rating of 200.

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