Night Flight

A low flying aircraft, probably a helicopter, moves slowly left to right in the eastern sky around 9:00 PM, Wednesday, March 2, 2011. A closer inspection of the streak, created from a 20-second exposure at f/5, shows the bright individual red and green flashes. The aircraft had a companion, which had already moved out of the frame at right. Above the aircraft streak is a faint contrail, and at right center are a portion of stars in the constellation Leo. This image was shot from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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Pleiades And Thank You

Thanks to a nearly clear sky around 8:45 PM, Wednesday, March 2, 2011, the star cluster Pleiades ("The Seven Sisters," left center) shown brightly in the WSW sky. Other prominent constellations shown in this picture is Taurus ("V"-shape, upper left), sporting its bright 0.84 magnitude star Aldebaran; and Perseus above the tree at right. The hot blur star cluster Pleiades, which actually contains hundreds of stars, resides about 425 light years from Earth. The seven most observable stars range in apparent magnitude from 2.84 to 5.43. This image was captured at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and was a 46-second exposure shot at f/3.5 with an ISO rating of 320.

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March Morning Undulations

A large bank of altocumulus undulatus clouds, illuminated by the rising sun, dominate the northeast sky as seen from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just after 7:00 AM, Tuesday, March 1, 2011. The presence of this type of cloud, which occurs from a height of 6,500-16,500 feet, may herald the imminent arrival of an approaching front, and indeed light rain and drizzle arrived on Thursday night. Altocumulus indulatus is caused by a lifting of a large air mass followed by condensation combined with instability and wind shear at cloud level (the reason for the striking "undulating" patterns). Air temperature at this moment was around 25 degrees F.

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Orion's 'Physiology'

Despite competition from a nearly full moon, the constellation Orion shines magnificently above the trees in the southeastern sky from Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:15 PM, February 18, 2011. The image of the great mythological hunter is composed of many bright stars and some dim nebulae. The bright star at upper left is Betelgeuse, a red giant with an apparent magnitude of 0.43, located some 640 light years away. Shining at 1.62 magnitude at upper right center is Bellatrix. The three diagonal stars making up Orion's belt are from left: Alnitak (1.71 mag.), Alnilam (1.68 mag.) and Mintaka (2.25 mag.). A diffuse nebula (NGC 2024) resides just below Alnitak, but at an apparent magnitude of 10.00 is invisible even to the camera at this exposure of ten seconds at f/5. Within the vertical "sword" (or scabbard) area below the belt are the nebulae NGC 1977 and M42--the Orion Nebula. Left and below the sword is the star Saiph, at magnitude 2.06, and brightest of all at lower right is the blue-white giant Rigel, shining at magnitude 0.15. Rigel resides some 773 light years from Earth.

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Andromeda By Moonlight

A nearly full moon bathes the terrestrial landscape in light and washes out all but the brightest stars in the sky around 8:15 PM, Friday, February 18, 2011. This 20-second exposure at f/5 with an ISO rating of 800 looks southwest at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Extended warm weather had reduced a 12-inch snowpack the week before into a nearly snow free ground on this day. The two bright stars situated close together at left center are part of the constellation Aries. The two bright stars above the pointed tree top at right center are Almach (upper) and Mirach (lower) in the constellation Andromeda. M31, the Andromeda galaxy (pictured as a small fuzzy vertical blob), is faintly seen just right and below the two dimmer stars right of Mirach. The moon at this time was rising in the eastern sky and was about 16 degrees above the horizon.

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Warmer Winter Sky

A bank of altocumulus clouds is illuminated by the setting sun around 5:05 PM, Saturday, February 12, 2011 in this view looking west over Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Winds were out of the south at this hour and temperatures registered just above 40 degrees F. Just two days earlier at this location, the mercury had dipped to a near-record low of -12 degrees F. Continued significant snow cover prevented temperatures of at least 10 degrees warmer than was attained on this day.

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Not A Fit Night Out For Man Nor Beast

Sustained north winds of 30-40 mph blast Noelridge Christian Church, 7111 C Avenue NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with snow around 9:45 PM, Tuesday, February 1, 2011. A blizzard was in progress here as it was throughout much of the Midwest, wreaking havoc and costing millions of dollars in damages. Despite the conditions that prevailed--temperatures in the teens and subzero wind chills--I was amazed at how quickly my exposed fingers became painfully numb on my camera's shutter button in the time duration of less than 30 seconds it took to shoot my pictures. The culprit of all this mess was an intense, heavily moisture-laden low pressure system moving on a NE track from east Texas to Ohio. In Cedar Rapids, snow fell from early Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning (Feb. 2), dropping about 13 inches of the white stuff on the city. Trailing the winter storm was high pressure, bringing clear skies, lofty barometer readings (30.50-plus inHg in C.R.) and cold temperatures. By 7:00 AM, Thursday, February 3, temperatures had bottomed out at a frigid -9 degrees F. This image of the church building looks northeast, almost directly into the "teeth" of the wind.

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