Celestial Collaboration

The planet Venus, shining at a brilliant magnitude of -4.07, collaborates within seven degrees of a waxing crescent moon in the southwest sky as seen from the grounds at Echo Hill Presbyterian Church in Marion, Iowa around 6:12 PM, Thursday, January 26, 2012. C Avenue runs horizontally across the image just below the tree line in the background. Cloud cover that had dissipated over an hour before was beginning to return as evidenced by the clouds on the horizon. Despite the snow cover, air temperature at this hour was a relatively mild 36 degrees F. This photo is the product of a 4.5-second exposure at f/8, 800 ISO, 18mm focal length.

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Frozen Farm Field Star Trails

Star trails wheel over a rural landscape in this view looking north from Echo Hill Presbyterian Church in Marion, Iowa on the evening of Tuesday, January 17, 2012. The bright stars of The Big Dipper can clearly be seen at center. The thin swath of light along the horizon at center was caused by traffic along Echo Hill Road, about .7 mile away. This image is a combined stack of 11 two-minute exposures at f/3.5, 250 ISO and 18mm focal length, and was shot from 6:56-7:18 PM. The stacking effect was created from StarStaX software. It took a little fortitude creating this shot as I had to stand out in the open in 13 degree F temperatures accompanied with 10-20 mph winds (wind chill around -7 degrees)! The area at right with the grove of trees is a local farmstead.

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Snow Tree

This silhouetted tree stands out starkly against an overcast sky still producing light snow. The snowfall, tapering off at this moment, would accumulate to 5.5 inches in the area before it was done the following day. The image looks northwest from Boyson Park at the Cedar Rapids/Marion, Iowa border around 6:18 PM, Thursday, January 12, 2012. It is a two-second exposure at f/7.1, 640 ISO and 18mm focal length.

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The Old Oaken Observatory

Stars and the planet Jupiter shine through the silhouetted branches of an old oak tree in this view looking southwest from a woodsy area of Boyson Park at the Cedar Rapids/Marion, Iowa border around 8:30 PM, Friday, January 13, 2012. Jupiter is the bright object just right of the tree branch at center. This image was the result of a 50-second exposure at f/3.5, 1000 ISO and an 18mm focal length.

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Winter Sky Canopy

Star trails show through a canopy of tree branches in this view of the southeast sky as seen from Boyson Park at the Cedar Rapids/Marion, Iowa border. The image is a stacked set of three two-minute exposures at f/5.6, 200 ISO and 18mm focal length. Time during the session was from 8:22-8:28 PM, Friday, January 13, 2012. The bright streak at center is the star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion. The lighter areas at bottom and at right is scattered cloud cover. Air temperature at this moment was 8 degrees F, influenced by a snow cover of over five inches.

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Zero-to-5.5 In 24 Hours

What a difference a day makes! This was the scene at Boyson Park at the border of Cedar Rapids and Marion, Iowa around 6:15 PM, Thursday, January 12, 2012. Just 24 hours earlier the ground was dry and temperatures in the area had just started to fall from a daytime high of 50 degrees F-- just three degrees short of a record high in Cedar Rapids. Over night a storm system moved in changing the climate in dramatic fashion. The system, though not terribly wide, was held in place and back-spun from low pressure located around Lake Michigan, causing higher amounts of snowfall to accumulate here. Cedar Rapids received an official 5.5 inches of snow, but accurate measurements were made difficult by the high winds which accompanied the storm. Temperatures at this moment were around 14 degrees F. This image looks south just south of the footbridge located near Boyson Road. Running through the center of the picture is Dry Run Creek. The photo is a one-second exposure at f/7.1, 640 ISO and 18mm focal length.

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Back To Normal

Okay, it had to happen sooner or later... The winter of 2011/2012 in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa metro area was a rather benign one--no significant snowfall up to this point and unseasonably warm temperatures. Indeed, just the day before this photo was taken temperatures soared to a balmy 50 degrees F. Reality set in fast during the night of January 11/12, 2012 however, as about 5.5 inches of snow fell and temperatures dropped from a system that stretched from Oklahoma northeast into the upper peninsula of Michigan. The temperature at the time this photo was captured--around 6:20 PM, Thursday, January 12, 2012--was 14 degrees F. The image looks west as the snow was beginning to taper off, and some lingering light from behind the cloud cover is still evident. The location is at the Boyson Park footbridge over Dry Run Creek just south of Boyson Road at the Cedar Rapids/Marion border.

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