Arctic Phenomenon Takes Summer Vacation

The Aurora Borealis, the dancing, shimmering, ghostly light show far up in Earth's atmosphere caused by the collision of energetic charged particles from the solar wind, is usual for arctic regions and dark winter months across the northern United States. It is not usual for it to occur in the mid-latitudes of the USA in July. Our sun is nearing its 11-year cycle solar maximum, which at times allows rare glimpses of The Northern Lights farther south. In addition to Iowa, other states reporting recent activity were: Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Arkansas and Michigan. The three images above were shot from just north of Echo Hill Presbyterian Church near Marion, Iowa. Tops of the streamers reached as high as 36 degrees above the horizon. A geomagnetic storm arrived around 9:00 AM CDT on July 14 but did not appear at this location until the predawn hours of July 15. These images were taken from 4:28-4:33AM, were exposed from 6-20 seconds using an ISO of 1000-1250 at f/4.5. The ever-increasing light of dawn finally washed out and ended the show.

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Little Bit Of Night Sky For Everyone

I probably got a total of about three hours of sleep on the night/morning of July14-15, 2012, viewing a very busy celestial show that included meteor streaks, planets and the moon in conjunction and an Auroral display. Unfortunately the bright meteor streak image I was lucky enough to capture turned out mushy--due to a gathering ground fog. That photo was shot around 11:00 PM, July 14 during which time I was on alert at a position just north of Echo Hill Presbyterian Church near Marion, Iowa for the expected arrival of the Northern Lights. I gave up that vigil around 11:30, went home to get a little sleep, then got up again and drove to downtown Cedar Rapids, to compose a shot of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter in the east sky overlooking the Cedar River and the Quaker Oats cereal plant from 1st Street NW (top image). Upon returning from that location I decided at the last minute to check out the Echo Hill location one more time. Great decision--the Aurora Borealis were very active (bottom image), with streamer tops reaching as much as 36 degrees above the northern horizon. Temperatures were 68 degrees F with 94% humidity and minimal interference from insects. The auroral display continued until it became washed out by the approaching glow of sunrise. The constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper) can be seen at left. Top photo was shot at 3:47 AM, and was a three second exposure at f/16, ISO 1000 and 22mm focal length; bottom photo was shot at 4:32 AM, and was an eight second exposure at f/4.5, 1250 ISO and 18mm focal length.

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Illuminated Backdrop In New Housing Development

A bank of cumulus clouds are highly reflective of the setting sun as seen in the background of one of the entrances to the new Bowman Meadows housing development in Marion, Iowa around 8:27 PM on Wednesday, June 13, 2012. At left is Boyson Road. This image looks east.

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Cherry Location

Iowa State University meteorology students and storm chasers wait along Cherry Avenue, a gravel road just a tenth-of-a-mile south of Highway 175 (seen in the background) and about 2.8 miles west of Onawa, Iowa exit of Interstate 29 around 5:56 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. Severe weather was approaching from the left in this image. About ten minutes after this photograph was taken, the chase resumed--driving north, then east, following the SE flank of a strong storm system that would drop a small (EF0) tornado northeast of Onawa within a half hour then a much stronger (EF3) twister at Mapleton a little over an hour later. The chasers are from left: Bryce Link, Sam Schreier (leaning on car), Tyler Roney (foreground), Ryan Alliss, Nick Carletta and Tristan Morath (behind Carletta).

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Mare's Tails At Dusk

Mare's Tail (cirrus incinus) clouds streak the horizon around 9:30 PM, Sunday, July 8, 2012 looking WNW from just west of Christ Community United Methodist Church in Marion, Iowa. Sunset was about 45 minutes earlier. The street visible at lower right is Forest Lane, just south of East Robins Road in Marion, and just east of the Marion/Cedar Rapids city border. This image is a 1.5-second exposure at f/13, 640 ISO and 200mm focal length.

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Pre-Dawn Performance

The planets Venus and Jupiter were back within a few degrees of one another in the east sky during the early morning hours of Tuesday, July 10, 2012. Venus shone at a stunning -4.47 magnitude, while Jupiter also delighted at -2.07 magnitude. Also in the mix was the 0.84 magnitude star Aldebaran (in the constellation Taurus and seen just below and right of Venus), and the 1.62 magnitude star Elnath (also in Taurus and seen above the tree line in the bottom image at left). Aldebaran is 65 light years from Earth, Elnath 131 light years. The Pleiades star cluster is visible above Jupiter in the lower image. The images were captured from Archer Drive in the new housing development of Bowman Meadows, just south of Boyson Road in Marion, Iowa. The top image, shot at 4:54 AM, is a 3 1/2-second exposure at f/11, 640 ISO and 40mm focal length. The bottom image, shot at 4:43 AM, is a 5-second exposure at f/13, 1000 ISO and 26mm focal length. Clouds just above the horizon were slowly drifting from right-to-left.

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Hard To Identify, Even Harder To Pronounce

The conditions that kept me from photographing the planet Mercury in the west sky at twilight on Sunday, July 8, 2012, actually created this optical phenomena in which I believe is known as a Crepuscular Ray. I had observed a long arching blue shaft (top image) in the northwest sky that I originally thought might be some kind of a precursor to an impending Aurora Borealis display or something of that nature.  Crepuscular (meaning twilight) Rays, also known as God Rays, are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. These rays, which stream through gaps in clouds (which in this case obscured Mercury) or between other objects, are columns of sunlit air separated by darker cloud-shadowed regions. The rays are so pronounced because of the contrasts of light and dark at this hour. This images were photographed at 9:10 and 9:18 PM, and look over East Robins Road from just west of Christ Community United Methodist Church in Marion, Iowa.

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