Trails, Beehives And Martians

The top image is a stacked group of 45 30-second exposures at f/5, 320 ISO and 18mm focal length. Total duration for the images was from 9:42-10:15 PM CDT, Friday, May 9, 2014. The image looks west over Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The five bright streaks above the treeline are, from left: star Procyon, planet Jupiter, star Pollux, star Castor and star Capella. A streak from aircraft lights extends lightly from the middle to the upper right of the image. The middle photo is one of the 45 stacked images, this one shot at 9:42 PM. Lightly visible at upper center left is the ghostly looking Beehive Cluster. The bottom image, looking south, shows the planet Mars (center) bathed in the light of the half-moon at 10:17 PM from the same location as the top two images.

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Hiawatha Sunrise

A lone bird flies into a colorful sunrise as seen from near Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa
around 6:20 AM CDT, Thursday, May 8, 2014. Weather conditions had finally turned a bit muggy--
68 degrees F with 83% humidity, and indeed a thundershower mover through the area a couple hours later.

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Cumulus Tower From Hiawatha

This isolated cumulus tower made for a beautiful sight on Wednesday morning, May 7, 2014 as seen at 8:24 AM CDT from near Progress Drive and Martha's Way in Hiawatha, Iowa. The cloud tops on this small cell rose to 35-40,000 feet. The cell was located about 10 miles away in southeast Linn County. The cloud was a precursor to severe weather in much of the state the following day.

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A Heavenly Sight In Marion

Sunset with clouds provided this "heavenly" sight in Marion, Iowa around 7:07 PM CDT, Friday, May 2, 2014. The location was the intersection of 13th Street and 8th Avenue in downtown Marion. Church steeple silhouettes seen in the background are: First United Methodist Church (left) and First Presbyterian Church.

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From Below And From Above

Large crisscrossing aircraft contrails were both evident from the ground and even from space on Saturday morning, May 3, 2014. The top image was captured from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 9:00 AM CDT. The bottom image is a screen capture from a satellite image around 9:30 AM clearly showing the contrails within the state.

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Ran Slick Parking Lot

The parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 4:35 PM CDT on Sunday, April 27, 2014 took on the appearance of a pool of water as its surface reflected low light during a severe thunderstorm. This view looks east. I had taken up position here as a spotter. Sirens were wailing at this moment from radar-detected circulation aloft.

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Mild Rotation From Severe Weather

Cedar Rapids was in a slight risk area (just north of a moderate risk range) at the start of the day on Sunday, April 27, 2014. A line of storms approached Cedar Rapids just after 4:00 PM, with tornado-warned areas to the southwest and moving northeast. Dew points were not overly favorable to severe weather, as they were in the low 50s. The top two images show a possible mild rotation in the clouds in the west sky as seen from Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, with the top image shot at 4:31 PM and the middle at 4:33 PM. Area sirens were sounding at this moment. The bottom image shows a comparable Quad Cities NWS radar image screen capture. Winds speeds never exceeded 35 mph at this location.

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