Early Winter Sunset

Aircraft contrails crisscross the horizon at sunset as seen from the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 4:30PM, Tuesday, December 28, 2010. This view looks southwest.

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Flocked By Frost Fog

A tree, backlit by a street light on Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, illuminates the frost fog accumulated on it around 6:45 AM, Monday, December 27, 2010. The frosty coating rendered all exposed surfaces Monday morning into a veritable fantasy land. Temperatures at this time hovered around 9 degrees F.

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Nighttime Contrail

An aircraft path and its contrail (left) glows ghostly in the eastern sky of Marion, Iowa around 6:30 PM, December 22, 2010. A couple minutes earlier a faint meteor left a barely visible contrail in the same part of the sky. The reason for the illuminated contrails in this dark sky was the fact that a nearly full moon was just minutes away from peeking over the northeast horizon. The foreground is a former soybean field in the process of conversion to a housing development. The contrail at left is in the constellation Gemini. Low on the horizon at center is Orion and above Orion is Taurus. This is a 28-second exposure at f/5, 18mm focal length and 400 ISO.

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Brightly Shone The Moon That Night Though The Frost Was Cruel...

Merry Christmas!

The moon was indeed bright as it rose in clear skies Wednesday evening around 6:55 PM, December 22, 2010, and conditions were definitely frosty as the temperatures were in the mid-20s F. This view of the moon, a little over a day removed from being full, looks northeast from a former soybean field that is currently in transition to a new housing development just south of Boyson Road near Alburnett Road in Marion, Iowa. The "hill" in the foreground is dirt in the process of being graded for future construction. The moon is flanked by two lesser stars in the constellation Gemini at top. I needed to trudge through snow some 100 yards or more off Boyson Road to escape the interference of car headlights. This is a composite image with the moon being shot separately at 1/2000 second at f/5.6 with automatic focusing. The background was a 13-second exposure at f/7.1, manual focusing, focal length of 92mm and an ISO rating of 400.

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Proud Papa!

Our son Ryan Alliss, a meteorology major at Iowa State University, conducted his senior thesis presentation at Agronomy Hall on the campus of ISU on Monday morning, December 6, 2010. The presentation was part of the 18th Annual Iowa State University Atmospheric Science Undergraduate Research Symposium. Ryan is shown in the larger photo explaining his research of CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy)--a meteorological term for energy that is released when water condenses--to professors, peers and family members in attendance. His thesis was titled Quasi-Linear Convective System Mesovorticies, and counted for about 10% of his total meteorology grade. Less than two weeks later he received his Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology during graduation ceremonies (inset photo) at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa on Friday evening, December 17. Congratulations, Ryan! We are all very proud of you!

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Winter Solstice Sky

Clouds had prohibited a view of the lunar eclipse over Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 2:00 AM on this day, December 21, 2010, but this striking view of altocumulus undulatus clouds reflected by the setting sun around 4:12 PM sparkled the southwest sky as seen from Bowman Woods Park. The view was brief as skies became overcast minutes later. The winter solstice arrived shortly afterward at 5:38 PM CST. Air temperature was 25 degrees F.

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Winter Moon Sky

A waxing gibbous moon moves

in and out of a thin veil of

clouds in a winter sky around

4:50 PM, Thursday, December

16, 2010. This image, taken

from Brentwood Drive NE in

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, looks

northeast.

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