Setting sun

Here's another shot from last week's observing run on Kitt Peak. The sun sets behind distant hills. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an eposure of 1/2500 seconds t f/8, ISO 100.

Bird in the clouds

It doesn't take much for the human mind to see patterns in nature. I was struck by the resemblence of the cloud at top center to a flying bird, perhaps coming in for a landing on the Spacewatch 36 inch telescope dome. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Twilight Moon and dome

Just around sunset, I finished preparing the Spacewatch 36 inch (inside the dome shown here) and was ready to head back to the other telescope where we control both Spacewatch telescopes and couldn't resist a shot of this view of the dome and the Moon. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/30 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 200.

Buzzard

Another shot of one of the Turkey Vultures that were flying around Kitt Peak yesterday afternoon. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Turkey Vulture

A couple Turkey Vultures were flying around in the thermals above Kitt Peak this afternoon before dinner. I was moving just a little too much to keep this one interested.... This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1600 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Nearly Quarter phase moon from February.

Here's a shot from February 22 this year of the nearly quarter phase Moon. I really love watching the Moon and often think about what it would be like to be standing there looking back on planet Earth. If only we hadn't scrapped the Apollo hardware..... This image was taken at 263mm focal length with an exposure of 1/640 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200, heavily cropped.

Boulders and Telescopes at sunset

From atop the rocks just north of our 36 inch telescopes dome (on the left), this is the view to the south. On the distant ridge is the 3.5-m WIYN telescope dome with the Kitt Peak 36 inch telescope to its left. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.

Another flower

Another flower from a hike around Old Main about a week and a half ago. This image was taken with the kit lens at 55mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/8, ISO 800.

ISS & Shuttle into the sunset

As the Sun sets on both spacecraf, their trailed images fade to invisible. This image was taken just after the previous one. The image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 400.

ISS & the Shuttle

We were presented with a decent pass of the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis. They undocked yesterday and Atlantis is scheduled to land tomorrow. The ISS leads the shuttle in this view and produced a brighter trail than the shuttle. The spacecraft are moving left to right and Polaris, the "North Star" is visible just above center above the trails. The right end of the leading ISS trail is just beginning to fade as the ISS passes into the Earth's shadow and disappeared a few moments later. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 400. The bright glow of the city lights of Tucson provides the dome of light extending up into the sky.

The McMath Solar Telescope

This image of the McMath Solar Telescope was taken near the end of the Partial Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2005. A mirror at the top left of the building reflects light to the lower right where the primary mirror rests at the bottom of the inclined shaft. It reflects the light back up to about the ground level where another mirror reflects light down into the instrument room where the data are collected and recorded. This image was taken with my Canon A75.

April 8, 2005 partial eclipse

Here is an image of the partial solar eclipse on April 8, 2005. The Moon has occulted the left edge of the Sun and there is a sunspot visible near the top and aonther much smaller one is visible near the bottom of the Sun in this white light projection made with the McMath Solar Telescope. This image was taken with my Canon A75 camera.

Partial Solar Eclipse - from the archives

On April 8, 2005, there was a partial solar eclipse visible from here. Since I was on Kitt Peak observing, I wandered over to the McMath Solar Telescope and managed to get a behind the scenes view of the event. Here, the two working solar astronomers flank the projected image of the Sun which the Moon was partly obscuring. This image was taken with my old Canon A75.

From the archives

A male house finch sits atop his perch with a female house finch sitting just below. I had to take a closer look to see that the peak on the female's head was just some ruffled feathers. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with my 20D with an an exposure of 1/1250 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Lenscap & Notebook abstract

Just playing around awhile back. Converted to B&W. This image was taken with my new 50mm f/1.8 lens with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 800.

Bright Pink

I found this flower near the fountain west of Old Main on the UofA Campus. This image was taken with the kit lens on my 20D at 55mm focal length with an expsoure of 1/40 seconds at f/8, ISO 800.

Heading home

This was the view in my rear view mirror last Friday as I left Kitt Peak and headed for home. If you look closely you can see the largest domes on the flat ridge near center. The view is, of course, backwards. This image was taken with the kit lens at 55mm focal length with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/14, ISO 400.

Color sunset

Here's the original color version of yesterday's B&W sunset image.

B&W Sunset

Here's another sunset from last week on Kitt Peak - this one converted to B&W with a red filter in Picasa. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/3200 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 100 with moderate cropping.

Moonlit night

The 4-meter Mayall Telescope dome at right spins to follow the telescope within as the astronomer moves from one target to another elsewhereon the sky. The quarter phase moon lights up the landscape to look almost like daytime in this 30 second exposure. This image was taken with my 24mm lens at f/1.8, ISO 400.

WWII Navy plane (A-6?)

I was surprised to see this WWII era Navy plane parked at the gas tanks at Ryan Field west of town as I drove back to Tucson. I quickly pulled out the camera and took a shot over my shoulder. The quality isn't the best and this ia a heavily cropped image to boot. This image was taken with the kit lens at 55mm focal length with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/14, ISO 400.

Iridium Flare

We were lucky enough to be able to observe a -8 magnitude Iridium flare last night here on Kitt Peak. In this view, the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope dome is directly beneath the Iridium satellite as it surges in brightness from nearly invisible to its peak brightness of about -8 in just a few seconds. The bright star Arcturus is visible near center at top - in fact, if you are familiar with the constellation, you can see Bootes laying on its side with the Iridium flare within it. If you'd like to see an Iridium flare, check out the heavens-above.com website and enter your latitude and longitude and then see when the next visible flare will be - the more negative the brightness, the brighter it should appear in the sky overhead. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 13 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 100.

Cloudy Sunset

With a fresh shutter in my 20D, I found this interesting sunset up here on Kitt Peak Monday night at sunset.

Cruisin'

I've been riding my bike to and from work lately - it's about 12.4 miles each way and this is one of the views I get as I peddle the bike trails of Tucson. Here I'm just about to pass mile 4 of a 15 mile ride this afternoon. This image was taken with the kit lens on my 20D at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/7.1, ISO 400.