Sunset downtown

The sun sets behind the Courthouse in downtown Tucson.  I captured this image as I headed for the bus stop using the 5Mpixel camera in my Droid.

Andrea & the Catalina Schmidt

My good friend Andrea Boattini stands next to the Catalina Schmidt which is the survey telescope for the Catalina Sky Survey on Mt. Bigelow in the Catalina mountains. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 800. I used this telescope with film back in 1992 before it was converted to using a CCD camera.

Jupiter

I dropped my sweetie off at the Catalina Observatory with some students for a weekend education program held there at the 61 inch telescope. This view of Jupiter was made with eyepiece projection from the 61 inch (1.54-m) Kuiper Telescope on Mt. Bigelow north of Tucson. The exposure of 1/200 seconds. you can clearly see the red spot, a giant storm that has persisted on Jupiter since it was first recognized in early telescopes. It was difficult to focus the image while hand-holding the camera to the eyepiece. Best image quality was hit and miss as you tried to align the camera with the eyepiece in the dark while focusing the camera lens or telescope.

Leonid fireball train

In the next exposure, you can still see the train blowing in the winds in the upper atmosphere. The meteor left this trail behind which I could trace out in images stretching over about half an hour! Must have been pretty neat to see. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 2 minutes at f/2.8, ISO 800.

Leonid Fireball

I took 99 exposures overnight from my light polluted back yard hoping to catch some bright Leonid meteors. In this frame taken over 2 minutes starting around 04:55:49 AM MST, a bright fireball flashed across the sky in the south part of Orion on the right side of this fisheye image of the night sky. Leo is on the left part of the frame (trace the image of the fireball back towards the left and you'll pass through Leo - hence the name of the meteor shower). It must have been spectacular to watch. I was asleep at the time as the camera kept its vigil outside with a timer remote faithfully exposing image after image. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with a 2 minute exposure at f/2.8, ISO 800.

Sonoran Sunset III

When out taking photographs, don't forget to look the other way. As my previous 2 images show, I was out shooting the sunset, but the view the other direction was pretty nice too. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/25 seconds at f/4, ISO 200.

Sonoran Sunset II

Another view of the sunset in the Tucson Mountains. This is a wider view with a few more colors and the rays from the sun which is trying to peek out from behind the clouds. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.

Sonoran Sunset approaches

This view of an a partly cloudy sunset was taken west of the Tucson Mountains not far from McCain Loop road off of Kinney Road. The suns rays beam down on the landscape with a Saguaro Cactus surrounded by typical desert plants like Ocotillo and Palo Verde. This image was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 1/6400 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800. I'd use a slower ISO normally, but I think I had forgotten to set it slower after using the camera for some astrophotography in the days before.....

Satellite, domes and Milky Way

A Satellite speeds along its orbit paralleling the summer Milky Way in this fisheye image of the sky taken at the end of June from Kitt Peak. The dome faintly lit by light from Tucson and from the sky near center is that of the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400.

Spacewatch 36 inch telescope

While on the subject of telescopes, here is a fisheye image of the Spacewatch 36 inch telescope on Kitt Peak. This telescope was built in 1921 and housed in a dome on the UofA campus in Tucson until the early 1960s when it was moved up to Kitt Peak. Spacewatch took over the telescope in the early 1980s and has kept it busy finding asteroids ever since. Today, it uses a mosaic camera which covers 2.9 square degrees per image and reaches fainter than about magnitude V=21 regularly. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400.

Fisheye sunset

A view of sunset from Kitt Peak using my 10mm fisheye lens. Nice sunset - for photography. But not so night for Astronomy. This image was tkan with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/60 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope

One thing that is hard to photograph with a "normal" lens are telescopes inside of domes. You just can't quite fit the telescope in the frame since you can't get far enough away from the telescope. But a fisheye makes the task easy! This is the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope on Kitt Peak. We use it to observe asteroids and comets. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/15 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 400.

Hangin' with George

Last Friday afternoon, I played photographer at my sweeties school Halloween dance. While setting up, I took this self portrait (which one is me?). "George" is on the left - no, really. He was lit with some LEDs and said some scary things (that we couldn't really hear anyway with the music playing loudly in the next room). I used a 1 second exposure to capture the glowing eyes and both an on camera flash and remote triggered flash to light the subject(s). The lens was set at 22mm focal lengthw at f/6.3 at ISO 400.

1.8-m at sunset

The Spacewatch 1.8-m telescopes dome is lit by the setting sun. This image was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 1/40 seconds at f/11, ISO 100.

Tuffy the Toro

Tuffy the Toro has been one of Tucsons baseball mascots for as long as I can remember. He entertained the crowds at Hi Corbet field when the Tucson Toros were the AAA team for the Houston Astros when I first attended a Toros game. He even visited Tucson Electric Park and helped Sammy Sidewinder entertain crowds at Tucson Sidewinder games before they left town. It must get pretty hot inside that head on a warm summer evening.... This image was taken at 186mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

Apache helicopter

After my return from Kaua'i, I went to a Tucson Toros baseball game and found this Apache helicopter parked out in center field. Before the game and after the National Anthem, the helicopter took off an dleft the park. Here it is climbing from the field. This image was taken at 86mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

Waves at sunset

We watched the waves crash into the shore at Spouting Horn, this view is along the coastline to the west. It was quite spectacular, but it was time to head home.... This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/6.3, ISO 400.

Spouting Horn and Spouting Horn Jr.

As Spouting Horn's last burst floats away on the wind on the left, a smaller version bursts into the air over on the right in this fisheye view of the rocks around Spouting Horn on Kaua'i. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Sunset at Spouting Horn

I'd been planning to visit Spouting Horn for the whole 2 weeks I was on Kaua'i, but we kept putting it off. I'd missed Spouting Horn a decade ago the first time I visited, so I had to get here. So, around sunset of the last day on Kaua'i, just before heading for the airport, we finally made it. And I wasn't disappointed. Spouting Horn is basically just a hole in the lava rocks where the crashing surf flows through the hole or really tunnel and then jets up into the sky. Really cool! There are some mini versions of the same all around this particular area as well as what might have been a similar feature in the past which has eroded to a larger opening off to the left of the geyser you see in this picture, near the left edge of this image. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/6.3, ISO 400.

Bike path and palm trees

This segment of the Kaua'i bike path runs 4.1 miles in length from Kapaa to the trails end up past Donkey Beach. Another 2.5 mile segment is a few miles south and will eventually be connected and several other segments and paths are on the drawing board. It will be really nice some day. This segment along the coast in Kapaa is quite pretty as it passes stands of palm trees and several beaches on the ocean side and there are several hotels and other businesses inland not far off the path. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 100 with a circular polarizer.

Rocky coastline

I sure wouldn't want to try to swim in those waves crashing into the lava rocks. The Hawaiian islands rarely let you forget that you are on a volcanic island. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 100 with a circular polarizer.

Donkey Beach

We rode our bikes down the multi-use path along the ocean, stopping to view the scenery along the way until we abruptly came to the end. According to the guidebook the bike route was supposed to be 9 miles long yet we hit the end after only about 3 miles just beyond this secluded and rather empty beach. Only much later did I find out this was the "famous" former nude beach called "Donkey Beach". We didn't have time to wander down to it but stopped long enough above the beach to enjoy this view. Apparently, the relatively new owners of the land behind the beach have hired security guards to keep nudists off this beach. The bike route is supposed to be connected and extended in the coming years. It would be great to take a 10 or 20 mile bike ride on well maintained bike paths with views like this and access to the many beaches and picnic areas along the way. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 100 with a circular polarizer.

Hunting for shells

I almost didn't notice her when I first looked at this image - can you spot the woman hunting for shells? This image was taken during a bike ride on my last day on Kaua'i. We followed a bike/pedestrian trail from the town of Kapaa to its end and it offered many spectacular views of the ocean like this one. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/640 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 100.

Early morning walk on the beach

On my last day on Kaua'i, I dropped my daughter off at work and then stopped for a walk along the beach near Fort Elizabeth not far from Waimea. The water was pretty muddy being near the mouth of the Waimea river, but the waves and early morning light was very pretty. This image was taken at 43mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5, ISO 100.

The Pier at Hanalie Bay

Although the clouds mostly blocked the view, it was obvious that the mountains southwest of Hanalie Bay could be a spectacular sight. The pier here appears to be used mostly for walking out into the bay a little ways but I bet the fishing might be good there as well. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Boats in the Bay

Hanalie Bay is obviously a very popular anchorage for small boats. The north shore of Kaua'i gets lots more rain than much of the rest of the coastline which makes it much greener and probably more attractive to visitors. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 100, with a circular polarizer.