Naked SNJ "Texan"

This SNJ "Texan" is in the middle of being refurbished and has all of its inards exposed during the work. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.

MAID in the SHADE, starboard side

Interestingly, the nose art on the starboard side of MAID in the SHADE has a brunett rather than the blonde on the other side. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.

MAID in the SHADE nose art - port side

Gotta love the nose art on these old planes. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.

MAID in the SHADE

This B-25J Mitchell bomber, "MAID in the SHADE" is in the restoration hanger at the Commemorative Air Force museum in Mesa. Looks to me like the restoration is nearly done - at least on the outside. This bomber was stationed in Corsica with the 319th bomb group, 437th bombing squadron and flew bombing missions to Italy in WWII. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Medical helicopter

This medical helicopter came in for a landing at Falcon Field while we waited for the B-17 Sentimental Journey to return to the airport. This image was taken at 214mm focal length with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

MiG head on

Just to be fair, here's a similar shot of the MiG from head on. This image was taken at 41mm focal length with an exposure of 1/40 seconds at f/5, ISO 400.

Phantom head on

Here's another view of the F-4 Phantom. Notice that the wingtips are folded up - a space saver on a aircraft carrier with limited storage space. This image was taken at 28mm focal length with an exposure of 1/25 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 400.

Phantom of the skies

This F4 Phantom flew off the USS Ranger and might have engaged a MiG like the one that sits right next to it. One of its engines sites outside the jet. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/60 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 400.

MiG power

You wouldn't want to stand here when this engine came to life. This is the view into the jet engine of the MiG. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/13 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 400 with fill flash.

MiG

This MiG from the Museum of the Commemorative Air Force in Mesa is from Hungary. This image was taken at 21mm focal length with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 400.

Back at the museum

The ground crew guides the behemouth as it taxies back to its parking location next to the museum to prepare for the next flight. This image was taken at 37mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/16, ISO 100.

Flaps down, wheels down

The Sentimental Journey nears the end of the runway as it approaches Falcon Field in Mesa after its tour around the area for some lucky passengers. This image was taken at 214mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/8, ISO 100. If I'd had a little more time and the plane weren't coming in so close, I probably would have upped the f-ratio to lengthen the exposure a little and blur the props a little more.

That dot up there...

Most of the time the Sentimental Journey flew around the area, it was not much more than just a dot up in the sky, even with my long lens. But as it entered the pattern, it got close enough to recognize it as a B-17. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Climbing out

The Sentimental Journey climbes out after taking off from Falcon Field. It spent more than 20 minutes taking its passengers on a ride around the area before returning. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Approaching the runway

The Sentimental Journey moves onto the taxiway leading to the runway and waits for one more plane to come in. Falcon Field in Mesa is apparently one of the busiest airports in the Phoenix area, probably because it serves mostly private planes. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

The big and the small of it

As the Sentimental Journey prepares to take off, a smaller private plane takes off from Falcon Field ahead of it. This image was taken at 168mm focal length with an exposure of 1/640 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Starting its first engine

Sentimental Journey starts up its first engine as it gets ready to take a group on a 20 minute flight around the area. You can see the smoke belching as the engine starts turning. Once all 4 engines were running, there was quite a breeze for those standing behind the plane and a distinctive smell of the exhaust. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/16, ISO 100.

Sentimental Journey

We were up in Phoenix today (Karri had a workshop, so I went with and wandered around after dropping her off) and I found my way to the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force Museum at Falcon Field in Mesa. As luck would have it, the B-17 "Sentimental Journey" was there giving rides to paying customers and the rest of us museum visitors got to get pretty close to this remarkable machine and got to watch it take off and land. Pretty cool! And a great museum too. This image was taken at 55mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/16, ISO 100.

Over the Rainbow

Some rain mixed with a setting sun made a perfect combination to generate a complete double rainbow over the UofA campus this evening. Here you can see a bright main rainbow with a fainter outer rainbow. Also visible is the bright innner sector and a secondary inner rainbow. BTW, that's the Flandrau Planetarium below the rainbows. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/7.1, ISO 100.

Sunset

I don't think I can take too many sunset pictures. This one was from last night on Kitt Peak. I took a long sequence and should have some HDR fodder as well. This type of sunset isn't very pretty for astronomers, but the night turned out quite well as the clouds cleared after sunset. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Morning Twilight

Last Wednesday morning after a productive night of observing, the twilight grows bright as sunrise approaches. Some distant clouds are lit orange and the Earth's shadow sinks in the last moments of twilight. The Spacewatch 36 inch dome is still open (that was my next stop before heading to bed) and the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok telescope dome and Kitt Peak 4-meter Mayall telescopes are at right. This image was taken with my 24mm lens at f/2.8 with an exposure of 1/250 seconds, ISO 400.

That bright ol' Moon

The last night of my 8 night run and it's bright enough to read a paper up here on Kitt Peak tonight, so I took advantage of the Moon to take its picture through an 1880s vintage 5 inch Alvin Clark refractor that rides on the side of the ol' 36 inch. It is the oldest telescope on Kitt Peak mounted on the side of the 2nd oldest telescope on the mountain top. This image used eyepiece projection with no lens on my camera and hence, a little aberation on the lower right edge of the Moon. The exposure of 1/100 seconds at ISO 400. The area around bright rayed crater Tycho seems to have the best focus and Aristarchus almost looks like a headlight near the terminator at right. North is at bottom right, west at bottom left. I literally hand held the camera behind the eyepiece for this shot.

Snow and clouds

It snowed during the day on Sunday and overnight on Sunday night with about 1-2 inches accumulated. Most of the snow was gone by the time I got up on Monday except for on the north sides of hills and buildings, and under trees. This view towards the south ridge of Kitt Peak from the top of the 36 inch dome looks into areas that are still snow covered. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Pea Soup....

The fog rolled in Saturday night and it was still foggy on Sunday afternoon - with a prediction of snow, it was obvious there'd be no observing on Sunday night. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/80 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

It won't be clear tonight!

My first 3 nights of the new year started out great with 3 clear nights (though the wind was a bit high on the 3rd), but Saturday afternoon this stuff started coming in - by sunset it was mostly cloudy and we had fog most of the night. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/2500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.