A little hazy

 
An image from my timelapse sequence last night shows a little bit of haze in the sky about an hour and a half before twilight (see my photo from the 30th for an image from the end of the sequence once twilight had begun). This image is 30 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 400 with my 24mm lens on my Canon 20D. 

International Space Station

 
In twilight this morning at 6:15AM, I captured this picture of the International Space Station as it orbits to the north of Kitt Peak. This image was taken with my 24mm lens on my Canon 20D. The exposure was 30 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 400. 

Morning Twilight

 
This image was taken this morning as twilight grew and as I was closing down my telescope. From left to right are the Spacewatch 36 inch telescope, the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok telescope and the Kitt Peak 4-meter Mayall telescope. This image was taken with the 24mm lens on my Canon 20D. The expsosure was 30 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 400. 

B&W Moonlit Twilight

 
I was just playing around with Moonlit Twilight which I posted in its original color version several weeks ago and had fun making a B&W version of the image. I chose a filtered B&W in Picasa, using a red filter and then played with the contrast and birhgtness a little before ending up with this image. See my January 4 entry for the original version. I definitely prefer the color version - the shade of blue contrasted with the sunset glow just make that image for me. 

Hazy city lights

 
This is a picture from Kitt Peak last month showing the haze layer over Tucson and lots of city lights. An airplane is inbound to Tucson International Airport. The small redish cluster of lights above the blinking trail of the airplane are radio and TV towers on Mt. Bigelow close to the home of the Catalina Sky Survey in the Santa Catalina mountains north of town. You can see the Catalinas dimly lit by city lights. This image was obtained with my 70-300mm zoom at 300mm focal length on my 20D. The exposure was 30 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600. 

Cactus flower

 
This image was made the first weekend I had my Canon 20D in Madera Canyon. The exposure was made with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/4.0, ISO 100. 

R2D2 Observatory

 
I took this shortly after getting my 20D in early May, 2005. Of course, Star Wars III was about to be released and someone on campus decided that the original Steward Observatory dome which now houses a 21 inch telescope looked a bit like R2, so they dressed the dome up appropriately. This exposure was taken with the kit lens set to 55mm focal length. The exposure was 1/250 seconds at f/8, ISO 400. 

Fire

 
While staring into our campfire, I got the "bright" idea to take pictures. This image was taken with my Canon A75 with an exposure of 1/15 seconds at f/4.8. 

Sunset from Baldy Saddle

 
This image is from our hiking trip to Mt. Wrightson back in April. We watched the sunset from Baldy Saddle near our campsite. This view shows the summit of Mt. Hopkins and the MMT Observatory on its peak. This image was taken with my Canon A75, the exposure was 1/120 seconds at f/2.8. 

 
This image is from May 2003 taken looking downstream from Toroweap Overlook towards Lava Falls and Lava Falls rapids. The exposure was taken with my old Fuji FinePix 2650 with its lens at 6mm focal length (equivalent to 42mm in 35mm format). The exposure was 1/180 seconds at f/6.7, ISO 100. 

A close play

 
Another from the archives, this one from April 2003. The runner at first dives back into the bag as the pitcher tries to pick him off at first base. This image was taken with my old Fuji FinePix 2650 with an exposure of 1/45 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 100. 

Thunderbirds!

 
Some more from the "archives". This is an image from March 2003 which shows the Thunderbirds flying in formation during their airshow performance. This image was taken with my old Fuji FinePix 2650 with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/8.7, ISO 100. 

3D Viper

 
This image needs your trusty anaglyph glasses to view properly. It is from an air show at Davis Monthan airbase in March 2003 with my old Fuji FinePix 2650. I took a pair of pictures of the F-16 and then put the one taken on the left into the red channel and the one on the right into the blue and green channels, so you should see a 3D F-16 Falcon (aka Viper) when you view the anaglyph properly. 

What a post with no picture?...

...yes, but I found this page quite funny, so I couldn't resist - besides, I'll certainly post an image tomorrow anyway. Visit this page to see what I'm talking about: 25 Photographic Truths

Busy Bee

 
Another one from the "archives" - this one from March 2003. This is probably my best bee shot ever. A few days after trying to get a picture of one of many bees flying around a palo verde tree and not getting anything terribly good, I ran across this bee and got a keeper on the first try. Figures. This image was taken with my Fuji FinePix 2650 with the lens at 6mm focal length (42mm equivalent in 35mm format). The exposure was 1/220 seconds at f/8.7, ISO 100. 

Toroweap Thunderstorm

 
This image was taken in May 2003 in the campground near Toroweap Overlook on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon at the end of a 60 mile dirt road. The thunderstorm across the canyon drenched our campsite a few hours later (we retreated into the car for a couple hours). This image was taken with my old Fuji FinePix 2650, the lens was set to 6mm (equivalent to 42mm in 35mm format). The exposure was 1/9 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 100. Toroweap is a wonderful place with great views. THere are a number of cinder cones in the area, particularly across the canyon. Vulcans Throne is a cinder cone which caused Lava Falls, a lava flow that drops 3000 feet into the Canyon below. The Lava Falls rapids is a highlight for river runners (we saw a group of them go through the rapids when we visited the Overlook the next morning). At one time, a lava flow dammed the river which eventually breached the natural dam and eroded it away - nature has done what man has done at places like Glen Canyon and downstream at Lake Mead. 

These guys aren't insurance salesmen....

 
A couple friends of mine - a pair of geckos who live in my wifes science classroom. I call them Mr. Stripes and Mr. Spots, though my wife has more complicated names for them that I can't remember. It's always fun to take them out of their cage and pester them. They're generally pretty docile - unless you're a cricket, that is. This image was taken with my old Canon A75, exposure was 1/13 seconds at f/8. 

Moonrise

 
The nearly full Moon rises behind some cirrus as a class of students takes turns looking at its features through a telescope on the mall at the UofA. This exposure was taken with the kit lens attached to my 20D set to 18mm focal length. The exposure was 4 seconds at f/8, ISO 800. 

Orion Nebula

 
Still using my friends 8 inch f/10 SCT, I took this 8 second exposure at ISO 1600. The telescope was only crudely aligned and the error in the pole alignment caused a pretty rapid drift that is apparent in this image in the short trailed stars. 

Nearly Full Moon

 
The Moon looks to be about a day short of full in this image taken at prime focus with my friends 8 inch f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The exposure was 1/1000 seconds at ISO 800 on my Canon 20D. Rayed craters Copernicus and Tycho are prominant and the spectacularly bright Aristarchus in the upper left part of the Moon are among the easiest features to identify. 

Amateur geologist...

 
I love playing Amateur Geologist while out exploring. This is a great example of crossbeded sandstone at Horseshoe Bend Overlook near Page Arizona. You can just imagine the original layers being layed down, then eroded and then new layers layed on top of them. This image was taken with the kit lens on my Canon 20D set to 18mm focal length. The exposure was 1/800 seconds at f/8, ISO 400. 

Leave him Bee

 
This image of a bee working a flower was taken with my 70-300mm macro zoom at 300mm in macro mode. The exposure was 1/2000 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400. 

Spacewatch 36 inch telescope

 
This is a photograph of the Spacewatch 36 inch telescope on Kitt Peak. The image was tungsten white-balanced and taken with a 24mm lens on my 20D. The exposure was 1/80 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 1600. 

Spacewatch 1.8-m B&W

 
This image is of the Spacewatch 1.8-meter telescope taken from next to the Spacewatch 36 inch dome (a frequent subject of my night-time images). This image was taken with my 70-300mm zoom at 70mm focal length. The exposure was 1/640 seconds at f/8, ISO 400. I used a red filter affect in Picasa to convert to B&W in order to increase the contrast in the sky. 

B&W sunset

 
Here is the same image as yesterday's entry, but using a red filter to convert the image to black and white. It is interesting to compare a scene viewed in color and B&W as well as B&W with different filters. 

Another day, another sunset

 
Can we ever tire of pretty sunset shots? Here is another sunset shot from my last observing run on Kitt Peak. This one was taken with the 24mm lens on my 20D. The exposure was 1/400 seconds at f/4, ISO 100.