Clouds, Mars, and storms from Kitt Peak

This view of a storm cloud south of Kitt Peak was made in mid-twilight.  Just around sunset, the clouds were the site of bright lightning but it had stopped generating lightning by the time the rain stopped on Kitt Peak.  This image was taken with my Canon 70D with a Sigma 17-70mm lens at 19mm focal length with an exposure of 15 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

This is the view of Tucson from Kitt Peak with a busy thunder storm south of town.   This image was taken with my Canon 70D and a Sigma 17-70mm lens at 19mm focal length.  The exposure was 20 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

The sky never really cleared on this night, so the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope stayed closed.  Here, the telescope is lit by the Moon with Mars visible on the right side of the frame.  This image was taken with my Canon 70D and Sigma 17-70mm lens at 17mm focal length and an exposure of  20 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 800.

ISS over Kitt Peak

An early morning pass of the International Space Station over Kitt Peak on 2017 December 28.  Below the ISS is the Spacewatch 36 inch tome and to the right is the Kitt Peak 4-Meter Mayall telescope dome.  Twilight is just beginning in this 30 second exposure at f/1.8, ISO 400 with my 10mm fish eye lens on my Canon 70D.

Kitt Peak Sunset.

Sunset o Kitt Peak on December 27, 2017.  This is an HDR combine showing a view similar to what I saw in real time.  This is a combine of 5 exposures with my 50mm f/1.8 lens attached to my Canon 6D.

Desert Sunset - Tucson Mountain Park

Kitt Peak in the distance

I drove over Gates Pass road into the desert just west of Gates Pass in Tucson Mountain Park for the sunset yesterday.  This first image is the view looking west with Kitt Peak in the center of the image.  This is an HDR combine of 5 images showing not only the brighter sky and distant mountains, but also the darker foreground plants.  I used Aurora HDR program for the combine.  The image was taken with my Canon 6D and the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens.  Exposures ranged at f/4 at ISO 800 from 1/1600 seconds to 1/100 seconds.

Gates Pass to Golden Gate Mountain

 This image is looking back along Gates Pass Road with the pretty mountains ranging from Golden Gate Mountain on the right to the dip of Gates Pass on the left edge of the image.  The image is an HDR combine with 5 images taken with my Canon 6D and 50mm f/1.8 lens at f/4, ISO 800 with exposures ranging from 1/200 seconds to 1/13 seconds.

Saguaro Cactus and pretty sunset clouds

 This image looks west into the setting Sun with silhouetted cacti and bushes in the desert.  This HDR combine of 5 images taken with my Canon 6D and 50mm f/1.8 lens and exposures of  1/1250 to 1/80 seconds.

Saguaro Cactus, sunset clouds and the Moon

This last image is similar to the previous one but in portrait mode to catch the crescent Moon in the sky overhead.  It is also an HDR combine of 5 images with my Canon 6D and 50mm f/1.8 lens and exposures of 1/800 to 1/50 seconds.

HDR Crepuscular rays

 I recently purchased the Aurora 2018 HDR software and have found it relatively easy to use with many presets tailored to many different types of imagery.  My most recent eclipse post on this blog shows another sample of its utility.  Here is a mid afternoon cloud shot taken from near the 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak looking generally west-south-west-ward towards the southwest ridge of telescopes.  The scene greatly benefits from HDR techniques:

The first image is a combine of 5 images taken with my Sigma 17-70mm lens at 17mm focal length with exposures on the short end starting at 1/1250 seconds at f/8 and the longest at 1/200 seconds, all at ISO 100.  I used Aurora's "Realistic Bright" preset which brought out the landscape and helped also show the crepuscular rays coming down from the clouds.

This is the mid exposure (which is also the nominal exposure on this scene) of the 5 HDR images so you can see how dark the landscape is and also how washed out the details in the clouds appear.  The exposure was 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Lightning storm near Kitt Peak

Last night while waiting to observe on the 4-Meter Mayall telescope on Kitt Peak, a lightning storm passed to the southwest of Kitt Peak.  Here is some lightning to the southwest of the mountain with the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok telescope building lit by the Moon in the foreground.  The image was taken with my Canon 6D with my 50mm lens at f/8, ISO 1600 with a 20 second exposure.

Monsoon Storm from Kitt Peak

Last night while between local storms on Kitt Peak, I watched some storms around the area.  This one to the northwest of Kitt Peak was quite pretty and spectacular at the same time.  I took a series of five exposures in an HDR sequence and this is the middle exposure at ISO 400, f/8, 1/400 seconds at a focal length of 17mm on my Canon 70D.

This is a combination of 5 frames from 1/1000 second to 1/160 second exposures which shows the range of activity from the rays from the sun behind the clouds to the mountains and valley in the foreground.  Note the area in between the anvil and the local mountains which is covered in water from rainfall in that area.

Summer Milky Way from Kitt Peak

The Summer Milky Way sets over the little Tohono O'Odham town of Sells as viewed from Kitt Peak.  The exposure was made with my Canon 70D using a 17-70mm Sigma lens at 17mm focal length with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 1600.

A colorful Kitt Peak sunset

The view of sunset from Kitt Peak can be quite spectacular.  Of course, a pretty cloud filled sunset does not normally bode well for the nights observing program....

 This Sun Dog was visible at about the same time as the first image.

Just after sunset, this deep red glow was quite spectacular.

Lightning from Kitt Peak

Saturday night featured some impressive lightning storms in the distance as I was preparing to observe from Kitt Peak.  Most of the lightning storms were probably at least 30 miles away.  Here are a few of my favorite shots from the evening.

Here is the storm around sunset when it was south of Tucson.  You can see precipitation and there was plenty of lightning.  Lightning is hard to capture with short daytime exposures and the only bolt I got before sunset is blurred by camera motion.....  This image was taken with my 18-250mm telephoto at 18mm focal length on my Canon 70D with an exposure of 1/15 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

These 2 shots are looking southeast past the McMath Solar Telescope with the Spacewatch 1.8-meter telescope dome at the far right.  The images were taken with my 18-250mm lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 15 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600.

This final image is looking back towards Tucson where the storm moved over the western half of the city.  This bolt is hitting near Ajo Road just right (southeast) of Cat Mountain and there is lots of rain falling left (north) of the lightning strike.  This image was taken with my 18-250mm lens at 87mm focal length and an exposure of 25 seconds at f/8, ISO 1600.

Kitt Peak covered in Snow and clouds.

Not a good night for observing on Kitt Peak.  The Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok Telescope is just visible through the summit level clouds as the Sun sets on the western horizon.  This image was taken with my Galaxy Note 4 camera on Friday night, January 8th.

The view of the setting sun through a layer of clouds on Kitt Peak on Friday night, January 8th taken with my Galaxy Note 4 camera.  The moutnaintop was covered in snow.

Morning twilight from the 90 inch.

We were observing at the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok Telescope last week and this was the view we had of the morning twilight sky.  On the left is the dome of the telescope and you can see the lights of Tucson on the left near the dome in the distance.  In the sky, the brightest "stars" roughly in line is Jupiter, Mars, Rigel and Venus bottom to top (Venus is the brightest).  On the right is the McMath Solar Telescope.  This image was taken with my Canon 70D and 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 13 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.

This is the view south from the Bok Walk on the south side of the 90 inch dome.  High overhead is the slightly brighter than last quarter moon with Orion to its left.  The Spacewatch 36 inch dome is the most prominent dome below the Moon.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens on my 70D with an exposure of 13 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.

Lightning over Tucson

I watched a nice lightning storm over the Tucson area tonight after sunset.  Lightning appeared over Oro Valley and Mount Lemmon while it was mostly clear overhead on Kitt Peak.

 This image is looking over Oro Valley, in the general direction of Biosphere 2.  Twilight was still heavy when I took this exposure.  The exposure is 2 second at f/4, ISO 1600 with my 70-200mm f/2.8L lens at 70mm focal length.

Looking over Tucson with the Tucson Mountains in the foreground and the Catalina mountains behind them.  A few strokes of lightning hit near the summit of Mount Lemmon with lots of other activity overhead.  This image was a 30 second exposure at f/8, ISO 800 with my 70-200mm f/2.8L lens at 100mm focal length.

Turkey Vulture over Kitt Peak

While observing on Kitt Peak, I get to watch a number of different types of birds flying overhead.  Big ones love to make use of the updrafts and some play around with the domes, flying close by them while playing with their friends.  This time of year, the Turkey Vultures are quite common and often fly pretty close.  Here is one that I caught a few days ago with my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II on my Canon 70D with an exposure of 1/8000 seconds at f/8, ISO 1600 at 200mm focal length.  I normally wouldn't shoot in broad daylight with ISO 1600, but I had used the camera that morning in twilight for some shots of domes and didn't have much time to think about my cameras ISO setting when I saw the birds flying relatively close by.  On the other hand, 1/8000 seconds sure does stop the bird and the cameras motion.  I love how sharp the images are with this lens - you can see details in the birds eye despite his being at least 100 feet away when I captured this shot.  I cropped this from the original frame.

Galaxys, stars, a meteor and a dome.

The beginning of morning twilight has started so the sky is very blue.  Near the top left of this image is a meteor streaking through the sky in the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy.  If you look closely just below the top of the dome and about halfway between the dome and the band of the Milky Way, you can see the most distant object visible to the unaided eye (in a dark sky, anyway) - the Andromeda Galaxy.  Watch out because the Andromeda Galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way and one day, our two galaxies will merge into a giant mess at least for a while.  Don't worry, it's still a few billion years in the future, but be sure to mark you calendars.....  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye at f/2.8 with an exposure of 30 seconds and ISO 1600.  The dome houses our 1.8-meter Spacewatch Telescope on Kitt Peak.

A bonus image from a little earlier than the previous image.  The International Space Station is orbiting rather close to the terminator - the boundary between day and night on Earth so that it is visible longer after sunset and before sunrise.  Here is the ISS this morning over the 4-meter dome on Kitt Peak.  The trail starts above the north star, Polaris, and ends above the constellation of Cassiopeia in the Milky Way as it moved from left to right in this image.  This exposure was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens at f/2.8, ISO 800 and a 30 second exposure.  The domes, along the horizon left of the 4-meter dome are the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok Telescope and the 36 inch Spacewatch Telescope.

ISS over Kitt Peak

These first 2 images are 30 second exposures at f/2.8, ISO 400, taken back to back.  The first shows the ISS trailing over the planet Mars while the 2nd it is above the star Arcturus.  The Moon is in the upper right corner.  The building is the Spacewatch 1.8-m dome.  All the images in this post are taken with my Canon 70D and a 10mm f/2.8 fisheye lens and identical exposures.

Turning the camera to the right, the ISS is now setting into the northeastern sky over Tucson which is lighting up the clouds a bit between the building and the rock.

The ISS is still visible as a dimming trail in the clouds above Tucson in the lower right edge of this image.  The domes visible from upper right and then across the bottom of the frame are the 1.8-m Spacewatch telescope, the 4-meter Mayall Telescope (the largest on Kitt Peak), the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok Telescope, the Spacewatch 36 inch telescope and the rolloff roof of the Super LOTUS telescope.  The Moon is just barely in the frame at top left and you can also find the Big Dipper near top center and the planet Saturn above the Super-LOTUS dome at the left edge of the frame.

ISS and a meteor from Kitt Peak

Tonight featured a very nice, relatively bright pass of the International Space Station overhead.  Ever since I was a young boy watching SkyLab fly over, I've almost always waved at a manned spacecraft that I watched fly overhead.  It's cool to think of the humans aboard that little light silently zipping across the sky.  I am on Kitt Peak tonight in the middle of 8 nights up here.  The last 6 nights are at "home" at the Spacewatch Telescopes.  I took my Canon 70D outside with my 10mm f/2.8 fisheye lens so that I could catch the moonlit cirrus along with all things celestial and some domes and it worked great in a series of 30 second exposures at ISO 400.  The Moon is surrounded by a halo which the ISS flew through in a couple frames before this shot.  This shot is special not just because of the bright trail of the ISS on the right half o the frame above the 90 inch and 4-meter telescopes, but also because a meteor trail appears to the left of the ISS and to the right of the Moon, just going into the faintish lunar halo.  Some recognizable constellations are in the sky as well, just left and above the ISS trail is the Big Dipper.  The sharp eyed amongst you will be able to spot the Little Dipper and Leo as well.  Besides the 90 inch and 4-meter domes at right, you can see the Spacewatch 36 inch dome just right of center and below the Moon is the "Super-LOTUS" which observes gamma ray bursts from its roll off dome.

Colorful sunset on Kitt Peak

This fisheye view looking south from the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok Telescope was taken after the sun had set but while the sky was still brightly lit.  This HDR combine is of 5 images taken with my 10mm lens set to f/8 and the camera at ISO 400.  The exposures were at 1 stop intervals from 1/180 seconds to 1/10 seconds.

This view of the setting sun shows a pretty sunset - unless you're planning to use one of the large telescopes on Kitt Peak like we were - namely the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok Telescope.  Luckily, it cleared enough later to be a productive night.  This is an HDR combine of 5 images at 1 stop intervals of exposure from 1/2000 seconds to 1/125 seconds with my 24mm lens at f/8 and my 70D set to ISO 400.

Satellites and Domes

I took a timelapse of the northern sky from the porch of the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope and got lots of satellites as the morning twilight was about to start.  In this view a bright satellite glints sunlight (it may be an Iridium flare - it must have been pretty bright) as another one runs almost parallel to it almost straight over the Kitt Peak 4-meter Mayall Telescope.  Also visible is the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok telescope dome and the Spacewatch 36 inch dome in that order from right to left.  Low in the sky to the left is the planet Jupiter setting in the west in the constellation of Gemini.  Near the top center is the Big Dipper.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens on my Canon 70D and an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 1600.

The Mayall 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak

We had two nights to start the year on the 4-meter Mayall telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona.  We were lucky to have 2 clear nights with some of the best sub arcsecond seeing for that telescope.  Here are two HDR combines of the same 5 images of the telescope.

The first image is a Fattal combine and displays the colors more vividly.  The 5 images used my 10mm fisheye lens at f/2.8 and ISO 3200.  The shortest exposure was 1/500 seconds and the longest 1/30 seconds with the cameras nominal exposure at 1/125 seconds.

The second image is a Mantiuk '08 combine which displays the view of the 4-meter telescope and the inside of the dome fairly close to what the human eye sees the scene.