San Xavier Mission

While I am not at all religious, I do love old buildings and historical sites.  We visited the San Xavier Mission southwest of Tucson a week ago while hunting for some gifts for my daughter who visited last week (more later when I post images from our trip to northern Arizona).  This image was taken with my 24mm lens on my Canon 70D and an exposure of 1/750 seconds at f/16, ISO 400.  This mission dates to the 17th century when Fr. Eusebio Kino established the mission in 1692.  This building was constructed between 1783 and 1797 and while today it is sometimes called "The White Dove of the Desert", it was originally unpainted and a brown color.

Comet PAN-STARRS, the Moon and the San Xavier Mission

On Tuesday night, March 12, comet C/2011 L4 PAN-STARRS was closest to the crescent Moon and a little easier to see in the twilight sky.  I took advantage of the alignment by heading down to the San Xavier Mission southwest of Tucson.  In this image, you can see the crescent Moon to the right of the missions tower while the comet is just left of the tower at almost the same height as the Moon.  This image was taken with my 50mm lens on my 20D with an exposure of 1 second at f/1.8, ISO 200.

Comet PAN-STARRS is so close to the Sun that it sets very quickly, only about an hour after sunset and about half an hour after the sky has darkened enough to see the comet.  Here, the front towers of the Mission are just right of the setting crescent Moon with the comet just above the 2nd lamp left of the small mission tower left of the Moon.  This image was taken with my 50mm lens and an exposure of 2 seconds at f/1.8, ISO 400.