Downtown Tucson at night.

Exposure 1 second at f/2.8, ISO 1600, 17mm f.l.

While in downtown Tucson one evening, I couldn't help but admire this scene with the tallest building in town lit nicely by the city lights.

Exposure 1/20 second at f/2.8, ISO 1600, 17mm f.l.

A statue near the Pima County Courthouse commemorating early Tucson settlers.

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.

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.

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.

Clouds and stars

The thin cirrus slowly thickened during the night while I've been observing at the 90 inch Bok telescope of Steward Observatory on Kitt Peak.  With these two photos, you can see lots of stars, but if the clouds weren't there, you'd see even more.  The first image shows a view towards the southeast from the "Bok Walk" on the south side of the 90 inch dome.  On the right you can see the McMath solar telescope with the lights of Nogales Arizona lighting up the clouds above that town.  On the left is Tucson doing an even better job of lighting the clouds overhead.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens and an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 6400 on my Canon 70D.

This view is towards the south with the McMath solar telescope on the left and in the foreground are the two Spacewatch Telescopes.  The white dome on the right is our 36 inch telescope and the silver dome to its left is our 1.8-m telescope.  In the sky you can see the Milky Way rising from the central horizon towards the upper right with Orion and his faithful hunting dog Canis Major with the brightest star in the nighttime sky, Sirius, to his lower left and Jupiter is the brightest object in the sky at top just right of center.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens and an exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 6400.

Moonrise over Tucson

I went up to A Mountain to watch a later moonrise over downtown Tucson tonight.  The clouds made for interesting skies.  In this first image, you can see the bright moon through the clouds and to its left is the planet Jupiter.  Downtown is at the left edge of the image.  This image was taken with my 50mm f/1.8 lens and an exposure of 6 seconds at f/11, ISO 1600.

This second image was taken with my 24mm f/1.8 lens and an exposure of 6 seconds at f/11, ISO 1600.

Zooming in on the downtown area shows the tallest buildings in Tucson.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm telephoto lens at 130mm focal length with an exposure of 3 seconds at f/11, ISO 1600.

Tucson in Twilight from Kitt Peak

A beautiful morning with some haze and clouds and the lights of Tucson as viewed from Kitt Peak.  The Coyote Mountains are silhouetted against the brighter valley behind them and a hint of some stars are still visible in the sky overhead.  This image was taken with my Canon 70D with my 50mm f/1.8 lens set to 6 seconds at f/8, ISO 3200.

Moonrise over Tucson II

Here's another view of Wednesday night's moonrise. Turns out my friend Dave was set up only a few hundred feet away taking photos of the moonrise. This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 130mm focal length with an exposure of 2 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Moon rise over Tucson

We had a pretty full Moon rise over Tucson today. On the way home, I detoured partway up Sentinal Peak (A Mountain) to get this view over downtown Tucson. This image was taken with my 75-300mm zoom at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 4 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Tucson from Kitt Peak

Looking back towards Tucson from the 90 inch Bok Telescope on Kitt Peak. This image was taken with a 30 second exposure at f/2.8 with my 10mm fisheye lens.

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.

Upsun at the train tracks

Another shot form my first photo expedition with my new fisheye. I walked from the UofA to downtown before catching my bus home there. As I crossed the train tracks I snapped a couple of shots. The foreground was a bit underexposed here, but the glare from the sun made for an interesting shot. This image was taken at 1/400 seconds at f/11, ISO 100 with my 10mm fisheye.

Tucson Arizona

I was out hiking a couple weekends ago and found this view across the center of town. The Santa Catalina mountains provide a backdrop for the city. From the left is "A" Mountain, the downtown area and the University of Arizona is to the right of the tall downtown buildings. This image was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/11, ISO 100.

The Sun?

I suppose this petroglyph is of the Sun. It was as prominent a part of daily life when this area was primitive as it is today. There's also what appears to be 3 "H"'s defacing the rock in the foreground. This could be very recent or closer to the epoch of the 19th century graffiti in yesterdays image.

Petroglyph or just old grafitti?

One eras grafitti is the later eras petroglyph, I suppose. This grafitti from the 19th century is mixed in with some older petroglyphs.

Petroglyphs

Tucson has been inhabited for a very long time - before the water table dropped, it had two almost continuously running rivers which converge in the northwest part of town, so it was a natural place to establish a village. There are many archeological sites around the area, and many of them have rock art around them such as this. This image was taken about 6 years ago with my old Fuji Finepix 2650 P&S camera.

Tumamoc Hill pan

I took the images that made up this pan about 6 years ago with my old Fuji Finepix 2650 P&S camera from the southeast end of Tumamoc Hill, not too far from the UofA's 20 inch telescope dome. A Mountain is just right of center with the downtown area to its left and the Rincon Mountains in the distance a little farther left. This pan was put to use on a new Pima County website about their recent acquisition of Tumamoc Hill from the UofA.

Historic downtown Tucson

This old house is not far from the northwest corner of the old Presidio in downtown Tucson. A B&W conversion and sepia treatment seemed appropriate. This iamge was taken at 31mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Downtown storm

I took the long way to my bus stop last night on the way home, doing about a 2 mile hike before catching a slightly later bus home. I walked through the presidio park next to the old courthouse and looked back at the ominuous looking clouds brewing towards the northeast. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

The last shot

After it seemed that Wednesday nights July 4 fireworks display was over, I started a time exposure to get the Tucson skyline. During the exposure, this lone shot went off. This image was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/14, ISO 100.