Rays of sunlight.

Here's another image from my morning hike last Friday. This one was taken from the road near our 1.8-m telescope looking east, back towards Tucson. The rays of sunlight radiate from behind the clouds with most of the foreground silhouetted. The brownish haze below the sun just above the mountains is actually smoke from the fire being blown back generally towards Tucson which is not quite visible in this image in all the morning haze and smoke. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/2000 seconds at f/8, ISO 200.

Fire south of Kitt Peak

A new fire is burning south of Kitt Peak. After a night of rumors about the fire which caused my imagination to run away with pictures of flames leaping up the south slopes of the mountain lapping at the metal domes and glass mirrors, I decided to take a morning hike over to the south ridge and see for myself. My worst fears were put to rest quickly as it was obvious the fire is burning far south of Kitt Peak fairly close to Baboquivari (the prominent peak in this image) and will have to jump over an area burned in a much more dangerous fire last year. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5, ISO 200.