Sentimental Journey

We were up in Phoenix today (Karri had a workshop, so I went with and wandered around after dropping her off) and I found my way to the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force Museum at Falcon Field in Mesa. As luck would have it, the B-17 "Sentimental Journey" was there giving rides to paying customers and the rest of us museum visitors got to get pretty close to this remarkable machine and got to watch it take off and land. Pretty cool! And a great museum too. This image was taken at 55mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/16, ISO 100.

Over the Rainbow

Some rain mixed with a setting sun made a perfect combination to generate a complete double rainbow over the UofA campus this evening. Here you can see a bright main rainbow with a fainter outer rainbow. Also visible is the bright innner sector and a secondary inner rainbow. BTW, that's the Flandrau Planetarium below the rainbows. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/7.1, ISO 100.

Sunset

I don't think I can take too many sunset pictures. This one was from last night on Kitt Peak. I took a long sequence and should have some HDR fodder as well. This type of sunset isn't very pretty for astronomers, but the night turned out quite well as the clouds cleared after sunset. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Morning Twilight

Last Wednesday morning after a productive night of observing, the twilight grows bright as sunrise approaches. Some distant clouds are lit orange and the Earth's shadow sinks in the last moments of twilight. The Spacewatch 36 inch dome is still open (that was my next stop before heading to bed) and the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok telescope dome and Kitt Peak 4-meter Mayall telescopes are at right. This image was taken with my 24mm lens at f/2.8 with an exposure of 1/250 seconds, ISO 400.

That bright ol' Moon

The last night of my 8 night run and it's bright enough to read a paper up here on Kitt Peak tonight, so I took advantage of the Moon to take its picture through an 1880s vintage 5 inch Alvin Clark refractor that rides on the side of the ol' 36 inch. It is the oldest telescope on Kitt Peak mounted on the side of the 2nd oldest telescope on the mountain top. This image used eyepiece projection with no lens on my camera and hence, a little aberation on the lower right edge of the Moon. The exposure of 1/100 seconds at ISO 400. The area around bright rayed crater Tycho seems to have the best focus and Aristarchus almost looks like a headlight near the terminator at right. North is at bottom right, west at bottom left. I literally hand held the camera behind the eyepiece for this shot.

Snow and clouds

It snowed during the day on Sunday and overnight on Sunday night with about 1-2 inches accumulated. Most of the snow was gone by the time I got up on Monday except for on the north sides of hills and buildings, and under trees. This view towards the south ridge of Kitt Peak from the top of the 36 inch dome looks into areas that are still snow covered. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

Pea Soup....

The fog rolled in Saturday night and it was still foggy on Sunday afternoon - with a prediction of snow, it was obvious there'd be no observing on Sunday night. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/80 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 100.

It won't be clear tonight!

My first 3 nights of the new year started out great with 3 clear nights (though the wind was a bit high on the 3rd), but Saturday afternoon this stuff started coming in - by sunset it was mostly cloudy and we had fog most of the night. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/2500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.

A log on the fire

On the subject of fire, here's a photo of the fire in the fireplace after dinner. This image was taken at 39mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/10, ISO 400.

Candle flame

Holiday dinners are fun for various reasons. Here, I couldn't help shooting an image of the candle at our table on x-mas day. The room was pretty well lit, but with the brightness of a candle flame, it was easy to underexpose it to make it seem dark. This image was taken at 55mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Rattlersnakes in B&W

I hiked past a virtual geocache that I've had in place for quite a few years. Here's the view of the mouth of the rattlesnake bridge that crosses Broadway near downtown in Tucson. This image was taken with my Canon A570is.

Self portrait II

After looking at the photos of telescopes and astronomers in the Life magazine archives on Google, I was inspired to convert this self portrait taken one morning last week into a sepia toned B&W shot. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 0.6 seconds at f/8, ISO 400, cropped to nearly square format and converted to B&W and sepia toned in Picasa.

Self portrait, part I

Here's a self portrait I took one morning last week standing next to the 36 inch telescope. The image was made at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/2 second at f/8, ISO 400 with fill flash. The image is cropped to about 40% of the original frame.

Storming the field

With victory in hand, fans, mostly from the student section, storm the field in celebration of the big victory over our in-state rivals. The sea of humanity includes both fans, players and coaches and you can even see some Scum...er... Sun Devil players trying to get out of the way on the upper left. I was surprised at how well behaved the fans were this time - no one was climbing on the goal posts and they seemed relatively orderly compared to some past "storming of the field" events after big victories, for example over Washington and Cal several seasons ago. Unlike those victories, this one was not unexpected as the Wildcats were favored for a change. This image was taken with my 24mm lens at 1/100 seconds at f/5, ISO 800.

The final moments....

As the clock counts down the final moments of the game, the student section starts to leave their seats to prepare to storm the field. Tuugii wanted to know the final score - there it is on the scoreboard - 31-10, Wildcats win and head for the Las Vegas Bowl on December 20. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/80 seconds at f/4, ISO 800.

UA-ASU, first play from scrimmage

Wildcat quarterback, Willie Tuitama takes the first snap of the game. This image was taken at 55mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

UA-ASU Wildcats storm the field

Amidst exploding fireworks, the UofA Wildcats storm the field minutes before the opening kickoff of the annual UA-ASU rivalry game. Tonight, a trip to the Las Vegas Bowl is at stake. For the Scum...er...Sun Devils, a loss means the end of their season and no bowl game. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

UA-ASU - pregrame Pride of Arizona

The Pride of Arizona takes the field before the annual "Duel in the Desert" in state rivalry between the Arizona State Scum....er...Sun Devils and the UofA Wildcats. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

Phoenix Lander Mural

Here are some of my sweetiests students on a field trip to the Mars Phoenix Lander building last month. This mural is painted on the side of the Mission Operations Center where the mission was run. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/500 seconds at f/7.1, ISO 100.

Sepia toned Desert Colorguard

The last image coverted to B&W and sepia toned.