Earlier in the morning I was shooting images of the conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter. I had noticed that there were early morning clouds draped across Mount Elden. I wasn’t ready to put the camera away yet so I headed over to Buffalo Park so that I could get a better view of the clouds, mountain, and the quickly changing light as the sun began to rise. I was rewarded with this image of the clouds obscuring the peak of the mountain while rays of light were intersecting the clouds at different points with amazing colors.
On 18 August 2014 there was a planetary conjunction in the morning sky when the planets Venus and Jupiter appeared next to each other with the distance separating them considerably less than the size of the full moon. Jupiter was rising a bit higher each morning while Venus was dropping closer to the horizon. For several days before and after the conjunction the two planets so close together made a spectacular image in the morning sky.
Venus and Jupiter in the morning sky.
For three days I shot photos of Venus and Jupiter. I then took the images from each day and created a layered image. Next, I shifted each image up/down, left/right until the planet Jupiter lined up. The result was that the composite contains a single image of Jupiter along with three images of Venus. This makes it easy to see how the two planets were shifting relative to each other over the course of three days.
The previous conjunction of Jupiter and Venus was 26 May 2013 and was, in fact, a triple conjunction and included Mercury. The next conjunction of Jupiter and Venus will occur on 01 July 2015.
Several days of cool and rainy weather across northern Arizona meant that there would be a chance of low clouds and fog in the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon under almost any condition is photogenic and rightfully named as one of the “Seven Wonders of the Natural World.” But it acquires a degree of surreal beauty when draped with clouds and fog infused with early morning light.
After browsing several weather sites to check on the latest radar, satellite, temperature and humidity data we decided that we would head out for the South Rim of the Canyon early the next morning. After awakening around 3 a.m., we were on the road by 4 a.m. and arrived at Desert View overlook around 5:30 a.m. Sunrise was 5:45 a.m. so this gave us some time to find a location and start taking pre-sunrise photos.
Fog in the Grand Canyon.
The fog was confined to a small side canyon located next to the Desert View overlook. This was remarkable as one side of the point of land was filled with fog while just a short distance away it was clear allowing a view deep into the canyon and the Colorado River below.
Sunrise light on the cliffs of the North Rim.
As the sun slowly climbed higher in the sky it began to produced dappled light on the cliffs on the North Rim. The higher elevation of the North Rim resulted in the clouds obscuring the cliff tops.
Sunrise and low clouds over the Grand Canyon.
After an hour of shooting it was time to pack it up and move on to our next activity. We arrived at Grandview Point and started down the steep Grandview Trail to Horseshoe Mesa. This is an amazing trail and the engineering is wondrous. We returned to the top by noon to avoid the heat of the day and any potential for thunderstorms.
Rainbow in the Grand Canyon.
But now that we were back on top it was thunderstorms that I wanted so that I could photograph lightning. Although a few thunderstorms developed the lightning was unimpressive and distant and I was not able to capture any images. On the other hand, I was able to get a nice image of a rainbow below the rim. Because it was early afternoon and the sun was still high in the sky, the anti-solar point was well below the rim and so was the rainbow. It lasted only a few minutes and then it was gone.
Clouds, fog, beautiful sunrise, a great hike, and a rainbow. Not bad for one day.
Although it is still a few days until the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, the combination of exceptionally clear skies and a waxing moon illuminating the interior of the Grand Canyon was too good to ignore. So we headed up to the South Rim arriving shortly after dark. Most folks had already left so we had the spot mostly to ourselves for the evening.
The wind was blowing a gentle breeze which kept bugs away. The evening temperature was comfortable—if not exactly warm. So we lay back on the rocks at the very edge of the canyon staring up at the stars and watched as a few meteors arced across the sky. This many days before the peak of the shower results in only a few Perseids per hour (compared to the maximum rate of up to a hundred per hour) but there were also “sporadics” (i.e., a meteor which is not associated with one of the regularly recurring meteor showers) to light up the sky.
Meteors above the Grand Canyon.
This is a composite of two images taken a few minutes apart. There are two meteors visible: a Perseid in the constellation Cassiopeia and a very bright sporadic closer to the horizon.
The hourly rate should increase over the next few nights but the nearly full moon will make it difficult to see any but the brightest.
I had another opportunity to head on down the hill to Sedona the other day and try to capture lightning flashes as storms moved across the area. A friendĀ had told me about a nice spot to photograph lightning near and behind Cathedral Rock. The location works well because the view of Cathedral Rock shows all the gaps between the various spires.
The following is a sequence of three shots fired off in rapid succession covering a time of between 1 and 2 seconds. The exposure settings were 1/4 second, ISO 200, 75mm, and f/8. The Lightning Trigger was used to trigger the camera. The EXIF data for the three images show times of 19:35:01, 19:35:02, and 19:35:02.
The first flash arced down from the cloud and to the right but did not strike ground.
The second flash followed the same channel as the first flash while a second channel to its right went from cloud to ground.
The third flash only contained the channel on the right.
The final image is a composite off all three images. Truly, it does not do full justice to how long-lasting and multi-stroked this lightning flash was.
