The warm weather continues and has allowed us to run in Sedona on dry trails. Trails in Flagstaff, however, tend to be muddy unless you run early enough in the morning when they are still frozen. So we mostly run in Sedona.
Flagstaff FUTS run
Our only run in Flagstaff this month was on New Year’s Day–and it was raining. By the end of the run the trail was getting pretty sloppy.
Public art along the Flagstaff Urban Trail System (FUTS) on a gray, rainy New Year’s Day.
The Hogs and Chicken Point
This run connects many trails to get a double loop: •Hogwash •Hog Heaven •High on the Hog •Broken Arrow •Chicken Point turnaround •Broken Arrow •Submarine Rock •Broken Arrow
Expansive scenery from the Hogwash Trail in Sedona.Two runners traverse a sandstone bench on the Hogwash Trail in Sedona. Fortunately it was warm enough that this was water and not ice.
Brins Mesa–Soldiers Pass Loop
A runner ascends the final steps to the top of Cibola Pass. Several large red rock towers can be seen in the distance (Morning Glory Spire on left; Cibola Mitten on the right.The calendar says January but the weather has been warm and rainy so it is no surprise that wild flowers (Cliffrose) are already blooming.A panoramic view from the top of Brins Mesa looking towards Wilson Mountain.
One of my goals this month was to capture the constellation Orion using a wide angle lens. Several months ago I purchased the Tamron 35mm f/1.4 Di USD lens. This is a very good wide-angle lens for astrophotography because the stars remain sharp in the corners. I have written about this lens in a previous post.
Orion and neighboring gas clouds and nebula.Orion and neighboring gas clouds and nebula with labels.
A good reason to photograph Orion with a wide angle lens is the abundance of interesting objects that are near and surround Orion. These include the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, the Witch Head Nebula, Rosetta Nebula, Flame Nebula, and Barnards Loop, among others.
A screen shot from the Stellarium application showing Orion and the field of view with a 35° lens.
I shot 40 two-minute images (80 minutes total exposure) at f/2.8 and ISO 400 and then stacked them using Siril. I also ran a star reduction algorithm to remove some of the stars so that the gas clouds would be more visible. Here are the results of that astrophotography session.
Next I would like to use a large telephoto lens to zoom in on some of these objects. Now I just need to wait for the Moon to shift into the early morning hours.
It has been warm and dry this month and this has allowed us to continue doing trail runs in Flagstaff and Sedona. Here are a few photographs from these runs.
Long Canyon
A side trip while running Long Canyon in Sedona provides a great view of the red rocks.This tinaja (pool) hidden away in Long Canyon makes a good destination.End of the trail in Long Canyon–the sign says so.
Fort Tuthill
It was interesting that the snow had melted everywhere except the trail.
Snow on Soldiers Trail, Fort Tuthill.Footprints in the snow, Soldiers Trail at Fort Tuthill.
Wet Beaver Creek
This trail a favorite of our running group. The turnaround is at this deep pool.
A deep pool marks the turnaround point for our run along Wet Beaver Creek.A sandstone bench makes for an interesting section on the Bell Trail along Wet Beaver Creek.
Templeton Trail–Easy Breezy Trail
An early morning start was chilly but it warmed up quickly on this run.
Cathedral Rock looms in the distance along this section of Templeton Trail.Cathedral Rock and the intersection of Templeton — Easy Breezy — and Hardline Trails.The return on this loop was on Easy Breezy Trail.
Teacup Trail
We don’t do this often because parking is difficult much of the year. But we got lucky on this day.
Teacup Trail with Coffee Pot Rock in the background.
Oldham–Down Under
We did this earlier this fall and wanted to do it again. Mud, snow and ice made it tricky.
Down Under Trail (formally known as Red Onion) where it crosses Elden Lookout Road.Too much mud and snow here–so we turned around.
Huckaby Trail
Another trail run with a cold start but a warm finish.
Two runners make the climb from the canyon floor to the ridge above on the Huckaby Trail.A view from the high point on Huckaby Trail looking back at Midgley Bridge–the turnaround point for this run.
Schultz Creek Trail
The first two miles were fine with just a few muddy spots. After that we encountered patches of ice and snow — so we did the return on Schultz Pass Road.
Patches of ice on Schultz Creek Trail. Not a problem running up–but not something we wanted to do running down.
It has been a busy week shooting two very different night sky subjects. The first was to capture the Pleiades star cluster with the planet Uranus in the same field of view. I did a test shot of this a few months ago and finally dedicated an evening to capture this pairing. This was shot using a Nikon D850 and a Nikkor 180mm ƒ/2.8 Ai-S lens. This lens has become one of my favorites for short-telephoto shots of the sky. It’s pretty good wide open at ƒ/2.8 but becomes excellent at ƒ/4.0. This is a composite of 27x120second images. Image stacking was done using Siril.
Pleiades star cluster and the planet Uranus.
A few days later it was time to catch the peak of the Geminid meteor shower. The moon did not rise until well after midnight so I had plenty of time to capture meteors in the late evening. The image is a composite taken between 2100 and 2159 MST while using a star tracker — and then blended with a foreground image taken earlier. Jupiter is the bright object in the center with Pollux and Castor to its upper left. The red star on the right is Betelgeuse. The meteor at top center left a long-lasting smoke trail.
Geminids meteor show. Jupiter is in the center with Pollux and Castor to its upper left. The red star on the right edge is Betelgeuse.
Here are cropped versions of the bright meteor and the smoke trail.
A bright Geminid meteor……and the smoke trail it left.
Fortunately, it has been a warm December so far and standing around at night shooting photos is not as cold as it could/should be. It won’t last.
Solar Max continues to produce auroras that are visible at low latitudes. The most recent occurred on the night of 10–11 December. Once again, I chose to shoot from Ashurst Lake because it has very good visibility to the north. This time, though, we did not venture out to the edge of the lake. Heavy rains in November (almost 5″) has resulted in wet soils that have not dried in the colder temperatures and low sun angles of December. No desire to sink in the mud!
Shooting from the parking lot was a good alternative but did not give the expansive reflections from the lake that I have enjoyed before.
The aurora substorm starts up to the northeast with numerous pillars visible.The pillars move westward over the next few minutes. The North Star, Polaris, is highlighted here to give a sense of the low heights of these pillars.The substorm subsided leaving just a faint glow to the north. A meteor (probably a Geminid) streaks across the sky with the aurora as a backdrop.
This aurora was lower intensity and much more difficult to see than the event in November. In fact, we were unable to see it with the unaided eye. Reviewing the photo images after the event clearly showed there was a sub storm that lasted about 20 minutes. The peak heights of the pillars was much lower than we have seen before.
I have been learning how to use satellite data to forecast when these substorms might appear. Here is a plot of the data leading up to the substorm which occurred around 1918—1940 MST (0218—0240 UTC 11 December 2025). The vertical line shows when the substorm pillars first appeared in my photographs.
Solar wind data used to forecast the aurora substorm.
Images: Nikon D850, 17mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 15 seconds.
