Category: Photography

An Early-Season Bike Ride to the Inner Basin

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A week ago we rode our mountain bikes up Waterline Road to the Inner Basin of the San Francisco Peaks. We were expecting to run into snow so we were not surprised when we did. Most of the snow was easily bypassed—as seen in the photographs below. But not all of it. Just below Jack Spring and the Inner Basin shelter we encountered deeper snow that required us to push our bikes.

Inner Basin and Fremont Peak.
Inner Basin and Fremont Peak.
There's still plenty of snow in the Inner Basin.
There’s still plenty of snow in the Inner Basin.
Mountain biking down the Waterline Road.
Mountain biking down the Waterline Road.

And above the Inner Basin shelter there was quite a bit of snow. More pushing through spring snow conditions to the wide-open expanses of the Inner Basin. Looking at the face of Fremont Peak (Arizona’s third highest mountain) I could see recent ski tracks. It would have been fun to see the skier(s) who put in these turns.

 

Venus and Pleiades Conjunction—April 2020

During the first few days of April 2020 the planet Venus moved towards and then through the Pleiades star cluster. Venus and Pleiades have a conjunction every year but every eight years the conjunction is at its closest. This year, Venus moved right through the star cluster.

Conjunction of Venus and Pleiades
Conjunction of Venus and Pleiades

I shot images of Venus and Pleiades on three nights: 01 April, 03 April, and 05 April. Venus and Pleiades were closest on the night of 03 April. I then did a composite image of the three nights showing the progression of Venus past the star cluster. These were all shot at 8 seconds, ƒ/4, 180mm, and ISO 800.

Additionally, I overlaid another image taken 13 February 2020. This is a stacked composite with 11 images shot at 120 seconds, ƒ/4, 180mm, and ISO 1600. The images were stacked using Starry Sky Stacker. The stack was then post-processed using rnc_color_stretch. This composite image was used because it shows the nebulosity and color within the Pleiades better than the shorter exposures captured that show the motion of Venus.

Composite image of Venus and Pleiades.
Composite image of Venus and Pleiades.

The image above shows the composite from the three nights without the additional layer showing the nebulosity.

A Late Winter Storm

A winter storm brought snow, clouds, and fog to some of my favorite photographic locations. The early morning sun lights up a band of clouds that encircles the San Francisco Peak. Below the peaks, fog lies in the low areas of both Upper and Lower Lake Mary.

Fog and clouds wrap around the San Francisco Peaks.
Fog and clouds wrap around the San Francisco Peaks.

A smaller area of fog sits in the corner of the Mormon Lake basin and partially obscures some of the old ranch buildings.

Fog and ranch buildings near Mormon Lake.
Fog and ranch buildings near Mormon Lake.
Reflections.
Reflections.

Finally, a small patch of grass pokes up from the still water of Lake Mary while fog blurs the background.

Pictures from the Parks

National Parks, that is. Here are several photographs taken this winter in the National Parks and Monuments that are in northern Arizona.

Sunrise at Wukoki Pueblo, Wupatki National Monument.
Sunrise at Wukoki Pueblo, Wupatki National Monument.
Sunrise at Wukoki Pueblo, Wupatki National Monument.
Sunrise at Wukoki Pueblo, Wupatki National Monument.

These two images were taken shortly after sunrise at Wukoki Pueblo in Wupatki National Monument. A recent snowstorm had brought snow to lower elevations and I was hoping there would be some snow at this location. No snow but the sunrise was still pretty nice.

New snow covers Sunset Crater.
New snow covers Sunset Crater.

Later that morning in Sunset Crater National Monument, where there was new snow, a small amount of snow on the namesake crater helping to reveal its subtle textures.

Low clouds and fog near the Unkar Delta in Grand Canyon
Low clouds and fog near the Unkar Delta in Grand Canyon
Clouds lift out of Grand Canyon.
Clouds lift out of Grand Canyon.

The next two images are from Grand Canyon National Park at sunrise. A recent minor storm had left some low clouds and fog in the lowest reaches of the canyon. As the sun rose higher and the canyon walls warmed the fog was lifted up and out of the canyon producing some eye-level clouds for a brief moment.

Moonrise over North Rim of Grand Canyon.
Moonrise over North Rim of Grand Canyon.

Finally, we have a panorama of the rising nearly-full Moon in late afternoon. Wonderful!

Venus and Neptune in the Evening Sky

In late January, the easily visible planet Venus was located in the same part of the evening sky as the dimmer and distant planet Neptune. I’ve never tried to photograph Neptune but this pairing of the planets was a good reason to do so.

Venus and Neptune in the evening sky (2020-01-28).
Venus and Neptune in the evening sky (2020-01-28).

The first attempt was taken on the evening of 27 January (shown below) and I was limited to very short exposures as I was using a standard tripod. The second attempt  was the following night from a better location and, more importantly,  I was using my equatorial mount star tracker so that I could follow the stars (or planets) for longer exposures.

The image at the top is the second attempt. High, thin cirrus clouds were beginning to move in from the west and I was hoping that the clouds might make some of the stars more colorful. What I got was an amazing corona surrounding the very bright planet Venus while stars and the dimmer Neptune appeared relatively unchanged.

Venus and Neptune in the evening sky (2020-01-27).
Venus and Neptune in the evening sky (2020-01-27).

The image above is from the first night of shooting and shows diffraction spikes around Venus. Examing these two images you can easily see how far Venus has moved in one night by comparing the position of Phi Aquarii (φ-Aqr).