A Nice Sunrise & A Gathering of Worlds

We had a pretty fantastic sunrise this morning. Alas, I had to drive to work during its peak. Still, it wasn't too bad beforehand.

The clouds were gone by sunset, opening up the sky for a nice gathering of Venus, Mercury and the Moon.

Alas, Mercury was lost in my neighbor's palm tree, but Venus (left) and the crescent moon looked pretty nice. Here's a closeup of the moon, with just a bit of earthshine visible.

Seeing them was a nice way to begin the evening.

2015: Starts With Snow

New Year's Eve was wet and cold in Tucson. Overnight the temperatures drop and snow fell in the local mountains and in the foothills. The snowline was higher than my home, which is at just over 2,100 feet of elevation. Nearby Sombrero Peak (officially called Safford Peak), which is often a backdrop to my hot air balloon shots, rises to an elevation of 3,563 feet.

As the morning grew brighter it was clear that there was a dusting of snow on the peak, perhaps down to about 3,000 feet or so. We haven't had snow this low since February 2013.

Looking in the other direction, we had a wonderful sunrise to start 2015:

Sunrise at Year's End

There's a storm on the way which may obscure tonight's final sunset of the year but it didn't block out this morning's sunrise, the last of 2014:

Parhelia and Solstice Sunrise

Last Monday we had cirrus clouds that produced some wonderful sun dogs.

You can see them in the photo above. The sun is behind the palm tree and there's a rainbow of color with a bright light extending out was from the sun on either side.

Here's a closeup shot of the one on the right.

As the clouds changed the show evolved into a full 22 degree halo.

 Finally, we has a beautiful sunrise this morning. Not a bad way to mark today's winter solstice.

Recent Sky Shots

Hey, it's been a while since I've posted some photography here, as most of it has been going straight to my Instagram account. So if you like what you see here, you should totally follow me there.

Thursday morning's crescent moon, complete with earthshine. 

Here's a beautiful sunrise from November 14th with layers of clouds and sky.

Another sunrise pic with clouds and their shadows.

We've got cool mornings in Arizona now. That means that hot air balloon season is back. Here are a few captures from last weekend and this morning:

Sunrise: November 21, 2014

Yesterday morning's sunrise was pretty nice. Thankfully, I was able to capture it. Have a look:

Golden Sunrise

Yeah, Wednesday's sunset was pretty fantastic, but Friday's sunrise wasn't too bad either.

Here are a couple of shots of it, followed by a timelapse that I captured with my iPhone.

Two Sunrises

Clouds and rain from the remnants of Hurricane Simon obscured the lunar eclipse for Arizona, but before the rain came in we had a couple of nice sunrises earlier this week.

Here's the scene from Monday morning:

Tuesday morning wasn't half bad either:

I'm 0-2 for lunar eclipses this year (I was stuck in New Orleans for the one last spring where it war raining cats & dogs). There's another one in April 2015, hopefully that one will work out.

The Sunrise Before the Storm

Moisture from Hurricane Norbert is supposed to possibly deliver heavy rains to Arizona this weekend. You certainly couldn't tell that from this morning's calm sunrise.

Enjoy your weekend.

Sunrise: August 16, 2014

Not a bad way to start a Saturday.

Sunrises, Sun Dog and Balloon

It has been a good week for watching the sky. Not so much for astronomy as we've had a lot of cirrus clouds. Cirrus often makes for great sunrises and sunsets though and I managed to catch 2 sunrises this week.

Here's how the sunrise looked Wednesday morning:

and this morning:

 

In Tucson February mornings seem almost as if they were made for riding in hot air balloons. I noticed just one this morning. It took off in the right position to bring it close to our house. The cirrus clouds were still there and the light of the sun, now fully above the horizon, was producing a nice sun dog. I managed to catch the hot air balloon and the sun dog (lower left) in the same shot.

The balloon did end up making a close pass by our home on this fine day for drifting through the desert skies.

Sunrise. Sunset.

Earlier this week we had an amazing run of absolutely beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I wasn't able to capture them all, but I did manage to get a few shots which I thought I would share here.

Sunset December 16, 2013

Sunrise December 17, 2013

Another shot of the December 17 sunrise

Sunrise December 18, 2013

Another shot of the December 18 sunrise

The photos don't really do justice to what Nature had to show off this week.

Sky Shots from the Week

There's almost always something interesting to see in the sky. In the day, at twilight and in the night there are sights to see. "It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross."*

There were lots of nice sights here this week with a great pairing of Venus and the Moon, a bright Iridium flare, hot air balloons and more. Have a look.

Here's Venus and the crescent Moon as seen on the 6th:

The Moon moves quite a lot from one night to the next. Here's the view from the 7th:

Also, on the 7th we had a bright (magnitude -6) Iridium flare visible. I almost missed getting a shot of it and literally had just plopped the camera tripod into position as it was getting started. 

Saturday's sunrise:

Once the Sun works its way into the sky it becomes time to launch hot air balloons. We had 3 of them in the sky visible simultaneously this morning. Here's a rather poor wide shot showing them. Some nicer, detailed shots follow.

*Yeah, that was a quote from Q in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Q Who.

One Sunrise. Two photos.

It is true. This morning's sunrise almost made me late for work. It was a thing of beauty that, as sunrises often do, evolved and blossomed as time marched forward.

I grabbed the DSLR and shot some pics of light and shadow - the red orange clouds above the distant Rincon Mountains.

I had figured that was it, stepped inside to get ready for work and then took another peek. By then the DSLR was put away, but the iPhone was in my pocket. I reached for that and took this.

Seeing such beauty in Nature is a wonderful way to start the day.

This Morning's Sunrise. This Evening's Moon.

Just two of the sights on January 23, 2013.