It has been a fairly quiet (visually) storm season for me this year but there has been some drama. Here are several shots, from two storms, that took place in July.
Views of the July 7th’s approaching storm: the most active portion was behind me producing low rumbles of distant thunder. Except for light, cooling gusts of wind and these beautiful clouds, nothing remarkable happened where I stood. Not even a drop of rain.
Goodness! I didn’t realize I hadn’t posted here since February!! I’ve mostly been making short-form posts to Twitter and Instagram and neglecting this blog. So here we are in July and I’ll make a couple/few quick image posts with captions. These photos are from July 23 and 24 when local wildlife, here in the neighborhood of a small city, paid us extra-close visits.
I recently took some time to scan a couple of film negatives I shot of the March 7, 1970 total solar eclipse. I’d traveled to Virginia Beach, Va. on a student grant to witness the eclipse and write about it. I shot the images on Kodak Tri-X Pan film, using a cheap 400mm f/6.3 lens which I still own. I have no camera or exposure information; I think the camera was a Pentax SLR when they used screw-in lens mounts! Unfortunately, these negatives were poorly handled by a newspaper that published the item — etched fingerprints revealed in the scans — and poorly stored by me over the ensuing years leaving scratches and allowing those finger oils to do their dirty work. Given all that, I’m glad the negatives survived at all! The first shot here was made during either the beginning or end of totality. The second photo shows the “diamond ring” effect as the sun peeks past the dark lunar limb. The remaining crud in the corona is the result of the aforementioned etched fingerprints, and would require excessive, damaging digital editing to remove. Reviewing newspaper clippings and Sky & Telescope Magazine photos from the 1970 event, I’m actually impressed at how well my humble efforts compare!
I was happy to have discovered, in addition to the poorly-handled film, the full set of negatives I shot that day. It will be good to have them on hand as we prepare for the total solar eclipse which will sweep across the continental United States on April 8, 2024.
The Orion Nebula — Messier 42 — in the Sword of Orion lies about 1,344 light years distant from Earth. Photo by James Guilford
Taking advantage of a couple of strings of clear nights, I set up my telescope — now more usable than ever — and did a bit of imaging. I’m pleased to report that the telescope is more usable than ever thanks primarily to two things:
Mars during its opposition, or close approach to Earth, October 16, 2020. A tiny bright dot at the bottom is the planet’s polar ice cap.
I made some efforts at photographing Mars during its 2020 opposition — close approach — and managed “okay” pictures. That is to say, the resulting images were the best I’ve ever done but still short of what I’d like. I’m still working on technique and technologies and this may be the best I could manage given the relatively short 1,800mm focal length of my scope!
Star cluster Messier 2 — Messier 2 or M2 is a globular cluster in the constellation Aquarius. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique Maraldi in 1746, and is one of the largest known globular clusters. It contains about 150,000 stars and lies 55,000 light-years distant.
Around the same time I turned the telescope to try imaging bright star cluster Messier 2. There was a slight but noticeable improvement there over what I’d managed before.
In early November I set up the scope at night, using the polar alignment system, so that I would be ready for solar photography the next day. Of course I observed other objects that night but then I noticed Orion rising through the bare trees. I stayed up much later than I’d planned but when Orion’s Sword came into the clear I captured what turned out to be the very best images that I have ever made of the Orion Nebula! The brilliant Trapezium star cluster at the heart of the nebula got overexposed but I was thrilled how much of the area’s nebular cloud showed.
Full-disk image of our Sun with sunspot group AR3781 showing clearly. Sun is entering a more active phase of its cycle, for months there were few, if any, sunspots to observe.
A close-up view of sunspot AR2781, as recorded the afternoon of November 9, 2020.
I’m also very pleased with my efforts to image the Sun where a huge sunspot group (Active Region 2781) had appeared. The results were very good, using my telescope with Canon EOS 6D Mark 2 camera body attached for full-disk images. To protect camera (and eyesight) I used an AstroZap brand full-aperture white light film filter. Then I switched over to the little ASI178MC planetary camera; its smaller sensor providing a much-magnified effect. While not the best I’ve seen, I’m pretty pleased with this batch of solar images.
Telescope set up for solar imaging. The Canon EOS 6D Mk. 2 camera is in silhouette at the base of the scope while the little red ASI planetary camera rides above it. The blue box shades a laptop computer for use with the ASI.
So, even under our light-polluted skies, I’m able to manage some decent astrophotography. I’m sure that with time, practice, and clear winter skies I’ll get many more amazing views.
A Stormy Landscape. A large and dramatic shelf cloud approaches over rural Medina County, Ohio. Now possibly my favorite shelf cloud photograph, it’s an image made using my Apple iPhone.
After a long period without rain, Friday saw heavy rains and thunderstorms across the region. Most of it was a big wet mess, not well organized and not interesting to look at — at least not close to home. In the afternoon things changed.
I could see, via radar, that a promising area of activity was approaching but I had to move fast. The storm was approaching quickly and I had made my decision a little late in the game. I grabbed my phone, and one DSLR camera and rushed out the door.
Radar image shows the approaching strong storms. The blue circle indicates the photographer’s position.
Once cleared of city traffic, as I drove towards my target observation point I glanced to the south down crossroads. In the distance I could see a dark sky close to the horizon and … a light line running through the clouds parallel to the earth. It was big and it was close. A singular bright bolt of cloud-ground lightning held promise of exciting visuals, and not a little danger. I was also running late; I had to cut travel time.
A panoramic view of the approaching shelf cloud and storm over rural Medina County, Ohio. Made from several DSLR frames. Photo by James Guilford.
I changed destinations to a favorite site nearer home, pulled off the road, and unpacked the camera. I had arrived only just in time. Hurriedly shooting smart phone photos — a quick image insurance policy — I then shot a few via DSLR: a huge and beautiful shelf cloud was moving in from the southwest.
Fortunately, the lightning activity came to an end* and except for a quickening breeze and crickets in the grass, passage of the shelf was quiet. Only a few more shots and rain drops began. The tell-tale sight of approaching white sheets of rain sent me back to shelter in the car, and my photo shoot was over.
The results of my minutes-long efforts were surprising. The iPhone produced one of the best shelf cloud landscapes I’ve ever made; and a seconds-long video, also shot on the phone, drew use requests from cable stations: The Weather Channel, and WeatherNation. A big surprise!
*Safer without it but a lightning bolt during the video or, miraculously in the still image, would have been spectacular.
PhotonStopper 