CelestrialBodies

Comet c/2022 E3 ZTF was closest to Earth on 2 Feb 23 but was not images until 7 Feb after the full moon rose later in the evening. This clip shows the comet between 7 and 11 Feb from Oracle, Arizona under moonless skies. For more details: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cloud_spirit/albums/72177720304740214 Emerald Therapy by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Artist: http://audionautix.com/

The first naked eye comet since Comet Neowise in 2020 approached the Earth and on 1 Feb 23 was within 28 million miles. This Comet ZTF is unlikely to return to the solar system due to its unusual orbit. I was fortunate enough to record the comet on every day from Jan 19th to Feb 1st except for Jan 23 (clouds). ZTF was a very fast movement comet and time lapse showed this quite well. After 6 Feb, it will be visible in the evening sky with binoculars before moonrise.

Viewed 25 north of Tucson, AZ with GoPro 10.

At around 3:24AM on 31 Oct 22, while asleep, this fireball was captured on a GoPro 10 in raw format. This 30 sec, iso 800 image, ~109 degree horizon f.o.v. (looking from northeast to southeast). This meteor traveled ~ 35 degrees in this image. Glow at extreme right is Tucson. What was remarkable was this event created a smoke train that was visible for more than 45 minutes and was recorded as a time lapse looking east towards Oracle, Arizona. A Singular Perversion - Darkness by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-... Artist: http://incompetech.com/

After last years total moon eclipse was clouded out, this year's event did not disappoint. Early clouds near the horizon gave way to clear skies. I used the following cameras: Nikon Coolpix 950 on Orion Sirius Equatorial Mount at 1000mm, Nikon d7100 using 85mm Nikkor f/1.4 lens at iso 800 @ 1 sec exposure, Fujifilm X-T3, 16-55mm @ 55mm, and GoPro 10. Winds prevented my extended use of the Nikon P950 but I did manage a few good captures.

On March 30, 2022, a brief G1 Solar Storm impacted the earth and created a northern lights display that was visible over the northern high plains to Washington State. For my location in southeastern Wyoming, the aurora was visible only as a deep red glow without structure. This type of display is referred to as a photographic vs. visual aurora. The camera "sees" much more than the eye. Red glow in the night sky is difficult to detect because the eye's cone receptors are just not physically made for seeing contrast. This event was very unusual in that the Kp of 4.5 was well under the ~Kp of 7.5 that is required to detect northern lights from Cheyenne, WY (geomagnetic latitude of 50N). The bright light at left is due north. The northern lights were about 1000 miles to my north. What you are seeing in this clip is just the top of the aurora where oxygen at 300 miles up is being energized to create the red color. This clip begins at 9:27PM MDT and ends at 10:39PM. The peak aurora is obvious at 10:13PM. A fujifilm X-T3, 16-55mm Fujifilm lens at ~20mm, F/3.2, iso2500, exp 13s with 3 sec gap between frames (510 frames played back at 10ps), RAW format post processed in Photoshop cc.

Time Lapse taken at maximum brightness of Comet NEWISE (9-18 July 2020) from Cheyenne, Wyoming followed by the best still images from my Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 lens. This comet was nearly circumpolar thus was visible after sunset and before sunrise (only going partly below the horizon around local midnight).

Clouds dominated at sunset as the eclipsed moon rose. However, after 30 minutes the skies cleared and I was able to captured the 4th total lunar eclipse visible over the US during the past two years. It was by far the best of the group. During this rather dark mid-totality, there was a lot of subtle details (shades of light and dark) within the umbra shadow on the moon. Between full moon and mid totality, my exposures varied from 1/2000th to 2.5 secs. The wide angle sequence shows the dramatic change in brightness throughout the eclipse. Details on the lenses used is shown on the initial video. Nikon d7000 and d7100 cameras were used. Music: Dawn by Barry van Oudtshoorn

The Great Total Solar Eclipse of 21 August 2017 as recorded from near Glendo State Park, Wyoming. Perfect skies helped deliver an amazing 2 minutes and 29 seconds of totality. This clip shows how the moon's shadow changed daylight to deep twilight in just a minute before totality. This was my 3rd totality (7Mar70 -North Carolina), 30Jun73-Sahara Africa). I was under overcast skies for the 10Jul72 eclipse in Quebec, Canada.

A masive solar storm (G3 intensity) produced a Kp7 to Kp8 index on 27-28 May 2017. Alerted by Spaceweather.com, I set up to 35mm dSLR cameras (11-16 tokina f/2.8 widefield and Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 lenses). As soon as deep twilight arrived, the aurora was visible, especially a nearly stationary arc over the northwest horizon. Some call this structure "S.T.E.V.E." but I am not exactly sure what it was. Also: STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) looks like an aurora, but it is not. The phenomenon is caused by hot (3000°C) ribbons of gas flowing through Earth’s magnetosphere at speeds exceeding 6 km/s (13,000 mph). These ribbons appear during some geomagnetic storms, revealing themselves by their soft purple/mauve glow. It appeared to rotate and brighten as the arc narrowed. I call this an auronado (auror tornado) for a lack of a better description. After midnight, a green glow on the northern horizon finally brokeout into a substorm with multiple colors and rays around 1:47AM mountain time. Seeing th aurora borealis at 41N is pretty rare, especially with recent streaks of zero sunspots. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this timelapse clip and slides as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Captured geese flying near a rising sun.