A pair of Stellar's Jays on top of Mt. Lemmon

I was getting ready to observe with the 1.5-m Mount Lemmon Survey telescope when I heard these Stellar's Jays raising a ruckus outside the dome. I grabbed my camera and took a series of images as I slowly approached them. They only allowed my to approach a little before they headed to lower elevations where the trees are more densely packed.

Canon 20D - 500mm

One of the Stellar's

This is just a cropped version of the main image above.

Canon 20D -

Summer Milky Way Reprocessed

This image was made a few minutes before the same scene three images below. I tried a different amount of processing to see if I could bring out more detail in the galaxy.

Canon 20D - 20 seconds, 20mm @ f/ 2.2, ISO 800, Auto-Dark

Galiuros 45627

You usually don't have to go far to see spectacular geology in Arizona. One of the benefits of working on Mt. Lemmon is the view across the San Pedro River Valley to the Galiuros Mountains on the other side.

Canon 20D - 1/800th second, 313mm @ f/ 5.6, ISO 800

Galiuros 45633

Another view across the San Pedro River Valley near sunset as seen from "my office". As I say, the best office view in all Tucson.

Canon 20D - 1/1000th second, 417mm @ f/ 5.6, ISO 800

The Summer Milky Way

Here is southeast Arizona, we had a very dry pulse of air push through at after an uncommon June rain event. I was on my last night of a four night run at the Schmidt and had a feeling I was in for a very dark, clear, steady night. I wasn't disappointed.

I set up the camera to the west of the dome, facing east, to build an all night time-lapse animation. This and the next two below are single frames from that video.

During the Summer we are looking across the Milky Way in the direction of it's center, so as you can see on the right side of the image, we see many more stars and stellar nurseries.


Canon 20D - 20 seconds, 20mm @ f/ 2.2, ISO 800, Auto-Dark

Northbound Iridium Flare

The dawn sky was lousy with satellites crossing in all directions. This Iridium communications satellite provided some accent to the endless parade of barely changing dots crossing overhead.

Canon 20D - 20 seconds, 20mm @ f/ 2.2, ISO 800, Auto-Dark

Hubble Flies By

One of the most impressive satellites in use and to see fly overhead is the Hubble Space Telescope. We see it here racing east towards the sunrise.

Canon 20D - 20 seconds, 20mm @ f/ 2.2, ISO 800 Auto-Dark

Evening Conjunction

Now that my move into my new home is nearly complete and things are beginning to settle down again, I have some time to start posting images.

On the 19th of May, the crescent moon and the Planet Venus joined each other in the evening sky to make a beautiful pairing.

Canon 20D - 1/50th second, 500mm @ f/ 6.3, ISO 100