June 2008

Roll Cloud Event of 06/09/08: Image captured at 8:22am CDT

Following another very active night of strong to severe convection, a beautifully-defined roll cloud passed over northeast Kansas on the morning of Monday, 06/09/08. This roll cloud followed some thick, low-hanging stratus that had lingered behind the active overnight convection. As the stratus deck retreated to the east, this roll cloud became visible, stretching from the northern horizon all the way to the southern horizon just west of our location. As this roll cloud moved east, it briefly became particularly well-defined around 8:20am CDT as shown above before slowly losing the crisp, clear edges.

Several minutes later, I captured several more photographs from a better vantage point.

Roll Cloud Event of 06/09/08: Image captured at 8:27am CDT

Roll Cloud Event of 06/09/08: Image captured at 8:27am CDT. Additional signs of instability evidenced by the faint wave clouds in the upper left portion of the frame.

I then stitched together five frames using Canon’s PhotoStitch 3.1 software that came with the Canon 30D. This was my first attempt at using this software to compose a panoramic image from several still frames, so you’ll have to excuse the imperfections.

Roll Cloud Event of 06/09/08: Composite image of 6 photographs taken at 8:27am CDT. Click for much larger image.

For more images, check out the full entry in the gallery: Roll Cloud Event of 06/09/08.

Composite Image of four photographs taken between 8:51pm and 9:51pm CST. Click on image for larger view

In sorting through a huge virtual stack of digital photographs that needed organization, I realized I never posted any of my photographs of the total lunar eclipse of February 20th, 2008. Some of these photographs have been featured on other sites, thus the watermark.

The next total lunar eclipse visible from here in the US won’t come around until December of 2010. The only wild card was the weather. Clouds are already streaming into southern Kansas in advance of a coming storm, but fortunately they held off until the second half of the eclipse. The entire first half, including the beginning of totality was still clearly visible from Kansas.

These photographs were captured during the first stages of the eclipse prior to clouds moving in right around totality. Shots taken either with a Canon 30D 70-300mm @300mm, f/5.6 exposures varying from 1/1000s to 1s or handheld through 26mm eyepiece of my Meade DS-2114LNT reflector telescope.

The first image was taken at 8:51pm, CST. Click all images for a higher resolution view.

8:51pm CST. Canon 30D, 300mm f/5.6, 1/1000s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view

9:08pm CST. Canon 30D, 300mm f/5.6, 1/1000s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view

9:26pm CST. Canon 30D, 260mm f/5.6, 1/400s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view

9:27pm CST. Clouds now becoming visible. Canon 30D, 1/2s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view

9:51pm CST. Clouds streaming in from the south. Canon 30D 1s, ISO-200. Click on image for larger view