The maples at their prime

 

As weird of a fall as it's been, I gotta say... the colors have been pretty impressive this year. The maples are past their peak now, but here's a few photos from this past week when they were looking their best. What an amazing time of year!

Jupiter, Orion and Meteor Fragmentation

 

I was out most of last night hoping to see the onset of the big geomagnetic storm that space weather forecasters have been talking about for the past couple days. While the storm has not yet hit our atmosphere, the stars and planets were incredibly vivid. Jupiter glowed brightly in the sky just above Orion. As I was driving around waiting for the aurora storms that never came, I stopped at several different locations to take some sky quality measurements. 

At one of the stops, I had just set up my camera and started an exposure, then turned to the south to start a series of sky quality readings.  As soon as I turned away from the camera, a bright flash of light reflected across the inside of my glasses. I turned back around and as soon as the image finished recording, I hit the Play button on the camera to see what the flash of light was. Turns out I had captured the fragmentation of a meteor as it burned up in our atmosphere! I consulted with my friend "Astro" Bob King and he explained that the double points of light indicate a chunk of meteor that broke off from the main piece as they both burned up. It's the first time I've ever captured anything like that. 

Last Light over the Colorado River

 

One of the highlights of my trip to the southwest this past May was spending the night at this unforgettable overlook of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.  I absolutely loved my time in this monument.  I spent a few days there and only scratched the surface of what there is to see. The monument claims to have "thousands of miles of dirt roads". I believe it... and I can tell you, some of them are VERY rugged and super fun to explore. And some of them lead to unbelievable places like this overlook. It's very much a place you need to be prepared to explore, though. In my 3 days there I only saw 5 or 6 other vehicles. I can't wait to go back and explore it some more. 

Colorful Maples

 

It's been kind of a weird fall color season so far. When comparing to photos from previous years, the maple trees overall would be at their peak color by now. That is not the case this year. While there are some very colorful maples to be found here and there, it seems the majority of them are still quite green. And, while driving some forest roads this past weekend, I was surprised to see quite a few leaves on the ground already with the majority of the trees (when viewed from beneath the forest canopy) still green.  This made me wonder if the tops of the trees have already changed and are losing their leaves while the bottom 2/3 of the trees are still green. At any rate, no matter what stage the color progression is at, there is always a lot of beauty to be found!

One season ends, another begins

 

A beautiful end to a beautiful summer season. This photo was made about 10 days ago, just as the maple leaves were beginning to turn. We are transitioning fully into fall now, with cooler nights and days and more and more leaves turning and dropping each day. I love each season but I especially love fall.  There is so much beauty to be found everywhere. 

Fascinating Fungi

 

I found this Fascinating Fungi about 20 feet up in a tree while out looking for fall colors earlier this week. I was super intrigued by the patterns in the underside. Something new to discover almost every day! 

Aurora Storm over the Border Lands

 

Boy, am I glad I went out for a second round of photographing the auroras tonight!  After 1:00 AM the lights had died way down and I kind of thought they were done for the night.  But, it was such a serenely calm night that I decided to just sit by the water for a while and enjoy the peacefulness. Around 2:00 AM the lights started to pick up again and between 2:30 and 4:00 AM the auroras were just spectacular! Even the intense full moon was no match for the lights. Moonlight will often wash out the view of the aurora but not on this night. I haven't looked through all of my images yet... I need some sleep first... but of the ones I did look through, so far this one is my favorite.