Beautiful Sunrise

Awaking before dawn this past Thursday the 25th after having monitored overnight satellite trends, I had a feeling that there might be something. Stepping out while still dark as the first light was just beginning to break the horizon, cloud bases suggested today had the potential to go big. This would be an understatement for the entire Midwest including all of Illinois from Chicago to deep down in SW Missouri was treated to a phenomenal sight.









Phone pic


Speaking of phone pics, below is a vertical shot created exclusively for use as phone wallpaper. Feel free to save the text free version and add to your home screen as to celebrate autumnal color and harvest season!






180° panorama

Mammatus at Sunset

Anvil blow off streaming up from the SSE generated by a severe thunderstorm in Southern Illinois caught the end of day light in a most remarkable way on the 23rd of August. Satellite would have been an ideal reference but I did not save a capture though you can still get an idea per the weak return left of my location indicated by the dot. Struggling for a suitable location before the magic was gone, a nearby church provided the perfect foreground subject.

Indiana Lightning

Back on August 19th, a line developed in far SE IL and moved into Indiana. Crystal clear skies here made it possible to see them with ease. Carefully tripoded with the 300mm, I did a little out of state chasing while hoping for an aurora event that never happened but was what got me out to begin with.

105 miles away over Terre Haute


Later, 138 miles away over Bloomington










A separate camera pointed north for an hour long stack