Astronomy, Photography and Weather

General Category => Weather & Atmospherics => Topic started by: martinastro on February 07, 2009, 01:48:22 am



Title: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: martinastro on February 07, 2009, 01:48:22 am
Done a photo session before dawn on feb 6th between 03.00 - 04.00 UT. I was on the look out for Moonbows but the radar showed no showers in my area. I went out to the country and seen some good lines of convection moving in from the N. The highlight was a nice cb with respectable semi-solid looking updraught with a long anvil blown to the S. There was a compact flanking line behind it.

This cell produced a good shower of small hail mixed with snow flakes. I caught a very faint Moonbow as it decayed. Nothing spectacular, but it had colour with the naked eye. I included a contrast enhanced crop showing the bow with stars and comet Lulin as a faint grey smudge (arrowed). This was followed by more cu towers and orphan anvils.

The convection looked amazing lit pure white by the waxing gibbous Moon with the orange glow of distant lights catching their bellies and precip curtains. All images are 30 sec exposures at ISO400 using a 28mm lens at F/2.8. I hope to get better and more dramatic Moobows in the near future. I was also testing out several locations incase we get some night time t-storms this Summer.

More here..

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Night%20Convection%20-%20Feb%206th%202009.html

(http://i42.tinypic.com/2h5qhzk.jpg)

(http://i44.tinypic.com/2n8ptmc.jpg)

(http://i42.tinypic.com/4vs6t3.jpg)

(http://i42.tinypic.com/inbmo9.jpg)

(http://i42.tinypic.com/s0vset.jpg)

(http://i42.tinypic.com/69p15l.jpg)



Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: Tyler on February 07, 2009, 04:47:46 am
Martin, Incredible! yet again you don't disappoint! I can't believe you spotted that moonbow, its soo dim! great work martin, you could send that one with Lulin's Position to spaceweather.
The convection is very cool too, I really would like to image some convection with lightning, while the stars are still visible ;D



Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: rjgjr on February 07, 2009, 05:09:01 am
Fantastic images Martin, you really know how to catch these nightime displays.


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: JohnC on February 07, 2009, 12:27:13 pm
You are definitely my hero !!   ;D

You open us  (well me) up to another world with these middle of the night  observations and there you go catching more moonbows and even convection. Cracking photos, a joy to  view.


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: martinastro on February 07, 2009, 01:11:39 pm
Guys, thanks so much for the nice comments about the night convection and Moonbows. It was just one of those nights when everything came together and the sky showed off. The night sky and weather did all the work, I just took the images and hoped for the best!

Tyler, that's a good idea about SW, I might catch a more vivid example (with luck) soon which I might send in. I have learned over the last two nights that spectacular Moonbows don't like hail and snow showers. They are just too dim. Normal showers with large rain drops are the requirement for the stunning specimens. I have an idea in mind of the kind of bows I want to catch, and if I get the conditions there could be some great photo opps waiting but it's up to Mother nature at the end of the day.

Richard, many thanks for that. It's great to hear from you again!

John, I really appreciate your comments. As a convective person yourself I know you would like scenes like this. Let's hope for more. I had another session last night which had its ups and downs but I will post a few images later. Cheers  :)


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: brianb on February 07, 2009, 01:35:30 pm
Quote
Let's hope for more. I had another session last night which had its ups and downs
Downs, downs & more downs. A bit of usable weather early in the evening, then gradually smaller holes in the cloud, fast moving so as to be completely useless, and not enough horizontal visibility to see anything of any vertical development in the clouds, except you could tell there was some by the occasional showers.

Northerly / north westerly winds, NBG for anything here.


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: martinastro on February 07, 2009, 09:51:31 pm
It was clear all night but we had really intense hail and snow storms which were brief but very powerful. Here's a few shots from last night...

(http://i44.tinypic.com/2wq95w6.jpg)

(http://i42.tinypic.com/2qm2hqx.jpg)

(http://i43.tinypic.com/25jyujc.jpg)

(http://i42.tinypic.com/15qfak7.jpg)


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: Big Dipper on February 08, 2009, 12:37:56 am
I can only endorse the comments already made Martin. Viewing them in a dark room they look spectacular. I really like the contrasting cloud shapes and the sudden change to a dark blue, star-filled sky. Well done.


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: Roman White on February 08, 2009, 03:23:50 pm
Very nice images, Martin. I like your nighttime landscapes - they look like the daytime ones in poor light plus bonus - the starry sky  :)
The moonbow is a tough capture, but you did it!
The last two images with local storms are very impressive too.


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: martinastro on February 08, 2009, 05:00:20 pm
Thanks very much for the feed back Andy and Roman  :). To take it to the next level I want to catch convection, stars, and lightning at the same time lol..I wonder if nature will oblige this year.

Here's a not so good Moonbow from the 2nd night. I contrasted and darkened the image to bring it up better. They are not impressive when they form on hail showers.

(http://i40.tinypic.com/5f2mab.jpg)


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: jgs001 on February 09, 2009, 11:21:34 am
Martin, some amazing shots in there... Good work


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: martinastro on February 09, 2009, 04:51:43 pm
Thanks very much John  :)


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: Tyler on February 09, 2009, 11:14:27 pm
Martin, it seems that moonbows in your area are quite common, or maybe in nebraska they are REALLY rare, but we don't usually have partly cloudy skies with showers, it seems that in Ireland thats all you get LOL. Great job capturing the moon bow from the hail/snow, that must be tough to do.  ;)


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: brianb on February 10, 2009, 06:30:59 am
Quote
we don't usually have partly cloudy skies with showers, it seems that in Ireland thats all you get LOL.
Nope, usually it's solid cloud.


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: rjgjr on February 10, 2009, 04:07:17 pm
Having admired Martin's Moonbow images for many months now, last evening was my first concentrated search effort. With a moon just past full rising in the NE and some convective clouds over the Pacific, I stood oiutside on the porch in a 32 degree chill and was scouting the tree lined horizon. We don't have much flat country around the area so I may have to bite the bullet and take a drive next time. It's so easy to see the Moonbows in Martin's images, but yet so difficult to try and spot what you are looking for on your own. I never really did see anything because the moon was playing hide and seek in cumulus behind me. So I just decided to snap off a bunch of images and see what I come up with. I didn't even download the images until this morning and to my surprise I had a very, and I mean very slight Moonbow captured on several of them. At least now I tend to know what I am looking for. I tried to enhance the image somewhat to get it to show up more but to no avail. I'll just keep trying!

This image was taken about 7:30 pm local time 18mm 25 sec f/4 ISO 800

Very slight Moonbow in lower righthand corner of image. The more I stare at it the less I see it. Good luck!!

(http://i44.tinypic.com/10d5wxw.jpg)





Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: martinastro on February 10, 2009, 05:08:56 pm
Richard, congratulations on your first Moonbow, and a cracker it is to!!. I can see it easily, I like the fact that it's a coloured stump of a bow forming on the precip under that nice convection. Fantastic. I knew you would catch one from your location. Lovely anvil too. You are ready for the big bows now!!  :) Thanks for sharing that.


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: rjgjr on February 10, 2009, 05:39:34 pm
Thanks for the comment Martin. Most of your images give me the initiative to actually go out and look for some of these items and not wait for them to look in the window at me. Thanks.


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: Tyler on February 10, 2009, 05:47:39 pm
Great work Richard! its easily spotted even with the glare of the sun on my screen. I think you will have some great images very soon with your location  :)


Title: Re: Night Convection, Stars & Faint Moonbow - Feb 6th.
Post by: rjgjr on February 10, 2009, 08:29:41 pm
Thanks for the comments Tyler! Looking forward to your storm chasing this Spring.