I need to shoot twilight starscapes more often—not just when comets are trying to hide within. Can you spot it? Second pic points the way. C/2025 R2 (SWAN) Thursday evening. Not an obvious one like NEOWISE or Tsuchinshan-ATLAS recently. But I do have hopes for Lemmon soon. #comet #astrophotography

And then there's the other bright comet, C/2025 R2 (SWAN). Nice that it's an evening object, but it's still in heavy twilight + gibbous moon + horizon loving clouds. So definitely not as detailed as Lemmon the morning before. 1.5° tail looks yellowish—so maybe dust, not ion. #comet #astrophotography

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) from wayyy too early Thursday morning with all the good comet colors in the coma, dust & ion tails—with that stretching 6° in the uncropped original. It should keep getting better over the next few weeks and finally make it's way to the evening sky. A more tolerable place.

West of Flagstaff this afternoon. The search for structure worked out reasonably well. Better at times than this, but the CG demanded this moment be highlighted. #weatherphotography #stormchasing #azwx

I’d say this tour group got their money’s worth! I had planned to be driving home that day, but forecast instability & boundary options convinced me to hang around another day. SPC wasn’t too impressed though until 20Z as things started happening. May 1, 2025, Briggs, TX. #stormchasing

Coming up Friday night and really looking forward to it! 5:30PM, September 19th, from Flagstaff, AZ, the first International Dark Sky City. Workshop at the Astrogeology Science Center with a field session afterward just down the road in Buffalo Park. www.eventbrite.com/e/night-sky-...

Not enough time to haul off to a spot with a lower horizon, but the brief aurora display still lofted the tree tops at the end of astronomical twilight. East side of Flagstaff 35°N. 8:04 PM MST/0304Z. #northernlights #nightscape

Zodiacal Light blazing among the cinder cones north of Flagstaff. I love the depth showing up in scenes like this. Beyond the foreground lie ripples of airglow, further out the dust of our solar system slicing through and enveloping Jupiter & Venus, all atop a Milky Way backdrop. #nightscape

Fallen, snaggy tree and Flagstaff lights catching the Milky Way with SP Crater peeking in from the right. The camera had to almost get in the dirt for this one. #nightscape #astrophotography

Arizona locals interested in learning to photograph the night sky—there’s a little something happening in Flagstaff, Friday, September 19th. I’ll be leading a night photography workshop at the Astrogeology Science Center, with a field session in Buffalo Park right after. Link below: bit.ly/3UDqpWh

Occlusion approaching Hwy62/70 west of Matador, Texas on April 24th. It was moving slightly left to right from this spot, but not fast enough for my liking, so I drifted back west after this shot & got a view of nothing but rain as it crossed the road. #weatherphotography #stormchasing

I scouted unpaved roads south of Winslow looking for a decommissioned bridge Sunday night but got diverted by unexpected fences & gates. Along the way, some weathered sandstone outcrops kindly showed up and filled in while Payson tried to keep the Milky Way from touching the horizon. #milkyway

Storms got stingy with CGs after crossing the Bradshaws Friday night. Just enough IC flashes to keep one hopeful. Looking west over Dewey as the gust front moved in. #stormchasing #weatherphotography

Looking SW across Lake Mary yesterday evening. This was an interesting catch. The shutter was set to high-speed continuous. When the trigger fired, the right strike captured first, followed 1/12 sec later by the one on the left. I stacked both since they were buddies. #azwx #weatherphotography

Paper wasp scrambling in the back yard. I had an experimental truce with them this year since they don’t menace like yellow jackets & wow they kept the grasshopper swarms in check. Need to patch holes in the new retaining wall this winter so they don’t get overly entrenched. #macrophotography

June 7th last year, midway between Dunning & Arnold, Nebraska, as a tour group tries to catch a meso by the tail. #weatherphotography #stormchasing

Percy has a bust along the Pluto Walk at Lowell Observatory. Red uplighting is kind of ominous though.

On the other side of a key decision here. April 24, NW of Matador, TX looking North. Storm is wrapping up, rotating faster & moving in. Untested dirt grid to the right/east would keep close but require zigzagging in the path. Opted nope. U-turned just as this 1st dusty spinup lofted. #stormchasing

The Cassiopeia Milky Way has some interesting goodies embedded. Canon sensors read just enough deep red to hint at the emission nebulae scattered around…besides all the open clusters. 51 minutes tracked at f/4.0. #milkyway #astrophotography

Found a spot to pour the Milky Way into a snaggled goblet while air glow splashed everywhere. A couple weeks ago north of Flagstaff. #milkyway #nightscape

Maybenado/probably-wallcloud the night of April 27-28, 0259Z, N of Mullen, NE. NWS damage survey plots a tornado there at that time, but w/the ridge in the way, can’t tell if those are wedge-edges or just the wall cloud/collar cloud. Anyway, Cherry County—great storms/sketchy views. #stormchasing

Star trails over SP Crater. I set up south of the volcano this time to center up Polaris. It’s been a long time since messing with star trails—but might want to try these some more. It’s just that you have to commit multiple hours to a single composition rather than playing with multiple options.

I had to put some distance on this storm to be able to see anything, as much dust as it was ingesting. Southeast of Fort Stockton, April 22nd. #weatherphotography #stormchasing

‘Nader in the mist, roping away inside a glowing occlusion near Oakalla, Texas, May 1st. I heard tales of a 3rd tornado on this storm and not sure if this is what was being counted, but I figured this was just a recondensation of the original one after it feathered out for a bit. #tornado

While driving away from a night shot location north of Flagstaff, the Milky Way started lining up nicely with SP Crater. It’s a pretty impressive sight on satellite and aerial views with its striking lava flow. But has a great profile at ground level too. #milkyway #nightscape #volcanoes

Any ambitions to pursue nocturnal storms this season have been scoured away by the dry southwest winds of monsoonal failure. Thank goodness for memories of better times. August 9, 2023 from Twin Arrows.

It’s about time for the hawk moths to return. We don’t have as many Evening Primrose as last year. But still enough we should get some twilight visitors. #pollinators

One of my favorite views at Lowell Observatory. The Clark Telescope Dome broke ground in 1894 and still houses the 24” refractor Percival Lowell used to pursue a keen interest in Martian canals. It’s also known for the discovery of galactic redshift and creation of Lunar maps for Apollo missions.

At Lowell Observatory a couple nights ago scouting options for a night photography workshop in a few weeks. The Slipher Rotunda is a beautiful building. Porch lights a touch brighter/whiter than I recall, but these are the things that add delightful spices to the processing flow. #nightscape

One of our backyard ants scouting a hollyhock stem. They can’t stop moving—I don’t know how anyone can get a decent focus stack of these characters. Also interesting to see the fibers on that stem. Made me all kinds of itchy last weekend digging around in those to fix irrigation. #macrophotography

Wednesday night while shooting the Milky Way, I kept turning to see the glow of the Dragon Bravo Fire on the GC North Rim, 50 miles away. The wind got gustier after sundown and I’m sure really aggravated it, but it finally started to lay low for the night as temps cooled. #nightscape #wildfire

From the depths of the San Francisco Volcanic field last night—clear, dark skies & gnarly old junipers. The cinder cones nack there don’t even have names, far as I can tell. Solpugids & velvet ants spooked me while I was shooting. And I spooked a coyote on the way out. Balance. #nightscape #milkyway

Goodness the monsoon is hosed this year. I can’t overly complain because this side of town has gotten decent cumulative rain, but it just feels like a ‘lucky break’ in the larger scheme. And I haven’t studied the pattern closely enough to fully appreciate the current fail modes.

Surfing nocturnal QLCSes generally falls in bleh territory, but I was way out in Dixie & trying to squeeze the most out of everything. Near 1-2am, this one started twirling up mesovortices & tornado warnings. Pictured: powerflashnado knocking down lines near Wynne, AR—April 5th. #stormchasing #arwx

Great chalice shaped updraft with a tall, green vault south of Littlefield, Texas, April 25th. #weatherphotography #stormchasing

While up behind the Peaks Thursday snagging shots to the south, I noticed the western sky stayed bright well after astronomical twilight & figured there must be a load of airglow. So decided to finish the night with the Big Dipper and some high-crowned ponderosas on a green sky. #nightscape

While trying a different composition Thurs. night, a raft of clouds started to crest the Peaks & catch Flagstaff's lights. Decided to roll with it. I don't do as much light painting these days but opted to reflect my phone's light off the palm of my hand to help the foreground. #milkyway #nightscape

Last night from FS418 north of the Peaks. The monsoon scurried off with most of its minions again, so it seemed a good time to snag some Milky Ways. I wanted to do something with that snapped trunk & briar patch after scouting and hiking around there a few days ago. #milkyway #nightscape

Storms sliding into Verde Valley maxed out nicely at sunset tonight. This one landed a few strikes in the Black Hills behind Cottonwood while the time lapses were running 0.4 sec exposures. Closer, more frightful strikes wound up 90° to the left where the vantage wasn't as good. #azwx #lightning

North Rim smoke really darkened the sunset last night. The sun was a direct vision sight as it headed into the horizon, looking like one of those red hot steel ball experiments. I need to learn how to process for the new hdr-jpg format to better do justice to this kind of scene. #sunsetphotos

I’m not much at ease with selfies, but current mugshot has felt kind of sterile when weather & storm chase presentations come up. Finally a long enough moment outdoors with a spinny guy this year & sudden presence of mind to snag something. Wasn’t counting on an occlusion sombrero, but I’ll take it.

Monsoon 2025 dropped a decent 2-day burst last week—good heavy rain in east Flagstaff on July 3. Looking west at Flag from Buffalo Range Rd here at the end of that day. Since then it's been meager sprinkles & drying daily. Still looks bleh for the coming week. Come on August? #weatherphotography

Rotating wall cloud west of Anton, Texas—April 25th. #weatherphotography #stormchasing #txwx

Gustnado marching ahead of a line of storms north of Winslow this afternoon. #azwx #weatherphotography

At the end of a hike in the Sonoran Preserve, this trailside cactus caught my attention. Spines nearly twice as long as the diameter of the stems were absolutely broadcasting, No Touchy. Even yonder saguaro was backing away. I still touched.

Nocturnal tornadoes have peculiar eerieness to them. The monster really is lurking in the dark. This slender elephant trunk tried stalking unnoticed, but trusty lightning flashes announced it. Cherry County, Nebraska—April 27th. #weatherphotography #tornado #stormchasing

A flock of noisy sparrows descended on the garden this morning, tearing into the insect population. It seemed to mostly be grasshoppers taking the hit, but guessing these guys were on the menu too. Lygus bug basking on a petal after wading through some pollen. #macrophotography

I was sitting on the backyard steps yesterday, enjoying an orange while the wind tossed the flowers, when this metallic bee drifted in to dunk for nectar. Hoping she'd stick around, I washed up, grabbed the macro rig & hustled back to scout for her. Striped Sweat Bee/agapostemon #macrophotography

Ladybird beetles are all over the back yard plants now. Little one probing for munchies on a Hollyhock bud here. I love the way it looks like they left the dust & fibers in place before lacquering their bodies. #macrophotography #macro

My 1st Tennesee supercell—vicinity of Maury City, April 2nd. A tepid thing that was on it's way out. Best storms E of the Mississippi were opting for trees. Meanwhile tight vicinity of the front in chasable Arkansas terrain was starting to light up with discrete, impressive sups. #weatherphotography