Today’s artsy image from the Great Western Trail in west suburban Chicago.

The late afternoon Sun illuminates autumn leaves on the Mallard Lake trail.

Autumn’s colors are slowly unfolding. But today, the clouds stole the show over Mallard Lake in west suburban Chicago.

Autumn Fireworks (staghorn sumac) along the Hawk Hollow Trail in west suburban Chicago.

This year, one of the few exceptions to an otherwise drab autumn palette is staghorn sumac, which is beginning to explode in color along DuPage County trails in west suburban Chicago.

A meeting of ducks. . . at sunset.

Sunset on the Hawk Hollow Trail bridge.

🚴🏻‍♂️ Tonight’s sunset on Mallard Lake.

Mallard Lake Sunset • 2025 Aug 20

Sun-soaked Trees Under a Cool Sky. Mallard Lake. Bloomingdale, IL USA.

13 Aug 2025. 4:39 a.m. CDT. The predawn Venus - Jupiter conjunction, with and without lines. Taken with Olympus camera and medium telephoto lens. Adobe Photoshop Elements was used for post production. Taken from west suburban Chicago. #astrophotography

Tiny black dot on Saturn. Early this morning, I photographed a rather rare astronomical event, a shadow transit of Saturn’s largest moon Titan across its parent planet. This is a composite of two frames. Questar telescope /Olympus camera. Observed from metro Chicago. #astrophotography

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth. Opening to “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Photo taken on today’s ride. 🚴🏻‍♂️

Tonight, Mars could be found amidst the stars of the Beehive star cluster (M44) in Cancer. #astrophotography #astronomy

Spring colors are beginning to “pop” on the bicycle trails in west suburban Chicago. 🚴🏻‍♂️

🚴🏻‍♂️ On my short bicycle ride today, the landscapes near Mallard Lake displayed both the greens of spring and the leftover browns of winter.

#11. A 3-frame animation of the winter sky. My first frame was exposed about 10 minutes to show trailing. My second one was short to render pointy stars. A third frame (constellation lines) was added recently. Taken on Kodak Tri-X film with my Pentax SLR. #astronomy #astrophotography #startrails

Tonight's 2½ day old Moon with significant Earthshine. Taken with Olympus m4/3 camera and 300mm telephoto lens. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon

#10. August 7, 1978: Here I caught a very close conjunction between Venus and the Moon. It brought back fond memories of a pre-dawn occultation of Venus that fueled my early interest of astronomy 4 years earlier. Taken on Kodak Tri-X film with my Pentax SLR. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon

#9. November 24, 1976: In a melding of old and new, I combined my photograph of Rho Sagittarii (mag. 3.9) about to be occulted by the crescent Moon [outlined by my box] with a simulation of the Moon that same night, rendered by SkySafari software. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon #occultation

#8. August 2, 1976: The face of the Moon is timeless, as seen here when I first mated my Pentax SLR camera to the historic 9-inch f/16 refracting telescope at Northmoor Observatory in Peoria, Illinois to capture its First Quarter phase. Taken on Kodak Tri-X film. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon

#7. Early March, 1976: One month after I purchased my Pentax SLR, a surprisingly bright Comet West appeared in the pre-dawn sky. Good timing, eh?! Amazingly, my first comet remains one of the best comets I’ve ever seen!! Taken on Kodak Tri-X film. #astronomy #astrophotography #comet

#6. March 6, 1976: I took this image of an overexposed waxing crescent Moon amidst the faint stars of Aries and Taurus, with the Pleiades cluster sparkling nearby. Taken on Ektachrome slide film with my Pentax SLR. #astronomy #astrophotography

#5. NORTH POLAR STARE. Some of my first astro images were circumpolar star trails. This one included the Big Dipper and Polaris. In February of 1976, I finally purchased my own (real) camera — a Pentax SP1000 SLR, and a tripod. Taken on Kodak Tri-X film. #astronomy #astrophotography #startrails

#4. July, 1975: I took my first solar photos through my original 4¼ inch reflecting telescope fitted with a Solar Skreen filter. Taken with Kodak Instamatic camera on Kodachrome 64 slide film. #astronomy #astrophotography #sun

#3. May 24-25, 1975: My first big astrophoto opportunity came when the U.S. enjoyed a late-spring total lunar eclipses that year. This montage gathers my best frames, taken on Kodachrome 64 slide film. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon #lunareclipse

#2. Early May, 1975: An early star trail photo. From the backyard of my family’s home in Peoria, Illinois, I captured the conjunction of a crescent Moon and the planets Venus and Saturn, with stars Castor and Pollux nearby. Kodachrome 64 slide film. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon #startrails

#1. Dec. 13, 1974: One of my very first astronomical photos was taken in the early stages of a partial solar eclipse. A veil of low clouds rendered it safely visible to both eye and camera. Taken outside of Northmoor Observatory, Peoria, Illinois. #astronomy #astrophotography #solareclipse

ASTRO 50 EXHIBIT. This year (2025) marks a milestone for me. It’s been 50 years since I took my first astronomical photographs! To celebrate this milestone, I’ll be posting one of my earliest astrophotos onto Facebook and Bluesky each day for the remainder of April, each with a brief caption. ⬇️

Today, I remember the RMS Titanic and mourn the 1,514 souls who perished in the early morning of 15 April 1912 on the frozen North Atlantic Ocean. Today's cover image, from Titanic: Honor and Glory, shows the Titanic steaming westward on a millpond-smooth ocean under a star-studded sky.

LUNAR ECLIPSE POSTCARD. My final composition from last weekend’s total lunar eclipse combines the best images from each of my 10-minute samplings, which spanned 2 hours, 20 minutes of the event. UT is 5 hours ahead of CDT. #astronomy #astrophotography #lunareclipse #Olympus

These three photos from the March 14, 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse are arranged right to left to match the Moon's orbital direction and to better reveal the Earth’s shadow. Taken with an Olympus camera and telephoto lens from suburban Chicago. #astronomy #astrophotography #lunareclipse #Olympus

Taken on 2025 Mar 14 at 7:50 UTC (after totality), my image of the partial stage of this morning's lunar eclipse reveals the chocolate brown hues that I saw visually with binoculars and the naked eye. Taken with Olympus camera and telephoto lens. #astronomy #astrophotography #lunareclipse

Total Lunar Eclipse. Mar 14, 2025. Taken just after maximum eclipse (7:03 UTC), this image is composed of 36 frames aligned, stacked, cropped, and processed. Olympus camera and telephoto lens. Observing site: suburban Chicago, Illinois USA. #astronomy #astrophotography #lunareclipse

Success! Despite a gradually thickening veil of clouds, I was able to image most of this morning's Total Lunar Eclipse. There will be more to come, but here's one raw image taken around the time of maximum eclipse. [Olympus camera, telephoto lens, tripod]. #astronomy #astrophotography #lunareclipse

One week ago, the Blue Ghost lander successfully landed on the Moon. Here’s my rendition of the total solar eclipse that Blue Ghost will see when we Earthlings see a total lunar eclipse on March 13-14. #FireflyAerospace #BlueGhost #moon

The Americas will see a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE on March 13-14, 2025. This trio of images was taken on January 20, 2019 with an Olympus camera and Questar telescope from west suburban Chicago. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon #lunareclipse

The Americas will see a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE on March 13-14, 2025. Clear skies to all! This sequence of images was taken on January 20, 2019 with an Olympus camera and Questar telescope. Time sequence arranged right to left. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon #lunareclipse

Although nearby trails in west suburban Chicago are still snow covered and/or too sloppy to navigate, this afternoon's 52°F temperature spurred me to start my 2025 cycling season with a short 7 mile ride on local streets. #cycling #trekbikes

Remembering George Washington on the date of his birth in 1732. #history #georgewashington

Marco Island (Fla.) sunset, 1980. Taken with Pentax SLR film camera and telephoto lens. #sunset

Sunset from Destin, Florida. Taken in December, 2023 with an iPhone 15 Pro. #sunset

Sunset and shorebirds. Destin, Florida. December, 2023. Taken with iPhone 15 Pro. #sunset #birds

Remembering Abraham Lincoln on the day of his birth in 1809. #history #CivilWarHistory #Lincoln

From the Chicago area, I was fortunate to observe portions of both the early morning 2004 (left) and early evening 2012 (right) Transits of Venus across the Sun’s face. Sadly, the next pair of Venus Transits won’t occur until 2117 and 2125. #astronomy #astrophotography #sun #venus

A partially eclipsed Moon sets during the predawn hours of January 31, 2018, bathing nearby clouds in its warm umbral glow. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon #lunareclipse

The Americas will see their next total lunar eclipse on the night of March 13-14, 2025. Six years ago, on a brutally cold January night (+3° F), I captured the early stages of the Moon's one hour trek through the Earth’s shadow. #astronomy #astrophotography #moon #lunareclipse

Sunset from Panama City Beach, Florida. Taken with an iPhone 16 Pro. #photography #sunset

Tonight’s sunset, crescent Moon, and Venus. iPhone 16 Pro #astronomy #astrophotography #moon #venus

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