and my paddleboard is my desk this summer in eastern Washington. The tyrant governor can’t make me wear a mask out here!
The beautiful blossom of the introduced fragrant or white waterlily (Nymphaea odorata).
The flower of the native great yellow pond-lily (Nuphar polysepala).
is now a spectacular naked-eye object. Get up at least an hour before sunrise and cast your gaze toward the north-northeast, low above the horizon, to spy this fleeting visitor to the inner solar system. You can’t miss it.
Shot with tripod-mounted Canon 5Div and 500 mm prime lens, ISO 3200, 1 sec at f/4.0.
UPDATE: This comet is now an easy evening object to see toward the north-northwest, a little more than an hour after sunset: How to See Comet NEOWISE in the Night Sky This Month. Super in binoculars! Get out and take a look… you can sleep when you’re dead.
Click image to enlarge finder chart.
Shot at around 10:30 pm PDT on Monday, 13 July.
in the Wind River range near Pinedale, Wyoming.
in the form of Fremont-style petroglyphs at McKee Springs.
as I embark on a northward-bound road trip. First stop, Dinosaur National Monument.
in Castle Valley, Utah. Since the town has no military hardware to display, the volunteer fire department sponsors the event.
Happy Birthday, America! The anarchists that hate this great nation can drop dead.
North wall of the Bowen Motel on W 200 N.
In the alley next to the U.S. Post Office, the rear wall of Moab Coffee Roasters, off E 100 N.
South wall of Red Rock Repair Car Wash on Grand Avenue.
in Castle Valley, Utah was settled circa 1920 by John and Ann Pace.
during the new Moon.
to keep him/her company in the nest, and I’ve given the name Racket to the second chick for obvious reasons.
Look carefully and you can spot the second chick in the nest.
at Corona Arch, above the Potash Road near Moab, Utah. Just another night at the office.
The underside of the arch was dimly illuminated with two small LED panels, while Saturn and Jupiter dominate the center of the image, captured about 3 am MDT.
last night in Arches National Park yielded the following results.
This 20 second-long image was not light-painted, but rather illuminated by the diffuse glow from vehicle headlights on the park road. That’s the glow of Moab in the far right.
This star trail image consists of 42 images for 21 minutes total duration. I dimly lit the monolith with a small LED panel for the last of the 30 second-long shots in the sequence.
above Castleton Tower on the evening of the 17th of June.
This image was captured the evening of the 19th of June, beginning near the end of nautical twilight in order to capture the beautiful blue hues after sunset.
the heron chick (that’s what I’m calling it) that finally popped up in the nest this morning.
A turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) swoops by and clearly spies the chick in the nest.
A Yellow-Breasted Chat (Icteria virens) along the river.
atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, carrying the next-generation scientific rover, named Perseverance, Monday, 20 July 2020 at 9:15-11:15 am EDT. Link to more information about this extraordinary machine: Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover. Landing on the red planet will occur in February 2021.
What fascinates me, though, is that this robotic geologist will land on/near an ancient deltaic system that enters the crater from the west. I have lectured about this landform and depositional system in various courses from physical geology, fluvial geomorphology, sedimentology and stratigraphy, and more.
Image of fluvial-deltaic system on west side of Jezero Crater. False color image from NASA.
Photo-geologic map of Jezero crater quads showing exposed bedrock and surficial units. Blue circle indicates the landing ellipse. From Williams et al., 2020 (pdf). Related on-line article: Here’s How Scientists Mapped the Perseverance Rover’s Landing Site.
is my hero. The Mediterranean tamarisk beetle (Diorhabda elongata) was introduced along the Colorado River about ten years ago in an effort to biocontrol the spread of saltcedar in the riparian zone.
Macro shot of adult beetle, about 5 mm long.
Macro image of one of three larval stages munching away on a tamarisk stem. Body length approximately 6-7 mm.
as I sip my second cup of coffee. These guys scoot all over this place and are quite fascinating and it’s entertaining to watch their stalking behavior.
The northern whiptail lizard (Cnemidophorus tigris septentrionalis) can grow to nearly 4.5 inches (~ 11 cm) in length.
That gnat is history.
on the Colorado River.
near the base of Castleton Tower. Just need to wait another week for the night skies to darken during the upcoming new Moon.
Prince’s Plume (Stanleya pinnata) in bloom below Adobe Mesa.
of the San Rafael River as seen from the Wedge Overlook. Here are several various views under different lighting conditions.
Long shadows begin to creep into the deep canyon late in the day. (Click image to enlarge.)
The rim consists of the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation while the bottom of the canyon exposes the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation.