Fall (or autumn, if you prefer) is over in northern Arizona. Peak fall colors started high on the peaks back in September and have been working their way down to lower elevations. The peak moved through Oak Creek Canyon in mid November.
The North Wilson Trail climbs out of Oak Creek Canyon and goes through a stand of maple trees. Leaves on trees and on the ground make this a favorite for fall photographs.
A few years ago and saw this little guy sitting at the base of the tree on the North Wilson Trail. He was still there on this year’s hike but was starting to lean over a bit so we set him upright. Never know what you’ll find on a hike.
Not really about fall colors but we spotted this little gnome statuette off to the side of the trail. Never know what you will find on a hike!Water cascades over boulders before entering a large and deep pool at Grasshopper Point in Oak Creek Canyon.A shady stretch of Oak Creek with fall colors.Trees and grasses with reflections at Grasshopper Point in Oak Creek Canyon.sshopper Point in Oak Creek Canyon.A small cascade at the lower end of Grasshopper Point in Oak Creek Canyon.Brightly colored trees at Indian Gardens in Oak Creek Canyon.Late afternoon colors are reflected in the waters of Oak Creek.Late afternoon colors are reflected in the waters of Oak Creek.
The Waterline Road in the San Francisco Peaks reopened in October. It had been closed for more than two years in the aftermath of the Pipeline Fire. That fire occurred in the same area as the Schultz Fire (2010) and managed to burn what had been spared by the earlier fire. After two years of work, the Waterline Road was safe for the general public to use again.
View of the burned mountainside along Waterline Road in the San Francisco Peaks. New growth is already sprouting.Riding on Waterline Road in the San Francisco Peaks. We’ve finally left the burn scar and have entered the aspen groves.Aspen trees starting to show autumn colors along Waterline Road.One of the few gaps in trees along the road allows a view down into Lockett Meadow. The hill on the far right was burned by the Pipeline Fire but is beginning to recover.
We rode our mountain bikes up the road and were saddened–but not surprised–by the destruction of the fire. There had been a lot of new growth after the 2010 fire–especially with new aspen trees already attaining heights of 10 to 20 feet. All this burned in 2022. Once again, new growth is taking place but most of it is still quite small.
A view into the Inner Basin from above shows colorful aspens.A stand of aspen along Waterline Road with the high peaks surrounding the Inner Basin visible in the distance.Biking back down the Waterline Road. It’s about 9 miles of downhill. Easy!
The Inner Basin, however, was mostly spared by the 2022 fire and here were many aspen trees in full autumn colors. Along the road there are a few locations where you can get a wider view of the trees and the mountains but mostly the only view along the road…is the road.
A previous post showed many images of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) taken when the comet was visible in the morning sky. The comet then moved between the Earth and Sun making it difficult to see. A period of 10 days passed between my last morning images and my first evening images.
At first, the comet was difficult to see in the bright evening twilight and the presence of the Moon made it even more difficult. But each day the Moon rose later in the evening and the comet rose higher in the western sky. I was able to take advantage of clear skies and shot photographs on eight days. Here are some of the best photographs from those sessions.
13 October 2024
I had already shot images of the comet while looking to the east across Ashurst Lake when it was a morning object. Now it was time to shoot looking to the west across the Lake. The comet was very bright and easy to see. I also shot a long sequence of images to create a time-lapse video of the comet setting in the west.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). 13 October 2024.
Time-lapse video of the comet setting behind Ashurst Lake near Flagstaff, Arizona.
14 October 2024
The next evening I set up at the Arizona Snowbowl parking area–along with dozens of other comet watchers. It was fun to listen to folks admiring the comet and the joy from the kids when they were first able to spot it in the darkening sky. The anti tail was even easier to see on this night compared to the previous evening.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) from Arizona Snowbowl. 14 October 2024.
16 October 2024
The Moon was still a factor in the evenings but the comet was getting higher in the sky so it balanced out. On this evening I went to The Narrows at Upper Lake Mary since that section of the lake is oriented WSW-ENE. This meant I could photograph the comet above the water and get a reflection of it in the water. That worked out pretty well.
Comet and reflection in the still waters of Lake Mary. 16 October 2024.Comet and reflection in the still waters of Lake Mary. 16 October 2024.
20 October 2024
A few days of clouds shut me down but by this day it was very clear and the Moon was no longer a problem. I opted to use a longer telephoto (180mm) for these shots even though it might truncate part of the tail. The anti tail is still visible but is much less striking than in earlier days.
Telephoto view of the comet. 20 October 2024.
21 October 2024
The comet was continuing to rise higher in the western sky and was closer to the Milky Way so I switched back to ultra-wide angle lenses to capture both. Bonus: I was able to again capture the comet and tail reflected in the waters of Lake Mary. For the very wide image shown here I did a composite. The first image had star tracking turned on to get sharp stars and comet; the second image had tracking off to get sharp foreground. These were then combined and blended in software.
Comet and Milky Way reflected in the still waters of Lake Mary.
23 October 2024
The comet continued to climb higher, become dimmer, and have a shorter tail as it moved away from Earth and Sun. I switched to a short telephoto (85mm) to shoot a sequence of images which were then stacked to reduce image noise. I was also able to use the sequence to create a short time-lapse video to show the movement of the comet over a period of about 45 minutes.
Comet and stars using a short telephoto lens. 23 October 2024.
Time-lapse showing the motion of the comet against the background of stars. 23 October 2024.
25 October 2024
As the comet climbed higher it also was closer to the Milky Way and I again tried to get a shot with both features. This was taken with at 35mm focal length.
Comet and Milky Way. 25 October 2024.
31 October 2024
As the comet retreats it is getting smaller in the sky and it is better to use medium length telephoto lenses. Here is an image taken with the Nikkor 180mm ED AI-S lens, a legacy, manual focus lens.
Medium telephoto lens used to image the comet. 31 October 2024.
What’s next?
We are once again in a period of clouds. When skies are once again clear the comet will be much farther away, smaller, and dimmer. At this point, it will require longer exposures and bigger telephoto lenses. It should be fun!
The Sun remains active as it approaches Solar Max and the possibilities of observing the aurora at lower latitudes remains good. Earlier this month there was a Severe Geomagnetic Storm (G4 with Kp8) that produced visible auroras in northern Arizona. Some of the pillars of light were easy to see–others required longer exposures on the camera.
We watched and photographed the event from Ashurst Lake near Flagstaff, Arizona. I was hoping to capture reflections of the aurora on the still waters of the lake and was successful.
Here are a few images…
The first pillars of the aurora appear even before twilight has ended.Only a few minutes later.Green aurora begins to fill the sky...and fills more of the sky…An ultra-wide angle lens was not wide enough so I switched to a fish-eye lens.A “picket fence” pattern was briefly visible.The aurora subsides.
…and a time-lapse video (~190 MB) of the event.
Time-lapse video of the aurora of 10-11 October 2024.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) has been in the headlines and the morning sky for a few weeks. Yeah, some of the headlines and news articles are over-the-top but most of them are quite good. And the comet in the morning twilight has been fun to photograph.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) and Ashurst Lake, Flagstaff, Arizona.
I have taken photos on five different mornings over a nine-day period and have captured images of the comet growing brighter and the tail growing longer. On only one occasion was I able to see the comet with the unaided eye. On three occasions I was able to see it with binoculars. On all five mornings it was very easy to capture the comet with even very short exposures on the camera.
The comet is now getting very close to the Sun so I have suspended photography for a few days. When it reemerges in the evening sky I will once again start shooting photos. I hope it is easier to see during this phase.
I shot the comet with a few different focal lengths (50mm, 85mm, and180mm). I think the best images were with the 85mm f/1.8 lens (usually shot at f/2.8) as it gave a wide-enough view to include some foreground.
Here are some photographs and time-lapse video from the period 25 September through 03 October.
25 September 2024
This was my first attempt to photograph the comet. It was taken from the overlook on Mars Hill, home of Lowell Observatory, in Flagstaff. The comet is small and located in the upper middle of the photograph. I often shoot photos of astronomical objects in the eastern sky from this location because I can include much of the city.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) and the City of Flagstaff. (25 September 2024)
26 September 2024
I was planning on returning to Mars Hill but smoke from a managed wildfire suggested I should try elsewhere. I ended up at the Mormon Lake Overlook. The first image is a stack of 16 images taken over the course of about five minutes. The stacking increases the signal, reduces noise, and allows more stretching of the histogram to pull out the faint details.
The video was taken from the same set of images but without any cropping. The camera was mounted on a star tracker so that the comet remained fixed in the images.
A stack of 16 images taken over the course of about five minutes. (26 September 2024)
Time-lapse video of the comet rising above the eastern horizon. (26 September, 2024)
28 September 2024
With some smoke still present I returned to the Mormon Lake Overlook on this morning. I was disappointed at the clouds but afterwards decided that I really liked the image of the clouds partially obscuring the comet tail.
Clouds partially obscure the tail of the comet. (28 September 2024)
October 01 2024
I went to Ashurst Lake for this photo session with the hopes of catching a reflection of the comet tail in the calm waters of the lake. I was not disappointed!
In the first image, the comet has not risen above the horizon but the comet tail is strikingly visible in the sky and reflected in the water. In the second image, the comet has barely cleared the trees, the tail is still quite bright, but the reflection on the water has dimmed. Next, the waning crescent Moon rises–and is partially behind a cloud–as the sky brightens making the comet’s tail more difficult to see. The final image is a stack of six images and cropped to show only the comet and tail.
The tail of the comet is reflected in the still waters of Lake Ashurt, near Flagstaff, Arizona. (01 October 2024)The comet has risen above the trees and the tail remains strikingly visible while the reflection has dimmed.The crescent Moon joins the scene in the eastern twilight. The sky has brightened making it more difficult to see the tail. (01 October 2024)Close up of the comet and tail in the bright twilight. (01 October 2024)
October 03 2024
My goal on this morning was to shoot a long sequence of images so that I could produce a time-lapse video starting when the comet was below the horizon until twilight became too bright to see the comet. Again, I was at Ashurst Lake hoping for reflections or smooth water. Success!
The first image was taken ~14 minutes before the comet rose above the horizon but the tail is still easily visible.
The comet is below the horizon but the tail extends well up into the twilight sky. (03 October 2024)
Time-lapse video of the comet rising during the period 0503–0533 MST. (03 October 2024)
As I mentioned at the beginning, there have been many articles about the comet. I think this one from Sky and Telescope is one of the better ones. Also, EarthSky.org has published many beautiful photos of the comet.
