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!
Storms in August were more plentiful than in July although there were still some extended breaks in the monsoon. Rainbows remained elusive for me. I was able to photograph a few that displayed short segments but I never captured a full rainbow. Lightning, on the other hand, was plentiful and I did well in that genre.
Here is a partial summary of August monsoon photography.
04 August 2024
Mormon Lake Overlook is a short drive from Flagstaff and affords an amazing 360° view. This was one of the many days with only a partial rainbow but the juxtaposition of the rainbow and the tree in the grasslands of Anderson Mesa was a pleasing composition. A few minutes later the Sun beautifully illuminated some light rain falling from a dissipating thunderstorm. The color was intense and only lasted a few minutes.
A short segment of a rainbow above the grasslands of Anderson Mesa in northern Arizona.A curtain of light rain from a dissipating thunderstorm is brilliantly illuminated by the setting sun.
A small sliver of the rising Moon is visible in the gap in the clouds and casts a long reflection on the lake.The Moon rises higher in the gap and casts a more diffuse reflection.The Moon bridges the gap in the clouds.
Using The Photographers Ephemeris I realized I could photograph the rising Moon looking down the length of Upper Lake Mary from the Narrows picnic area. Arriving early I was able to shoot several photographs of the distant clouds (more on that later) reflected in the calm water. By using a 5-stop neutral density filter (ND) I took long exposures (2-6 seconds) which had the effect of smoothing the surface of the water.
A pre-Moon rise, long-exposure shot of the lake and distant clouds.Long-exposure shot of Upper Lake Mary with residual twilight glow in the western sky.
So what about those clouds? There was a dissipating cumulus congestus cloud to the east but also some anvil clouds from distant thunderstorms in eastern Arizona. Would there be a gap in the clouds? Would I be able to see the Moon? Yes, there was; yes, I did.
As the Moon barely cleared the top of some distant clouds it cast a long reflection on the lake. Because there was only a very small bit of Moon showing the reflection had very sharp edges. As the Moon rose higher and more of it showed the reflection became wider and had less distinct edges. Even more interesting, the Moon was causing parts of the distant clouds to glow and these also cast light reflections on the water. It was very interesting and beautiful. And it only lasted a few minutes as the Moon rose higher and was obscured by the distant clouds.
After an early start to the monsoon in late June, the monsoon went on an extended break. For much of July, high pressure remained to our west resulting in northwest to northeast flow across the region. Consequently, tropical moisture had to take the long route over the eastern Pacific Ocean, across the Pacific Northwest, then southward across the High Plains and Rocky Mountains. By the time it arrived, much of the moisture had been depleted, especially in the lower levels. The resulting storms were generally weak and produced little rain, and even less lightning.
Here is a summary of what I did manage to photograph during that period.
11 July 2024
Weak storms produced little in the way of rain but did result in a nice sunset.
Sunset and reflected sunlight on Lake Mary.
15 July 2024
A few strong storms formed on the north side of the San Francisco Peaks and I positioned myself at the entry to Wupatki National Monument. There was very little lightning but I did get this photograph that shows the landing point of the bolt. I also got power poles.
Lightning on the north side of the San Francisco Peak showing the landing point of the bolt.
16 July 2024
Radar indicated some storms south of Mormon Lake–a favorite spot for shooting storms because of its expansive views. This storm produced only a few visible bolts of lightning but I did manage to capture this one–along with the waxing gibbous Moon.
Distant thunderstorm with lightning.
21 July 2024
While taking a short hike to Alfa Fia Tank near Snowbowl and the San Francisco Peaks I was happy to see some convection developing that had nice reflections in the water. Look closely and you will also see the ducks.
Reflection of developing storms in Alfa Fia Tank near Snowbowl in the San Francisco Peaks.
23 July 2024
I was confident that Grand Canyon would produce good storms with possibilities for lightning and rainbows. It didn’t. The best I could do was shoot this ultra-wide view of the clouds using a 12mm fisheye lens.
Ultra-wide angle view of Grand Canyon from Navajo Point.
24 July 2024
The next day in Sedona was a bit better. Although there was some lightning I managed to miss it all because it was never in the direction that the camera was pointed. Look carefully in the upper left corner of this image and you can just barely see a few filaments of the lightning stroke which occurred to the left of the camera. I should have shot this with a wider field of view. On the other hand, the sunset was pretty good.
Heavy rain falling from a monsoon thunderstorm.Another great sunset in Sedona, Arizona.Sunset in Sedona.
26 July 2024
A few days later I tried something different and concentrated on getting the very early stages of convective development over the San Francisco Peaks. A bonus was catching the reflections of the clouds in Marshall Lake. By the time I left there was lightning and I was able to capture a few bolts.
Reflection of developing clouds in Marshall Lake, Arizona.Reflection of developing clouds in Marshall Lake, Arizona.Lightning over Marshall Lake with the San Francisco Peaks in the distance.
Time-lapse of convection developing over the San Francisco Peaks (200x speed).
While shooting these still images I had another camera capturing time-lapse video. It’s always fun to see the development of clouds in time lapse.
26 July 2024
This was a last-minute decision as the radar showed storms developing west of Flagstaff. I drove to Mormon Lake hoping for sunsets, rainbows, and lightning. Two out of three isn’t bad.
Sunset colors on thunderstorms and anvil clouds.Lightning west of the San Francisco Peaks.In-cloud lightning in the anvil of a thunderstorm.Lightning from a distant storm located over Grand Canyon. Wish I had been at the Canyon.Radar screen capture showing location of storm relative to my position.
This storm was located over Grand Canyon and was producing lightning bolts into the canyon. I wish I had been there instead.
How hot was July, anyway?
July 2024 was the second hottest July on record. Only July 2023 was hotter.
Number of days with the maximum temperature >=90°F in Flagstaff. 2024 was the second hottest July; only 2023 was hotter.Mean monthly temperature for July. 2024 was the second hottest July on record; only 2023 was hotter.July total rainfall from the Flagstaff raingauge network.
Total rainfall for the month was below average but not anywhere near record territory. Thank goodness for that!
