Category: Winter

Anatomy of Dawn

Subcategories of Twilight and more

MichaelStephenWills11 Comments

Use your pinky finger to apprehend the sky dome. Imagine yourself at sea, out of sight of land, on a calm day. Keeping your arm extended, place your pinky-tip on the horizon due east, raise your arm directly overhead. The average sized pinky-tip will have spanned 90 of its lengths. The distance measured from the horizon to directly overhead, the zenith, is 90 degrees of sky dome, about one pinky-width per degree, one-fourth of the entire 360 degrees of sky around your spot on the globe.

The apparent width of the sun disk from earth covers 1/2 degree of sky dome. The disk center point moves 15 degrees per hour (360/24 = 15). Using these facts to estimate time to sunset is relatively straightforward. Estimating time to dawn from the sky is more difficult. This graphic, “Twilight-dawn subcategories,” is a way to grasping what happens. Your position on the earth globe affects the experience. For example, at northern latitudes above 60°34′ summer nights never become darker than civil twilight because the sun’s midpoint never drops lower than 6 degrees below the horizon. Civil twilight lasts all night long summer times in parts of Sweden and Finland.

Attribution: “Pmurph5, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia “

The date-time stamp on the first photograph of this series is 6:46:23 am, Cocoa Beach sunrise for February 1st was 7:09:40, 00:23:17, 23.283 minutes in decimal notation, later. This duration divided by 60 minutes in an hour and multiplied by the sun’s apparent velocity across the sky (15 degrees per hour) and minus the .25 degree between sun’s center and disk edge, gives the sun’s center as 5.57 degrees below the horizon: this is a photograph of the sky a minute or so after the sun passed civil dawn into civil twilight. I am not more exact because this calculation does not account the deviation of the sun path from due east at this latitude, lengthening civil twilight duration by almost a minute.

Edge of Civil Twilight: dark clouds soon to take light

The following photograph is time-stamped 7:05:06, 4.567 minutes until sunrise, sun center is just below the horizon, setting the dark clouds of the previous photograph fleetingly on fire.

Civil Twilight at the edge of sunrise

Sunrise has passed in the following photographs, obscured by clouds and making for a great light show. Enjoy!!

References

“Dawn” Wikipedia page, the graphic “Twilight-dawn subcategories,” and the descriptions of subcategories came from this page.

The Thaw at Taughannock Falls

A Friday Evening Stroll through a February Thaw

MichaelStephenWills26 Comments

Pam and I were drawn outside the day after Valentine’s a bit of sun, an unreliable warm breeze, a promise of exercise. Our expectations were disappointed for all but the last at the foot of the Taughannock Falls gorge trail.

We had a reminder mid-February marks the start of avian mating behavior with this addition to the view from Taughannock Creek, the first large waterfall. For the cold, drizzly excursion I chose the IPhone, in a waterproof case, for the images. The fanicful birdhouse inscription reads “The Old Birds from Pa.”

Click the photograph for my “Finger Lakes Memories” Online gallery.

The winding gorge takes a general east, southeasterly direction. Where the sun cannot reach the snow was reduced to a treacherous slushy ice mix more nasty than dangerous.

View from the Overlook on the way to the trail. This is the endpoint of our hike, viewed from the gorge rim.

Of all the area hiking experiences, Taughannock Gorge Trail is the only one available year round. The gorge is wide with enough room for the footpath to avoid the cliff edge. Today, there were places were ice formations were throwing large ice chunks down the slope. The park ranges place tree trunks along the cliff base, with warning signs to stay away. Still, there are visitors who stray too close with fatal outcomes reported by local news.

Pam was fascinated by the appearance of snow and ice accumulated on the talus, here seen from the Taughannock Falls viewing bridge.

Click photograph for my “Finger Lakes Memories” online gallery. Photo by Pam.

You can just pick out the viewing bridge in the Falls Overlook video.

Click photograph for my “Finger Lakes Memories” Online Gallery.
Photo by Pam.

Taughannock Falls bound by ice is a most dramatic sight. I need to post photographs from a 2005 visit during an especially frigid February. Here, the falls have thrown off the ice, leaving this house-size chunk.

Click photograph for my “Finger Lakes Memories” Online Gallery

The surrounding gorge walls are continually frost coated by the mist.

Click the photograph for my “Finger Lakes Memories” Online Gallery
https://videopress.com/v/Q698as0j?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true
210 foot Taughannock Falls from the viewing bridge.

In more clement seasons the Gorge Trail ends much closer to the falls. Today, it was closed as, during winter and especially thaws, blocks of the sandstone cap break away to fall with great force across that part of the trail. This viewing area is visible in the Falls Overlook video.

Winter Captures

two captures during a time of lengthening days to welcome March 2022

MichaelStephenWills15 Comments

Here are two offerings from winters past.

Late In the Day
Small Break Against the North Wind

Click this link for my Fine Art Gallery

Rosy Fingers of Dawn

Iliad and Odyssey reference for Monday

MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

A portent of new beginnings in an ongoing journey for the last day of February, 2022

…with the “Morning Star” Venus

Venus at dawn

Planet Thoughts

MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

Since 1500 B.C. until today…..

The planet we call Venus has ancient associations with fertility goddesses. The link has persisted at least from the 1600 century B.C. inscribed on Sumerian cuneiform tablets. Three thousand years later the Italian artist Botticelli created in tempura paint on canvas the image of Venus rising from the sea, as the planet Venus does today.

  • “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli, c Late 15th century, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Venus Rising

Here is Venus rising from the sea at dawn January 2022, at its brightest and most beautiful. Some mistake this new light in the east for airplane lights; the bright disk of Venus is 25 times brighter than Sirius, enough to cast shadows at night. As Venus proceeds in its orbit, the planet alternately sets after the sun and rises before it, seemingly appearing new each time.

This February I caught a newly risen Venus in this IPhone 7 video, reflected in the waves. It seemed to be a flashing headlight on the beach, the Venus reflection came and went with the passing waves. Venus is the upper, the reflection is beneath. Use the lower right control for the full view.

Looking from his window June 1889, Vincent VanGogh included Venus in his “Starry Night” painting, seen to the right of the Cypress tree.

Detail
“Starry Night” By Vincent van Gogh – bgEuwDxel93-Pg at Google Arts; Culture, Public Domain

Here is a closer view of Venus last January, the planet disk is apparent, unlike even the closest stars, Venus is seen as a whole object. Click on image for a full view.

Venus and Mars

Venus and Mars shared 2022’s pre-dawn winter sky. Click on the first image for a full-size view. Mars is seen above the palm tree stump, on the right. In this photograph, from early February, Venus and Mar apparently moved closer. The closeness is an illusion, the planets are millions of miles apart, on either side of Earth’s orbit. Click on the photograph for a full-size view, Mars can just be made out to the right and above Venus.

Click on image for a full view

This crop clearly shows the brightness of Venus compared to Mars.

Click on image for a full view

Launch!

Another day, Cocoa Beach, Florida

MichaelStephenWills4 Comments
Pre-dawn sky
Just Before Dawn
Rising Sun
Sunrise Surf
As Pam and I walked the surf this day we encountered a helpful fellow
Motorized Boarder

beachcomber who told us of a rocket launch scheduled for just before sunset. Sure enough, here it is.

Rocket Trail
Rocket Launch

Sunrise and More

Another day, Cocoa Beach, Florida

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Click this link for any photograph to visit my Florida Fine Art Photography Gallery.

Canon dslr photographs

Sunrise
Other

First Day

Cocoa Beach, Florida

MichaelStephenWills

Click this link for any photograph to visit my Florida Fine Art Photography Gallery.

IPhone 7 photographs and videos

Sunrise
Sunrise Scan
Morning Surf
Willet Feeding
Kite Boarding
Rippling Surf Wash

Offering of Black Skimmer Photographs

Looking for the perfect photo for your web site and blog?

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Looking for the perfect photo for your web site and blog?

Browse my reasonably priced stock photography.

License the photo, download and use it.

Click this link for my recently published Black Skimmers Feeding photographs. This link will open a new page to display my Black Skimmer photographs on Getty IStock.

These are different and higher quality images from my posting of earlier this week.

Or

Click this link to browse all my Getty IStock Photography offerings.

Copyright 2018 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

An Afternoon’s Exercise Around Taughannock Gorge

MichaelStephenWills25 Comments

Yesterday afternoon was bright, sunny enough for me to break out of the winter exercise routine for a walk around Taughannock Falls, a New York State Park 7.5 miles from the front door through farmland and small villages with views of Cayuga Lake.

The route around the gorge, following the North and South Rim trails with a side trip to the edge of Cayuga Lake is 3 miles with a modest elevation change of about 500 feet.

My route began at the top with a cell phone, from the Falls Overlook, there is a gradual slope, until the end where flights of steep stone steps end at the gorge floor. The steps were free of ice and snow.

These photographs are from the cell phone. Here is the lake and a portion of the gorge. Yes, the lake is a dark blue on sunny days and is ice free this year. Another trail follows the gorge floor to below the falls, I opted out of the additional 1.5 miles today in the interest of finishing well before sunset.

Click any photograph to visit my Fine Art version of Taughannock Falls.

Taughannock Gorge and Cayuga Lake from the North Rim Trail – CLICK ME for my Fine Art version of Taughannock Falls.

I have a few versions of these South Rim Trail stone steps taken at this perfect time of day, the low sun through the trees. Built in the 1930s by Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corp, the steps and the entire trail are a work of art.

Climbing up from the gorge to the South Rim Trail – CLICK ME for my Fine Art version of Taughannock Falls.

The far view of Taughannock Falls always fascinated me. I’ve never done it justice. There are several view points from the South Rim, overlooking the gorge were it bends to the south with only the upper third of the falls visible. The flow today was photogenic. I used the cell phone zoom to catch the view between the trunks of two trees.

View of the falls from the South Rim – CLICK ME for my Fine Art version of Taughannock Falls.

The top of the south rim was the only ice. It is there through April some years. Here is the closest, full view of Taughannock Falls from the North Rim. It is the same view you will find in my Fine Art version of the falls.

View of the falls from the North Rim – CLICK ME for the Fine Art version of Taughannock Falls.

And a cell phone video of the falls for the full effect.

Enjoy!!