Weather

[James Fraser]

Hi Bill,

Agree with you about the Met Office and their lack of historical information. The new look of their website also seems to be driving people away! Thanks for the very interesting picture. With the help of some Hungarian online friends I am learning to look more at clouds and the various optical effects that they bring. This Circumzenithal arc in February 2011 was seen purely by accident www.youtube.com/watch?v=dysYZq6ogrk

[Bill W]

Hi,
If you want a good book to give you the inside story on optical effects, try and get a hold of Light and Color in the Outdoors by M.G.J Minnaert.
The original was from the 60's or early 70's but it's been reprinted by Springer Verlag.
Highly recommended.
cheers,
Bill.

[James Fraser]

I will check that out. Thanks Bill

[Bill W]

astonishing weather for here!



mmmm toasty.....

[James Fraser]

Not quite that hot but Altnaharra has been pretty wonderful too.
www.weathercast.co.uk/world-weather/weather-stations/obsid/3044.html

[James Fraser]

Okay,

Let's have a look at how the mornings have begun weatherwise in this less than wonderful July: Overcast. Cloudy. Cloudy. Cloudy. Low cloud. Low cloud. Dull. Dull with some drizzle. Dull with some brief hazy sunshine. Continuous rain.
Every night has been completely overcast destroying any hope of seeing NLC. Very depressing!!

Jimmy.

[Bill W]

Hi,

It's been an awful season! Indeed it is raining as I type, as it has been for the last two weeks.

Shaping up to be the worst season for a long time.

Cheers,
Bill.

[Bill W]

Hi,
Almost a year on and we had a couple of nice thunderstorms today. Got some nice captures with UFO capture but using the NLC system I got a nice time lapse view of the second storm coming towards me. Even caught a bolt of lightning. What are the odds of a single video exposure once every 8 seconds catching a lightning stroke!!!

It's on you tube at youtu.be/HVBcyqmelFI

cheers,
Bill.

[James Fraser]

Hi,

Very good capture of the thunderstorm!
Three clear nights leading up to the Perseid maximum - when did that last happen? I set up a couple of cameras in the garden taking shots of around 30 second duration at ISO 1000. A few meteors were caught on the timelapse:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO0jmCmDRwg

Regards,
Jimmy.

[Bill W]

Hi Jim,
Good stuff! I had a couple of dslr's running too but didn't catch much at all.

You mentioned a 35mm f1.4 lens in another post, is that what you used?

cheers,
Bill.

[James Fraser]

Hi Bill,
No, this time I used another couple of lenses from Samyang.
A 14mm F/2.8 for the first half of the timelapse and the 8mm F/3.5 fish-eye for the rest. I cropped the fish-eye sequence since the nearby light forces me to point the lens slightly to the south and I get the houses entering the field of view.
I decided to invest in these lenses last winter with the NLC season in mind. The reviews said they provided good images at a fairly economic price. They were gathering dust during most of July! Last April I photographed an aurora with the standard Canon 18-55mm and I must say it provided excellent results too.
Regards,
Jim

[Bill W]

Hi All,
I've got an ongoing thunderstorm here. It's been producing thunder and lightning for several hours now!
I have been checking out the camera's in preparation for the forthcoming nlc season so had one of the cctv cameras I use to hand.
I've attached a few frame grabs of the lightning. Some of the flashes were pretty close with loud thunder!
Probably the best thunderstorm here for years!
cheers,
Bill.

Attachments:

[Bill W]

Hi,
I've put together an hours worth of the lightning flashes caught during this storm.
The video is at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og60Qjb95AQ&feature=youtu.be

cheers,
Bill.

[Bill W]

Hi,
A beautiful solstice morning but unfortunately no NLC.
However the camera did record some interesting tropospheric clouds.
With the airflow coming over the top of a local high point this generated some nice "stationary" clouds. The air moves through a zone where the local dew point is lower causing the clouds to form.
Cheers,
Bill.

youtu.be/n8R9z8ZrgUM

[Bill W]

Hi,
Caught this gorgeous cloud iridescence a short while ago....



Cheers,
Bill.