SkyWatch Friday

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A thunderstorm rumbled through our area recently...as the storm began to clear, the afternoon sunlight reflected off the heavy storm clouds creating a very beautiful "heavenly" view.

Cheers to SkyWatch Friday viewers!

Skywatch Friday...Moon & Jupiter

Skywatch Friday
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Light from the large waning moon was peaking through the clouds this morning......forming a "moondog"
(rainbow) of sorts. Pretty site with brightly shining Jupiter nearby.

SkyWatch Friday

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PAIRS OF PLUMP PIGEONS (MORNING DOVES) PERCHED IN ORNAMENTAL PEAR TREES...

SkyWatch Friday: Moon caught in a tree

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Lucky me.. again I saw the moon "caught" in a tree!!

It can't get out without a doubt.

But it's okay for a post today....
a special picture for (SW) Friday!!


Cheers! & Happy SWFriday!!!

SkyWatch Friday: Tree that held up the Moon

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This not a real great photo, but I saw this big full, orange morning moon, and ran to get my camera.

I took several photos and this one was the 'best".
I was looking so much at the moon that I didn't realize how much of the tree was in the way....its funny the tree looks like its "holding" the moon up in its branches--a lunar ornament of sorts.

Cheers!!!

SkyWatch Friday

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I LOOKED TO THE SKY AND WHAT DID I SEE?

A WEE BIT OF SPRING LOOKING BACK AT ME!!

CHEERS!
HAPPY SKYWATCH FRIDAY

SkyWatch Friday

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It was a dark and dreary winter morning...menacing clouds piled up against the Wasatch Mountains in Utah County. For a brief moment the sun attempted to scatter a few rays of light onto those of us waiting so desperately for spring to arrive. This picture made me a feel a little less snowbound and a lot more springy... Cheers and Happy Sky Watching!!!

SkyWatch Friday

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A cold Utah County morning....after a big snow storm. The light on these trees made the scene very "painted' or unreal looking...brrrrr.

Bring on Spring!!!

SkyWatch Friday

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I found a cool website to help explain the following moon pictures:
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonring/ey.blogspot.com/

*Moon halo?

*Moon dog?

*paraselene?

*ring around the Moon?

*Moon corona?

What ever you wish to call this pretty moon site..took me quite awhile and lots of shots to capture these three pictures. Either the clouds covered the moon or the "rainbow colors" were not visible enough. I was excited to get these three!


HAPPY SKYWATCHING!

SkyWatch Friday

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A flock/covey of morning doves have taken up residency in
my backyard; mostly harvesting the morsels of food from three
flowering pear and two crabapple trees. This is not exactly a
a sky view, but it has been so smoggy and foggy here lately that
our Utah mountains and skies are hidden...catching a picture or two of the
birdies is just about the only thing not hidden in the fog.

HURRY UP SPRING, PLEASE!!!

SkyWatch Friday

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Two contrasting photos taken during the cold, smog-filled Utah Valley skies typical of inversions this time of the year. The first "darker" image taken as the sun was setting...you can almost see a sundog around the hiding sun. The second photo is of Wasatch Mountains peaking up through the smog...A.M.

SkyWatch Friday

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Two interesting photos.

I took the first photo this Fall from my front porch looking westward toward "West Mt." (part of the Oquirrh Mountain range that divides Tooele County N/S from Salt
Lake and Utah Counties). This "fan" cloud filled most of my view to the west....I think this is called a "gravity wave" type of cloud?




See information about the Oquirrh Mts. here: http://desertisland.org/utahmaps.htm



This photo was taken Christmas Day. We were traveling north to Utah County on I-15. It was a COLD, windy, but clear day, and these clouds were being blown into the
mountains along the Wasatch Front Range mountains....example of orographic lifting. You can see the cloud stream bring driven up and backward by the mountain face.

Happy New Year!!.....Keep your eyes skyward to 2010!!!

SkyWatch Friday

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These photos maybe a bit of a stretch for SkyWatch, but hope you enjoy the humor here anyway. I was recently traveling on "old" highway 91 from Santa Clara, Utah (south west corner of Utah) connecting to I-15 southbound in Nevada. Highway 91 goes through some really desolate, dry, mountainous desert terrain. The vegetation of area is mostly, pinion pine, dry grasses and juniper trees, and an area near the Shivwits Paiute Indian Reservation...was pretty much burned to the ground from a "forest" fire. However, as we came around one hill, there was an area that had escaped the fires and trees were preserved....Someone had decorated with Christmas ornaments...in the middle of almost nowhere... a pinion pine-- spared from fire--on the hill. I had to stop and take a picture...it was priceless!! Happy Holidays Everyone!!!!!!!!

SkyWatch Friday

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I have a large flowering pear tree that is frequently visited by woodpeckers during the winter months...This noisy guy was chasing all the other birds out of "his tree".

(Lehi, Utah County, No./central Utah, USA)

SkyWatch Friday

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I was returning home the other night, and saw these lovely, dusky, sun rays peaking over the Oquirrh Mts...west of Salt Lake City, Utah.

SkyWatch Friday

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This morning I looked out my back door and luckily captured this amazing, but simple, neon pink contrail illuminated above Mt.Timpanogos (Utah county, Utah, Wasatch Mts.) Pretty!!!

SkyWatch Friday: Full "rolling" Moon?

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I took this picture a few days ago. The moon had just risen over the Wasatch Mountain near Centerville, Utah. I thought I had taken a picture of a full "harvest" moon...but this looks like the moon is "rolling" down and across the mountain ridge as well...Funny!

SkyWatch Friday

SEE OTHER INTERESTING SKYVIEWS AT:
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This is an interesting photo. Last weekend after
attending the first Uintah Basin GeoFest for the Utah Geographic Alliance, I took different route home. Rather than travelling HWY 40 back to Salt Lake City, I took a crazy, mountainous, switchback-filled, Scenic ByWay route through the Uinta Mountains north into Wyoming and returned to Salt Lake via I-80 west. Many miles up into the Uinta Mts. North from Vernal (hwy 189), on the edge of Ashley National Forest, was a huge open mining operation: Simplot Phosphate mining. Vast areas have been removed in the mining process, but most of the mined areas have also been replanted and apparently huge herds of elk winter here. It was an odd site...in the middle of a semi forested, steep, rocky, rough mountain area to see this "smooth, flattened" replanted mining zone. ...and then this strange rock with a US flag..all by itself way off in the distance right in the middle of this huge mining district added to the strangeness of this whole site. On the google map below, the mining area can be seen (white-ish patch) north west a bit from the Red Fleet State Park reservoir (near hwy 189 sign).







View Larger Map

SkyWatch Friday

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A big, booming, afternoon thunderstorm passed through my area the other day...followed by a brief break in the clouds...just enough to let in some bright sunshine. The results, of course, was one of the biggest, brightest, most colorful rainbows I've ever seen. These photos don't really show how brilliant the colors were, but I'm glad I snapped a few quick photos before it disappeared.
Cheers to all rainbows: a view "inside" light.

SkyWatch FRIDAY

I'm back visiting SkyWatch again...been away for awhile. Winter is slowly imposing itself along the Wasatch Front Mountains in Utah. Ski resorts have already seen several inches of snow on their slopes. Usually, the Wasatch Front mountains get a "dusting of snow mid September followed by a long cool Autumn. This year the moutains didn't get their first "snow dusting" until Oct 1st. Now the day temps. are lower and gardeners/farmers are racing to get in those last crops of apples and winter squash. This picture shows the first snow on Mt. Timanogos, Wasatch Front, Utah County, Utah, USA..These mountains partly form the eastern boundary of Utah county.