Wednesday 22 April 2009

So cold it hurts

Well, not down at sea level, but at 14,000-feet and with winds approaching 50-mph the windchill is unbearable. I don't mind the cold normally, but it was a maximum of five minutes spent outside with the camera before coming back into the control room with painful extremities.

Since then, we've opened up the dome for 30-minutes as we had an urgent observation to do, but closed again as the wind became even stronger. Yet another frustrating night in this continuing period of weather from hell for the observatories at the summit.

Still, my friend the lenticular cloud was still there this evening, although judging by the comments people think it's more likely an alien spaceship from outer space, but of course the government doesn't let me comment on that sort of thing in case I might give the game away. Yesterday evening the cloud was still massive although very difficult to see. A grey/white cloud against a grey/white background. I tried the HDR technique again and it brought the cloud out in the picture above but does make everything look a little 3-D!

This evening, though, the cloud is tiny and is hard to see in the picture above - it's at the extreme centre-left. I could have tried to zoom in a little, but I had spent enough time outside and to avoid losing my fingers to frostbite, headed back inside for the night.

3 comments:

Zuzana said...

I love particularly the last picture. There is something in the pastel colours that is very appealing. It is like the sky is taken from a summer day, while the landscape is winter like.
I think I will never get used to the fact that it can be snow and windchill factors in Hawaii.;)

Keera Ann Fox said...

I will say this for your crappy weather: It makes for some beautiful photos with subtle but gorgeous colors! I too am drawn to the last photo especially.

Anonymous said...

I remember living in Washington State and having subzero winters!

At least you can escape it if need be.