science out thereIt's finally the height of storm chasing season. We count the days till the season opener, it's been 9, perhaps even 11 months since the last big storm. Or if last year was 2020, perhaps it's been nearly 2 years since scoring the real prize we are looking for. A photogenic, fully condensed tornado, under a classic supercell, over, we hope, open country. This far into spring, we may have already seen lightning, felt that first rain cooled gust of wind. heard the hail and thunder, smelled and tasted that sweet petrichor. But now, it's time. For the perfect storm chase.
On April 23, 2021. My initial target was somewhere between Wheeler and Puducah, TX. There is also more than one target this day for tornadoes. At first glance it might seem tornadoes are more likely here, ne of Dallas. Or perhaps CAM's have also suggested here, up by Interstate 40 is the best play. Messy convection that possibly produces tornadoes isn't what I'm after. And I'm not exactly looking for a low probability play elsewhere. I want to know where isolated storms are expected, and where does that coincide with the best parameters for tornadoes, that's something I'll dive into over future storm chasing videos.
Nowcasting is, perhaps a slang term, but a nifty word to describe the game of stormchasing when in the moment. It's understanding what is happening and responding to it. Where do you need to be, what are you going to see, when will you see it. Calculations you are constantly making. Nevermind all of that is being interrupted by trying to enjoy, photograph and document those moments as well. You must gather all the intel you can about current and near future conditions. The road network ahead of you. your surroundings. your goals, your options.
Observed soundings show storm motions of about 35 mph, going East-north-east. I also know that generally storms won't be quite as fast advertised, and tornado producing storms tend to right turn, perhaps East South east in this case. And while Texas and oklahoma roads in this area are a bit on the sparse side, speed limits are about double storm motions. I have to consider the red river and the few road options across it, should a storm switch sides. But Overall this gives me enough confidence to be on storms as soon as they fire, even if i'm only expecting tornadoes to happen later.
As a storm matures and strengthens it's time to look for clues that tornadogenesis is imminent. Clearly this is a rotating supercell, but now has right turned, avoiding the red river completely. A relief as well as a sign of things to come.
An inflow tail suggests the updraft of the storm is ingesting rain cooled air above the surface, a sign of further strengthening. From this vantage point, east and north of the updraft, the inflow tail can even direct you to exactly where a tornado would form, just below the end here.
A tornado may be imminent. But I need to stay ahead of this storm which is now drifting ESE instead of ENE. So in a risky move, I translate south of the storm. While doing so, large hail from the rear flank downdraft begins to wrap around, attacking me in the process. Ominously, tornadogenesis has just begun directly above me as well. I should have moved a minute or two earlier to increase my safety margin.
This supercell began to run into neighboring storms, quickly growing upscale. This is normal, expected behavior most times. It means photogenic tornadoes are essentially over, However now It's time to switch to documenting all the awesome textures and wild colors of the dynamic back side of the storm. Complete with mamatus, anvil crawling lightning, and golden hour lighting.
As an added bonus, a high based funnel appeared on the backside of the storm, as if to say, thanks for sticking with me.
As the front raced in, a shelf cloud was produced under weak thundershowers.
If you are interested in seeing more videos like this, I've been working over the years on a series of videos spanning North America supercell climatology, forecasting and observation, and more. Click the playlist in the upper right if this sounds good to you. And while I have you, hit that like button, subscribe, or leave a comment. Until the next one, I'll see you out there.
Normally I don't intentionally chase a storm from behind. Often tornadoes can get lost in rain from this angle, but today would prove that to actually be a good idea this time. From a southward vantage point, the horseshoe shape of the wall cloud is most apparent. The north side of the horseshoe is what I'm watching for new tornado development. I give this area some respect however, less often tornadoes may spawn here as well.
How Tornado and Stormchase Nowcasting Works.science out there2021-07-01 | It's finally the height of storm chasing season. We count the days till the season opener, it's been 9, perhaps even 11 months since the last big storm. Or if last year was 2020, perhaps it's been nearly 2 years since scoring the real prize we are looking for. A photogenic, fully condensed tornado, under a classic supercell, over, we hope, open country. This far into spring, we may have already seen lightning, felt that first rain cooled gust of wind. heard the hail and thunder, smelled and tasted that sweet petrichor. But now, it's time. For the perfect storm chase.
On April 23, 2021. My initial target was somewhere between Wheeler and Puducah, TX. There is also more than one target this day for tornadoes. At first glance it might seem tornadoes are more likely here, ne of Dallas. Or perhaps CAM's have also suggested here, up by Interstate 40 is the best play. Messy convection that possibly produces tornadoes isn't what I'm after. And I'm not exactly looking for a low probability play elsewhere. I want to know where isolated storms are expected, and where does that coincide with the best parameters for tornadoes, that's something I'll dive into over future storm chasing videos.
Nowcasting is, perhaps a slang term, but a nifty word to describe the game of stormchasing when in the moment. It's understanding what is happening and responding to it. Where do you need to be, what are you going to see, when will you see it. Calculations you are constantly making. Nevermind all of that is being interrupted by trying to enjoy, photograph and document those moments as well. You must gather all the intel you can about current and near future conditions. The road network ahead of you. your surroundings. your goals, your options.
Observed soundings show storm motions of about 35 mph, going East-north-east. I also know that generally storms won't be quite as fast advertised, and tornado producing storms tend to right turn, perhaps East South east in this case. And while Texas and oklahoma roads in this area are a bit on the sparse side, speed limits are about double storm motions. I have to consider the red river and the few road options across it, should a storm switch sides. But Overall this gives me enough confidence to be on storms as soon as they fire, even if i'm only expecting tornadoes to happen later.
As a storm matures and strengthens it's time to look for clues that tornadogenesis is imminent. Clearly this is a rotating supercell, but now has right turned, avoiding the red river completely. A relief as well as a sign of things to come.
An inflow tail suggests the updraft of the storm is ingesting rain cooled air above the surface, a sign of further strengthening. From this vantage point, east and north of the updraft, the inflow tail can even direct you to exactly where a tornado would form, just below the end here.
A tornado may be imminent. But I need to stay ahead of this storm which is now drifting ESE instead of ENE. So in a risky move, I translate south of the storm. While doing so, large hail from the rear flank downdraft begins to wrap around, attacking me in the process. Ominously, tornadogenesis has just begun directly above me as well. I should have moved a minute or two earlier to increase my safety margin.
This supercell began to run into neighboring storms, quickly growing upscale. This is normal, expected behavior most times. It means photogenic tornadoes are essentially over, However now It's time to switch to documenting all the awesome textures and wild colors of the dynamic back side of the storm. Complete with mamatus, anvil crawling lightning, and golden hour lighting.
As an added bonus, a high based funnel appeared on the backside of the storm, as if to say, thanks for sticking with me.
As the front raced in, a shelf cloud was produced under weak thundershowers.
If you are interested in seeing more videos like this, I've been working over the years on a series of videos spanning North America supercell climatology, forecasting and observation, and more. Click the playlist in the upper right if this sounds good to you. And while I have you, hit that like button, subscribe, or leave a comment. Until the next one, I'll see you out there.
Normally I don't intentionally chase a storm from behind. Often tornadoes can get lost in rain from this angle, but today would prove that to actually be a good idea this time. From a southward vantage point, the horseshoe shape of the wall cloud is most apparent. The north side of the horseshoe is what I'm watching for new tornado development. I give this area some respect however, less often tornadoes may spawn here as well.The Northern Lights from all over North America. (The United States of Aurora) (Canadas Aurora)science out there2023-03-28 | From Colorado, to New York, to Michigan, to Alberta to Alaska---It's possible to the Aurora from literally anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, Let me show you! Locations where I've filmed Northern Lights and placed it into this video montage:
Aurora come in many shapes, sizes, colors, speeds and moods. It's latitude impacts what you'll see and how it will manifest. Reds, greens, blues, purples, oranges and every combination of pulses, pillars, coronas, waves, and ripples. STEVE and SAR also represented in the video!Lets call him STEVE: The amusing story of a not-Aurora phenomenonscience out there2022-10-07 | What started as a misnomer and misclassification of a rare Aurora phenomenon turned into quite the fun story. How Steve got its name.
Something originally called a "proton arc" to describe a lavendar ribbon in the night sky on active aurora nights. Turns out it has nothing to do with protons! in a pinch, Chris Ratzlaff of Alberta Aurora chasers coined the name "steve" from over the hedge, the name they give to the mysterious bush. Later, that name was given a backronym "STEVE" solidifying the temporary name.
Discord? discord.gg/bNMVrjf MY Patreon? patreon.com/scienceoutthere Tornado Archive Patreon: patreon.com/torarchive Twitter? twitter.com/ScienceOutThereColorado Trail Segment 1 - How I lost over 60 lbs on Youtubescience out there2022-08-22 | Backpacking Segment 1 of the Colorado Trail (South Platte Trailhead to Waterton and Denver) while I explain my 4 year weight loss journey as I drew inspiration from Youtube, and generated content for Youtube! I camp overnight in the rain, and even an all out thunderstorm to breathtaking scenes of the Colorado Rockies
My Content creator "Heroes!"
What I've Learned (Dieting, Lifestyle, Culture, etc) Answers with Joe (Humorous science and history videos) Pecos Hank (Storm chasing, vlogging) Joe Robinet (Long duration/distance Camping and Bushcraft) Doug Linker (Camping and projects) Cody's Lab (Outdoor tinkering, learn as you go science projects) My Self Reliance (Major projects, outdoor lifestyle) Adventure Archives (Outdoor filmmaking GOLD) Homemade Wanderlust (Through-hiking, Gear, Ooutdoor Filmmaking) Les Stroud - Survivorman (The OG self film-making outdoor documentarian) Everyday Astronaut - Technical deep dives into aerospace technologyScience Out There on the Chaser Chat Podcast Michael Gavanscience out there2022-07-02 | Gabe Harbor interviews "science out there" on the chaser chat podcast. Topics: My beginnings (Derechos and backyard storms) My favorite storm chases (Simla Colorado Tornado) Dangerous encounters with Tornadoes (Spearman Texas Tornado) Getting too close to Tornadoes This youtube channel, why I do what I do! My future as a chaserTornado Archive (Explorer v2.0) Update! Worldwide Tornado Data and Environmentsscience out there2022-05-23 | Tornadoarchive.com is a project I collaborated with several wonderful people to enhance and enthuse people's interests and understanding of Tornado History and Climatology.
Worldwide Tornado Data ERA5 Reanalysis Weather Maps View US tornadoes from the past, 1880 to 2021. Violent tornadoes from 1880-1949 from Thomas P Grazulis SPC Tornadoes from 1950-2019 ESWD (Europe) France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Russia and more, Tornadoes from 1700-2020 Australia Tornadoes New Zealand Tornadoes South Africa Tornadoes Brazil Tornadoes Mexico Tornadoes Argentina Tornadoes Uruguay Tornadoes Paraguay Tornadoes Chile Tornadoes Japan Tornadoes China Tornadoes and more!!
Special thanks to the entire team! Tim, Andrew, Jim, Stebo, Caitlyn, Jonathon, Spencer, Malcom, Cheo, Ava, Sam, Raven, Harrison, Casey, Anthony, and everyone else who has contributed!
However the weather deciding to play tricks during this weekend in late September. Covering a megadrought while being absolutely soaked with heavy rain and fast water!
In this video: Kayaking Rapids (Nearly "White water") Colorado River Moab, Utah Camping in the rain Kayaking in the rain Kayaking the Colorado River Drought discussion in Western United States
Join us on Discord! discord.gg/bNMVrjf Would you like to contribute on Patreon? patreon.com/scienceoutthere And why not follow me on Twitter for more frequent updates! twitter.com/ScienceOutThereElgin, TX Tornado 3-21-2022. 10 Day forecast to Tornado. Synoptically Evident Tornado Eventscience out there2022-03-27 | How in the actual heck can we go from 10 days out to realtime and see Tornadoes? It doesn't happen often. But it happened in the Austin and San Antonio and Jarrell, Texas areas on March 21 2022. Come see how this all came together! A tornado occurred on each of 4 storms along the dryline along Interstate 35 in Central Texas
00:00 What do I mean we saw this 10 days out? 07:44 The Elgin, Texas Tornado
Join us on Discord! discord.gg/bNMVrjf Would you like to contribute on Patreon? patreon.com/scienceoutthere And why not follow me on Twitter for more frequent updates! twitter.com/ScienceOutThereNorthern Lights Nowcasting - Interior Alaska Autumn-Aurora tourscience out there2022-03-26 | Let me be your interior Alaska Northern Lights tour guide! Where do you go? What do you look for in the aurora forecast? What do you expect while in Fairbanks, Senja, Yellowknife, or Iceland? Come along with me and let me show you the ropes!
Alaska Aurora Autumn tour 2022. Aurora Nowcasting.
Join us on Discord! discord.gg/bNMVrjf Would you like to contribute on Patreon? patreon.com/scienceoutthere And why not follow me on Twitter for more frequent updates! twitter.com/ScienceOutThere2022 US Tornado Season and Storm Chasing Predictionsscience out there2022-01-30 | A 2nd La Niña and Heavy southwestern drought. Let's make the best of this, I guess!
00:00 Groundhog Day Skit 06:05 Forecast
Predicting an upcoming season's tornado potential is *almost* comical. But there are some things we can learn looking at how a winter's climatology is playing out. I make this video every year for fun, entertainment, and some light looks at the science of climatology and how it might impact tornado formation in the spring in the United States.
Tornadoes 2022,tornado forecast 2022,spring 2022 tornado forecast,how many tornadoes in 2022,storm chasing 2022 forecast,storm chasing,storm chaser,tornadoes of 2021,Oklahoma tornadoes 2021,kansas tornadoes 2022,tornado outbreak,Storm chase 2022,forecasting tornadoes,tornado season 2021,El Nino and tornadoes,tornados of 2021,Accuweather 2022,Groundhog Day,Ground hog day spoofHunga Tonga WORLDWIDE Shockwave January 15 2022science out there2022-01-16 | A massive blast from underwater volcano Hunga Tonga ( Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai ) Erupts violently, causing a massive shockwave across the globe visible in infrared satellite. Complete encircling all the way to the antipode, 20,000 kilometers away. I use a special processing technique called "differencing" to tease out this wave.
View tornadoes from the past, 1880 to 2019. Violent tornadoes from 1880-1949 from Thomas P Grazulis SPC Tornadoes from 1950-2019
(Data from 2020 will be added later this year)
Special thanks to the entire team! Tim, Andrew, Jim, Stebo, Caitlyn, Jonathon, Spencer, Malcom, Ava, Sam, Raven, Harrison, Casey, Anthony, and everyone else who has contributed!
Discord? discord.gg/bNMVrjf Patreon? patreon.com/scienceoutthere Twitter? twitter.com/ScienceOutThereOutburst?! Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard - EVERYTHING you need to know!science out there2021-11-25 | Incoming! A potentially easy naked eye #comet is about to grace our skies in December. Here's what you need to know, how to watch, when and where to look for Comet C/2021 A1 #Leonard. And perhaps it will be visible as a #christmascomet
0:00 Introduction 0:55 Comet Leonard’s Orbit 1:30 Venus close encounter 5:00 How bright will the comet get? 6:55 Comet Leonard’s morning show 9:00 Bonus for Alaska/Iceland/Norway 10:00 Bonus evening view for United States 10:30 Southern Hemisphere Finale 13:00 The CHRISTMAS Comet
Join me on Patreon! patreon.com/scienceoutthere Or Discord! discord.gg/5hjd885 Or Twitter! twitter.com/ScienceOutThereAlaska Autumn Aurora Chase! Denali, Castner Glacier 4kp60science out there2021-11-18 | Take a trip with me to Interior #Alaska to chase the #NorthernLights, Take some cinematic landscape videos and watch breathtaking views of #Denali, the Alaska Range, and Summit Lake near Paxson, During AUTUMN!
#Autumn may actually be the best time to visit interior Alaska. The midnight sun is gone, and dark returns--And so do Aurora! Moose are in the rut, Fall colors are coming in, there's no crowds, and the weather is still mild. The bugs are mostly gone, Snow is typically light and not a major concern yet for travel. All good reasons to come visit!
Our journey begins with flights from Seattle to Fairbanks where we could watch and photograph aurora from our Alaska Airlines flight. Next we visit Denali after a freshly fallen snow. And lastly we visit Paxson area again and the Castnor Glacier cave.
For daytime, use Red (visible), for night, use "Long wave IR"
Discord? discord.gg/bNMVrjf Patreon? patreon.com/scienceoutthere Twitter? twitter.com/ScienceOutThereColorado Trail - Peak Fall Color - Segment 7science out there2021-11-05 | Peak fall color along the Continental divide, Backpacking on the Colorado Trail, segment 7. From Breckenridge, CO to Copper Mountain, CO. 13 miles, some of of which is high above the timberline! Includes drone footage from the "Peak to Peak road" near Estes Park and Central City.
Be sure to watch other videos in my Colorado Trial series!
Colorado trail,Colorado Trail segment 7,Breckenridge,Copper Mountain,Peak fall color,Colorado fall colors,fall color 2021,peak fall color rocky mountains,trails in the rockies,hiking above the timberline,backpacking,science out there,camping,fall foliage,colorado camping,outdoors,fall colors,rocky mountainsHow to make timelapses in High Dyanamic Range. (Aurora Timelapse Bonus video)science out there2021-10-20 | I make an Aurora timelapse in HDR and demonstrate an entire 16-bit (10-bit output) workflow that I use from Camera Raw to After Effects to Media Encoder. I also show off a bonus trick, using "Echo effect"
Join me on Patreon! patreon.com/scienceoutthere Or Discord! discord.gg/5hjd885 Or Twitter! twitter.com/ScienceOutThereMaking Timelapses 4: The Free Method. VirtualDub and Handbrakescience out there2021-10-20 | In this video I create an Aurora / Northern Lights timelapse using nothing but "Free Software" on a Windows 10 PC. VirtualDub for assembling the image sequence into AVI and Handbrake for converting the AVI file into a usable MP4 file.
Join me on Patreon! patreon.com/scienceoutthere Or Discord! discord.gg/5hjd885 Or Twitter! twitter.com/ScienceOutThereMaking Aurora Timelapses 1: Tips and Tricksscience out there2021-10-19 | In this video I provide advice regarding frame rates, acquisition times, Length, etc. To make the best possible Northern Lights Timelapse later on. Next I'll cover several workflow options through Adobe Creative Cloud and even a free method!
Join me on Patreon! patreon.com/scienceoutthere Or Discord! discord.gg/5hjd885 Or Twitter! twitter.com/ScienceOutTherePhotograph Northern Lights with ANY Camerascience out there2021-10-18 | You don't have to be TOO fancy to photograph Aurora. Chances are what you already have in your pocket can do the job. But what else do you have the might also work? What should you get? I've got you covered!
This video is the first stop on making full fledged timelapse video of Aurora, part of a 6 part series that will take you from gear, to producing an image sequence to outputting to a final video.
On Sony S&Q Mode: Unfortunately one glaring limitation is that you can only go down to 1s total exposure for each frame. However this is good enough for Stage2 and Stage3 Aurora. In fact sometimes I was down to 1/4s for Stage2 Aurora. ISO will likely be in the 3200 to 20,000 range. For Stage3, as low as ISO1600 and 1/4s. I typically output to 60fps and then slow or speed things up as needed in post. I use all S-Cine picture profile and 10-bit color 4:2:2 at 200mbps. Daylight White Balance. S-Cine is pretty close to what your eyes see and still provides plenty of flexibility in post---just down blowout your highlights! Use S-Log3 if you prefer!
On using a DJI Mavic Mini 2: Disable the front LED. Also enable "upward tilt" on the camera so you can see more above the horizon. You'll need nearly perfectly calm winds if you want to make a timelapse! At 4s per frame you are likely only going to get about 150-200 images before your battery runs out and you have to land and re-install a battery. I think an ideal scenario for a drone shooting aurora is a small amount of moonlight behind the drone, with Stage2 aurora ahead. Preferably a landscape covered in snow, or some nice jagged peaks as a silhouette.
Cameras used in this video:
Sony A7sIII Canon 6D Mk II Canon T3i Canon T2i Canon Powershot A60 Kodak DC290 Zoom Kodak DC210 iPhone 11 Pro Max GoPro Hero 7 DJI Mavic Mini 2 Canon AE-1
Lenses:
Tokina 11-17mm F2.8 Tokina 12-20mm F4 Tamron 24-70 F2.8 Sigma 20mm F1.4 Art Canon 50mm F1.4 You are watching me on a Tamron 28-200mm F2.8-5.6Northern Lights in 4K HDR: AETERNUM VIRIDE, An Aurora Borealis short filmscience out there2021-09-21 | The #Aurora like you've never seen it before! in 4K/HDR! 1 A mix of Realtime and Timelapsed videos processed end to end in 10-bit #HDR. "Eternal Green" Some friends and I spent 17 nights in the Fairbanks, Alaska area chasing clear skies and capturing just about every kind of aurora phenomenon imaginable. We were successful 15 times!
The NORTHERN LIGHTS in High Dynamic Range
Science Out There is Michael's channel for all things outdoors and out of this world. And every now and then I like to just compile my favorite clips of a particular subject and just let that video do the talking. This video helps demonstrate the incredible dynamic range Aurora can produce, dozens of stops from faint horizon glows on up to bright white coronas that nearly rival the moon's brightness and illuminating the entire landscape in green.
To achieve HDR video, All timelapse captures were saved as RAW, and all live realtime video captures in 10-Bit 4:2:2. Every step of the process was done in Rec.2100 and output for Youtube in H.264 Rec.2020 10-bit HDR.
Music: "Ethereal Lights" by DPMusic "Heavenly Lullaby - Piano Solo" by DPMusic "CGI Snake" by Chris Zabriskie "Heavenly Lullaby" by DPMusic
Cameras:
Sony a7sIII (a7s3) Realtime videos: 24fps 4k 10-bit 4:2:2. 1/25s ISO 32,000 to 80,000 S&Q Mode was also used. 4k 10-bit 4:2:2 1/4s - 1s ISO 20,000
Canon 6D Mark II 3.2s - 5s, ISO 3200
Lenses: Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 @f2.8 Sigma 20mm F1.4 @F1.4 to F2 *Note this lens took a bad hit recently before this trip and de-centered focused may be noted in some shot. Sony 14-24 F2.8 at 14mm F2.8 Canon 50mm F1.4 @ F1.4
Realtime shots were generally done of the 20mm f1.4 and 50mm f1.4Northern Lights have a Season? Under the Oval. Sony a7sIII REALTIME Aurorascience out there2021-09-04 | September is perhaps the best time to go to the Arctic Circle and see Northern Lights. The Russell-McPherron effect is in place. Nights begin to darken. Fall Color and still somewhat warm nights. Real-time Aurora Borealis in 4k. Sony a7sIII realtime and timelapse video.
Shots were taken from August 27, 2021 to September 3, 2021. Moon Phase was Waning Crescent. Most nights provided about 4 hours of total darkness with some moonlight sneaking in.
#NorthernLights,Aurora season,#AuroraBorealis,Realtime aurora video,northern lights in real life,real time northern lights,spaceweather,science out there,Aurora videos,Northern Lights videos,Russell-McPherron,Fairbanks,#Alaska,Yellowknife,Reykjavík,Arctic aurora,Aurora viewing,Aurora in Alaska,Aurora in Autimn,Nothern Lights in Fall,Aurora photography,Aurora borealis timelapse,Alaska in fall,Alaska in auntumn,what do northern lights look like,Sony A7sIII,sonyColorado Wildflowers at their PEAK! Backpack Solo Colorado Trail Segment 5 (Kenosha Pass)science out there2021-08-26 | MAXIMUM #Wildflowers on the long gulch to Kenosha pass trail section of the Colorado trail. This trek occurred around July 26 2021. I went into this #backpacking section knowing very few native #Colorado flower species, but came out being able to identify a dozen or so. In the mean time, Enjoy the mountain views, spectacular scenery and the sounds of the trail as usual. I throw in my usual banter. How Lost Creak wilderness got its name. Identifying wildfire vs severe thunderstorm blowdowns. I cook and eat a nice filet steak. All the words for flowing water. Hiking near a thunderstorm. Colorado's bipolar drought situation.
Cameras: Sony A7SIII GoPro Hero 7 iPhone 11 MaxHow to SEE and PHOTOGRAPH Sprites!science out there2021-08-18 | Everything you need to know to see and photograph #Sprites and Jets. (And all other types of rare #TLE). After YEARS of attempts and sudden recent success it's time to share how I do it, even as I'm getting better at it myself.
Red sprites, Jellyfish sprites, Red jellyfish sprite, sprite lightning, sprite TLE.
00:00 Introduction and Premise
01:30 How to see Sprites (&Jets) 13:20 How to Photograph Sprites 23:40 In short...
What it's like to experience Naked Eye Sprites and messing around with photography: youtu.be/wTtUx74_B-A
A7s3 Low light tests and Astrophotography: youtu.be/eGlXcG9ad94Colorado River: Lake Granby Solo Overnight Kayak Campscience out there2021-08-06 | Trout fishing, Moose, Eagles &....the unfortunate effects of Climate Change :( I spend some quality time just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, getting to know Granby and all of it's splendor. However there's a problem. The whole area is under attack from multiple climate related issues.
Something I like to do during the summer and fall for this channel, Is explore something new. Not with any idea what the purpose of the video might become. It wasn't until after 2 nights on Lake Granby, that I knew what story this lake and its surroundings would tell. OR really, 3 short stories but with a common antagonist.
I knew the east troublesome fire burned near the Lake. What I handn't realized was that so much of the burn was visible right from the lake, giving a truly heartbreaking panoramic view of miles and miles of devastated forest. 180,000 acres is a meaninglessly large number. until you see what that means with your own eyes. But the monster partly responsible for this fire, has 3 heads. One of them breathes fire.
Lake Granby, is the second closest reservoir to the headwaters of the Colorado river and Colorado's 4 largest lake. And great things have humble beginnings. the Colorado is one the most important and well known rivers in the World. With abundant recreation, tourism, desert habitat, and desert dwelling humans far to my west. But the Colorado hasn't been flowing at it's optimal might for years. Decades of repeated drought have dried up the reservoirs from beginning to end, and as I'm saying this, many are beating all time record low water levels. Granby is down 16 feet from full while I paid this visit. The second head on this Cerberus, is drought.
The amount of dead forest in Colorado alone due to spruce and lodge-pole pine beetle kill, is staggering. 5 million acres. Or put another way, if this were a US state, it would be the size of New Jersey. And the beetles are still killing. The third head of this hell hound unleashes pestilence at a grand scale. Trees are largely made of up of carbon extracted from the atmosphere. When the are left to rot or are burned, much of that carbon goes right back into the atmosphere.
The three headed dog of Hades has a tail of a snake. After the forest is dried and warmed, the beetles are able flourish at higher altitudes. With so much standing dry tinder, wildfires grow uncontrollable in just minutes. 2020 alone saw Colorado's largest ever wildfire, only to have that record overturned again by a different wildfire just weeks later. The tail of a snake: When the rains return, there's no longer vegetation to hold back the rock and soil. And the consequences, have shut down one of the most important expressways in the western United states for weeks. Causing hours long diversions of local, commercial and recreational traffic and rail. This 3 headed devil dog is just one of many monsters unleashed by climate change. And right now, it's going uncontested in the American west. It isn't a future problem. It's a now problem. And you can see the battle scars on Lake Granby, Colorado.UFO & UAP. Your Astronomy Sucks #3science out there2021-07-30 | Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) vs the VERY REAL THINGS that have inspired most reports! Let's call them "Misidentified Real Phenomena"
The office of the director of national intelligence released a report suggesting it's a good idea to get better equipment and training into the hands of our troops, sailors and pilots so that we can nail down what's really going on. Government technology? Civilian UAV's? Natural things?
The purpose of this video is to introduce everyone to very real, crazy things that happen in our skies every day. Many of them obscure and unfamiliar. Which is by far and away my favorite playground! Often these phenomena are miss characterized or used as clickbait. Hoaxes, etc.
00:00 Look up. There's lots going on! 00:40 That UAP Report... 01:15 UFO footage has something in common 02:00 The Technology Hypothesis 02:48 Hoaxes and Hype 04:15 Aurora, More than you knew 05:20 Airglow 05:50 Noctilucent Clouds 06:20 Unusual Clouds 06:30 Weather Hoaxes 06:55 Sprites and TLEs 08:20 Atmospheric Optics 09:40 Rocket Launches 10:10 The Belt of Venus 10:30 The Earth's Shadow 11:00 Unusual Satellites 13:34 Lightning Bugs 15:30 Meteors, More than you know 17:30 How a UFO sighting is born 18:15 About Planes at night 19:00 Venus, The mother of UFOs 20:50 Camera Technology Obstacles 22:30 Lightning round 23:55 Thank you!
Volcanic Sunsets: youtu.be/l4RiVtNVIlQKim, Colorado Tornado 5/29/2021science out there2021-06-03 | Season thoughts. Chaser burnout. The end of my "Chasecation" arrived. I'm spent. My thoughts on the 2021 Tornado Season, and my most recent catch, the Kim-Pritchett cone Tornado from May 29.
Burn out. Tornado season update
It's been one heck of a season. And even though i've seen many tornadoes on many chase days, it felt like the failures and "what could have beens" dominated the season for me. This was the story for many other chasers too. Many times this May tornado producing storms happened outside of primary target areas and I'd miss them. Or storms failed to mature.
In spite of the success. Day after day of missed opportunities have worn me out. Not to mention staying up late at night photographing sprites, Being constantly a 6 hour drive from the next day's target, equipment problems. And besides. Doing this all mostly on my own and pissing both time and money away for days on end. And soon I have a normal day job to return to as well. Well, i'm just burnt out.
But so much was different in 2021 over 2020. Tornadoes were to be found in peak spring at least! My seasonal forecast for 2021 generally had the right idea- A very active deep south, and a conditionally active high plains. But it was far from perfect. This was one of the few times a La Nina year was generally kind to the I35 coordior and the lower great lakes for example.
Luckily we haven't had a 2011-like disaster year on our hands so far. And in late April and early may, The predicted Tropical forcing lead to several tornadoes days in Texas and the deep south. I give myself a B+ for this season's forecast.
May 29, 2021 would be my final chase day for now, and I would score my 19th tornado on the season. Granted, many of those 19 were either land spouts, weren't very good encounters, or weren't very interesting. And now I shift to waiting for local events and high confidence forecast days.
Kim, Colorado would play host to what started out as a not very interesting storm. It had formed off of terrain in Southern Colorado, Mesa de Maya, and slowly inched itself east. It was expected that any storm that formed would struggle at first. Then would encounter better moisture as it moved east, along with an increasing low level jet later in the day.
What I didn't expect, was an instantly high precipitation storm producing extremely large hail and wrapping heavy rain into it's mesocyclone.
Nonetheless, a large cone tornado was present deep inside.
Southeast Colorado has a patchwork of dirt roads and few highways, broken up by canyons.
I struggled to get good footage from a distance. Unfortunately rain wrapped tornadoes form this far away are difficult to focus on as well.
With lots of enhancement the tornado becomes more obvious.
The day would end with watching this structured beast of a storm crawl over the cimarron canyons. At one point it produced a really convincing wall cloud or scud bomb. This storm would go on to produce more tornadoes in the Oklahoma panhandle after dark. But I'm pretty tired. And it's time to go home for a bit. Of course that means the following day there were even more low predictability, but more photogenic tornadoes in the same area. I can't even make this stuff up.
Storm Chaser burnout. It's a grind out there.
Join my discord: discord.gg/bNMVrjf Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/ScienceOutThereStay with your Storm Forsan, TX Tornadoscience out there2021-05-20 | Yet another successful storm chase in Texas this Spring! 5/17/2021. Tornado near Forsan TX. More advice on how to storm chase. Stay with your storm to the bitter end and don't panic!
When storm chasing there are often days where it's just better to be lucky than good. Deep in west Texas, north of Midland, I'd wait for a storm to form in my target area and potentially produce a tornado later in the day.
Instead, my target storm would never materialize. So I headed to Midland to check out a complete mess that had formed instead. I traveled for hours from storm, to storm, to storm, to storm. All of them messy, high based, and unlikely to produce a tornado.
By 5 pm I was looking for the location of the nearest Applebees.
Alright fine I'll give it one more shot, I went south back onto the original storm that sort of seemed to be getting its act together. It was tough to tell, the local midland Odessa radar was offline. Making it difficult to decide what to target. And of course, visually they all looked like total garbage.
Some chasers saw a brief spin up under a rotating wall cloud. Officially a tornado but basically nothing to write home about. And then I got a phone call from John. The San Angelo radar was picking up a new mesocyclone that was almost certainly going to produce a tornado just to my east. Unfortunately, it's over a giant road hole with few options to translate out in front of it.
After the #tornado lifted I repositioned further south, really the only direction I could go. A new tornado formed but quickly wrapped itself in rain.
To cap it all off, this storm had an imperial nebraska 2019 appearance to it, but with a tornado. Can't ask for more.
One of the tornadoes would cause damage to a gas electrical plant. Damage surveys are still ongoing as I post this video.
Stay with your storm. Don't panic if things don't look perfect at first.
That evening I'd capture dozens of high intensity jellyfish sprites. But I'll leave the rest of those to some future videos. Thanks for watching. Check out my other chase videos, and subscribe for more content like this! Until the next one, I'll see out there.
Filmed on: Sony A7SIII with Tamron 28-200mm DJI Mini 2 (Drone) Go Pro Hero 7 Canon 6D Mark II with Sigma 20mm F1.4 ART
00:00 Better Lucky than Good 01:40 Tornado 1 03:37 Forsan Tornado Timelapses 04:40 Tornado 2 05:05 Structure! 05:45 Sprites! (TLEs)Channel Trailer - What is Science Out There? This is Michael, and this is what I do.science out there2021-05-02 | Science Out There Channel Trailer.
#Science #Variety #Welcome3CAPE How Landspouts Form.science out there2021-04-30 | Several Landspouts and a #Tornado formed in Eastern #Colorado southwest of Kit Carson. See the full chase, and a little information on how to forecast for Landspouts, and how they form. But in Science Out There fashion. April 27 2021...I don't just do theory. I go get it.
There was a curious secondary region up in Colorado and Kansas where, what was essentially, a cold front might pool some moisture into an environment with winds that change significantly with height.
CAPE or Convective Available Potential Energy is a measurement of the area between an environment's moist adiabat line as you travel up the atmosphere, and the temperature. With this measurement, forecasters and chasers can determine the amount of energy is available in an environment, and therefore it's potential to produce a robust convection, an updraft. One way to measure CAPE is from the mixed layer, rather than the surface.
Once you understand CAPE, 3CAPE then, is just the CAPE calculated for the Mixed layer instead of the surface , for ground level up to 3km in altitude.
Large areas of 3CAPE or in other words 3CAPE values of say, 100 or more can mean a lot of extra vertical stretching below a storm. Broad areas of rotation below an updraft can sometimes tighten and form a Land Spout tornado.
Land spouts are Tornadoes, but not associated with a parent mesocyclone, a rotating storm. #Landspouts are often seen well away from their parent updraft, or even connected to the side of an updraft. A typical land spout is weak and will only produce EF1 damage, and 100 mph winds or less if they happen to come into contact with structures.
Now I could have been cheap, ambiguous, and also sorta wrong, by saying a land spout is like a water spout but over land. Water spouts are any kind of tornado over water, even the more violent kind that comes from a rotating storm. But most waterspouts do form just like a landspout. By way of enhanced Vertical stretching and some sort of parent updraft. So a landspout can share characteristics and often look just like their cousin, the typical water spout.
But hey we're talking about Colorado here so we've got to spin the wacky knob to 11! Mesocyclonic Tornaodo, Landspout? How about a little bit of each all at the same time.
This isn't even the first time Colorado has done this. In 2018, the same sort of thing happened in Cope, CO. One tornado is connected to a parent mesocycle while a landspout also formed, attached to a parent updraft near by.
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed this Colorado tornado and landspout chase. For more weather related content click one of the cards on the screen. Hit subscribe to see future weather, adventure, and astronomy content. Until the next one. I'll see you out there.
Photography info:
Sony A7S3, Tamron 28-200 Canon 6D, Sigma F1.4 Art 20mm GoPro Hero7 Drone Footage: DJI Mini 2
00:00 Teaser footage 00:13 Secondary Tornado Target 00:22 How Landspouts are formed 03:20 Tornado and Landspout 04:46 Funny Lightning Shot 05:15 Chasers in the WILD 06:05 Close range Gustnado 06:50 Racing after LandspoutTexas Tornadoes & Rainbow! Lockett & Vernon April 23 2021. 4K 60fps HDRscience out there2021-04-27 | Photogenic #Tornadoes over Texas in glorious 4K 60p HDR. A cyclic supercell in north Texas spawned multiple, incredible tornadoes on April 23rd 2021. Touching down South of Quanah, near Lockett, TX and Vernon, TX. I captured some minor damage to a few homes not far from my location, but otherwise these beautiful tornadoes stuck to open prairie and ranch land. A tornado and rainbow teamed up for a rare sight of serenity and fury.
I'm going to make a really cool full chase video. I have additional footage from the gopro and iphone to share. As well as drone footage, the lead up to the chase, and the epic colorful skies after the storm was done. I'll probably do a 'nowcasting' explainer with radar scans and how I nailed my chase target really early on.
See timelapse footage of these Texas Tornadoes in 4k HDR (High Dynamic Range). 4/23/21. 4-23-21. April 23rd, April 23 2021. Rainbow tornado
Flimed with a Sony #A7SIII (a7S3) and a Tamron 28-200mm Lens. All in 4kp120 4:2:2 10 Bit 280mps mode. Timelapses filmed on a Canon 6D and Sigma Art 20mm F1.4 (@ f/4)
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00:00 Quanah Tornado 00:26 Lockett Tornado 02:14 Vernon Tornado 03:10 Tornado and RainbowApril 6 2021 Storm Chase in 4k60pHDR. Timebenderscience out there2021-04-24 | Storm Formation, Rotation, Structure, Sunset, Lightning, and Sprites. Timelapses and Slow-motion. Settings dialed up to the max! Can't wait for some tornado footage next.
TO WATCH IN HDR:
Option 1, Best: Use the youtube app on your HDR-Capable Smart TV.
Option 2, Easy: Use the youtube app on your HDR-Capable smartphone or tablet. iPhone 8 and newer, and recent Samsung Galaxy phones support it. Here's a handy list of HDR compatible smartphones. 3g.co.uk/guides/hdr-mobile
Option 3, Hard: If you have an HDR capable PC monitor or TV connected to your Windows 10 PC. Enable HD Color mode in the windows display settings. Make sure your monitor has 10-bit Color enabled on the HDMI port (may or may not be a hinderence) And finally, you must watch inside of a web browser that supports HDR content. To my knowledge, only Chrome and Edge do.
Option 4, MAC?: If you have advice for how to view HDR content on MAC please drop me some hints in the comments. My suspicion is that all MAC PC's built in the last 3 years or have a Retina display support HDR video without any hassle.
Majority of footage taken with A7sIII with supporting footage from a Canon 6D. GoPro Hero Black 7 and DJI Mini 2.
The Sony is native 10 bit (HDR) however with other 8-bit footage, it's possible to edit in a 10 bit color space and "blend" footage for a timelapse, expanding the color gamut. RAW image files for a timelapse are natively 14-bit and can be converted to HDR.May (and late April) 2021 Tornado and Storm Chasing Predictions, Spring Climatology ft. John Homenukscience out there2021-04-22 | May Stormchasing 2021 forecast / May 2021 (and late April) Tornado forecast starring Meteorologist John Homenuk. This is intended to be a fun, slightly more serious, but academic exercise into tornado climatology and attempting to apply that to an upcoming May 2021 Tornado Chasing Season.
0:00 Introduction 1:10 Bad Forecast for May 2020 3:14 What went right, wrong 5:30 July 2020 9:00 The problem with "Long Range"
18:00 What is MJO? 23:00 Jet Extension coming 27:00 Near range forecast 30:33 Comparisons to 2019 33:00 What is "Average" 34:00 Final thoughts and Forecast 40:00 Drought vs Severe 42:00 Outtro
Special Thanks to SDS Therapy center for support, contributions, fact checking, etc. Especially John for helping with this video!
#Stormchasing, #Tornado, #WeatherHow Do Radar Confirmed Tornadoes Work?science out there2021-04-16 | How modern Tornado detection via Radar works. "Radar Confirmation" of Tornadoes vs storm spotting and ground truth. I break down how Doppler and Correlation Coefficient is used to find Tornado Debris Signatures and Tornadic Vortex Signatures. And I compare this to ground truth scenarios on the March 25th Alabama Tornado outbreak, as well as a Tornado producing storm in Childress, Texas on March 12th. Yes, March 12, not May 12, my bad.
00:00 Introduction 00:10 Trust Radar Confirmed? 01:20 History of Weather Radar 03:11 Warning Lead Times and 03:45 The Problem with Spotting 04:35 Respect the Polygon! 06:00 SAILS and other upgrades 07:10 Dual Polarization Radar 07:40 Correllation Coeffecient 08:30 Tornado Debris Signature 09:25 Impact Based Warnings 10:00 Counter-example 11:00 OutroURSA MAJOR & MINOR Astrophotography Grand Tour (Big Dipper/Little Dipper)science out there2021-04-01 | Part 3 of the Constellation Series! Ursa Major (Big Dipper), Ursa Minor (Little Dipper). Polaris, Alcor and Mizar. M101, M51. M81 and M82. Star Hopping, Star Navigation. The story of Two Leggings, Bear white child. The origins of "The Arctic" The Precession of Earth's polar axis over time.
How to find Usra Minor (The Little Dipper). How to find the North Star.
Whirlpool galaxy, M106, Pinwheel Galaxy, Bubble Nebula, M81 and M82, Cigar and Bode's Galaxies.
Many of these images came from all over North America, Alaska, Colorado, Michigan, South Texas
I'm not the one who originally thought the Bear White Child story was a "storm chase" or someone seeing a tornado that looked like the big dipper. John Weaver is probably the first to write about this, 40 years ago: stormtrack.org/library/fringe/1stchas.htm
00:00 Introduction 00:30 Locate the Little Dipper and Big Dipper 03:22 Origins of "The Arctic" 04:05 Alaska's State Flag 04:48 Northern Lights 05:23 Bear White Child / Tornado 07:29 Navigation with the Stars 08:30 Mizar and Alcor 10:00 Galaxies
11:40 Axis Precession
#astrophotography #ursamajor #alaska
Gear used:
Cameras: Canon 6DMkII (Timelapses, Live Shots) Modified Canon T3i (Stills) Modified Canon T1i (Stills) Sony A7s3 / A7sIII (Live shots)
Lenses: Rokinon 135mm f2.0 Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 (Used at either 24 or 70) Sigma 20mm f1.2 Art
Light Pollution Filter: Astronomik LPF Clip-In
Telescope: William Optics GT81 Celestron 80EDGeminid Meteor Shower 2020.science out there2021-03-02 | 100's of Meteor captures in 4K! Sony A7sIII. 4K Timelapses, Realtime, and a Composite capture of the night skies over the Big Bend of Texas During the #Geminid Meteor Shower December 12-13th and December 13-14th, 2020.
Captured on the Sony A7s3, Sigma Art 20mm @F1.4 - S&Q Mode 1 Fps 1s Exposure "Tracked" Shot and Composite on the Canon 6D Mark II, Tamron 24-70 @ F2.8 20s subexposures.
Watch this video for some explanations on when, where, and how I did this: youtu.be/GyiqivgxlAk
What else am I seeing in these timelapses? A) You'll see Many satellites. the ones near Orion at 0:60 are geosynchronous satellites. Even though it was well after dark, some geo-synchronous and medium Earth orbit sats will cast a glint back to earth. These move much slower and are fairly dim, but this camera and these settings have no trouble finding them.
Some changes in lighting or angle occurred due to wind, my clutzy self, tracking errors with the mount, as well as a campfire nearby keeping me warm and cozy.
#meteorshower #astrophotography Thanks for watching!Space Themed Road Trip 2!science out there2021-02-26 | I visit more commercial space destinations--Blue Origin and SpaceX. Big Bend-an international dark sky site. And Roswell, the UFO capital of America. Roswell, NM Corn Ranch, TX McGregor, TX Boca Chica, TX. Filmmed the Geminids! The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and more. I packed alot into this video:
Whitesands New Mexico / Boeing's Starliner landing site The Trinity Test in White Sands Roswell, NM and the "The incident" / UFO's / Aliens / Little Green Men Project Mogul Corn Ranch / Blue Origin / New Shepherd Big Bend of Texas dark sky site (Big Bend Ranch State Park) The Geminid Meteor Shower (Geminids) Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn Zodiacal Light Speed Run Astrophotography from a perfect sky McGrego,r Texas / SpaceX / Grasshopper / Sticking a landing Boca Chica, Texas / SpaceX / Starship. Seeing Starship SN8 remains, SN9 flap repairs Camping in Boca Chica State Park, TX Thoughts/Camparisons to 1950's era rocket engineering
0:00 Whitesands and Roswell New Mexico 3:17 Blue Origin 5:40 Darkest Skies 6:20 The Geminids 7:44 The Zodiacal Light 11:20 Astrophotography 14:15 McGregor Texas SpaceX 15:40 Boca Chica SpaceX 18:14 Camping in Boca Chica 20:55 1950's Rocket Engineering2021 US Tornado Season and Storm Chasing Predictions, (The Office Spoof), Spring Climatologyscience out there2021-01-25 | My Stormchasing 2021 forecast / Spring 2021 Tornado forecast. "The Office" Parody. This is intended to be a fun, but academic exercise into tornado climatology and attempting to apply that to an upcoming 2021 Tornado Season. And yes, heavy on memes too.
0:00 Introduction 0:36 What happened to 2020? 1:45 The Premise for this Video 3:00 Formula for Tornado Prediction 3:50 Drought 5:35 La Nina 6:00 Analog Years, First Pass 7:15 Drought Analyzed deeper. 7:35 More Analog Years 8:30 Why these Analogs are Dangerous 9:35 Teleconnections, Analog Refinement 11:00 Final Analog Selection 13:40 My Analogs vs Long Range Forecast 14:10 My Forecast
Suffering from Supercell Deprivation Syndrome? Need Hype? Love "The Office" You've come to the right daffy youtube science channel.
Forecasting tornadoes 4 months in advance is nearly comical, and so this video is, well, almost funny. You'd be just as well off asking a groundhog about how this season will go.
Analogs: 1955, 1965, 1971, 2011 Tornadoes. Superoutbreak. Super Tuesday Outbreak. OUTBRK. 2011 Tornado outbreak. La Nina Tornadoes. Tornado History. Tornadoes 2021,tornado forecast 2021,spring 2021 tornado forecast,how many tornadoes in 2021,storm chasing 2021 forecast,storm chasing,storm chaser,tornadoes of 2021,Oklahoma tornadoes 2021,kansas tornadoes 2021,tornado outbreak,Storm chase 2021,forecasting tornadoes,tornado season 2020,El Nino and tornadoes,tornadoes of 2020,tornados of 2020,Accuweather 2021,tornado season 2021,Superoutbreak,Tornado Tuesday,Michael Scott,The Office,Alabama Tornado
Special Thanks to SDS Therapy center for support, contributions, fact checking, etc.
#Stormchasing, #Tornado, #WeatherSpace Themed American Road Tripscience out there2021-01-06 | United Launch Alliance. Sierra Nevada Corporation. Reaction Engines. Virgin Galactic. I visit some of the up and coming companies involved in commercial space travel!
Time for another epic #roadtrip. This time I'm visiting the destinations that have quickly become the most important for America's near future in space travel, The darkest skies, and some quirky space history.
Behind the scenes and all over the United States, there are many scientific programs, engineering, assembly and manufacturing locations working on #space exploration, surveillance, earth science, or space based communications. This is not by accident. As the US space program really began to take shape in the 1960's, with that was born a jobs program and a way to spur economic growth all around the United States. However after the end of the Space shuttle program and the birth of commercial access to space, New locations, companies, jobs and destinations for space travel have sprung up. Curiously, these up and coming destinations have started to cluster around #Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.
I'm going to call this the Commercial Space Belt. It's a more consumer and business oriented space program, it's privatized, but a much more hands-on world than that of the traditional space programs.
Our journey begins in Boulder, CO home of NOAA's Space-weather Prediction Center. The SWPC does offer a couple of tours every year and you can bet I'll back to do so once things open back up!
Two big players in the commercial space industry are headquartered in the Denver area. United Launch Alliance and Sierra Nevada Corporation. ULA is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and soon, Aerojet Rocketdyne as well as a merger was just recently announced between the latter. I discuss Starliner/Atlas V, SLS, and Vulcan. As well as the Dreamchaser Spaceplane!
It doesn't even stop there, the United Kingdom based company, Reaction Engines is working on an airbreathing spaceplane system called Skylon, that can launch and land at a runway.
But Denver is actually chock full of other aerospace companies, Space based communications, Satellite construction like the GOES weather satellites for NOAA, and many others. Colorado recognizes this spaceflight heritage; as well as it's future, at the Wings over the Rockies Air and Space museum. In it you can visit a dream chaser space plane, and also explore the Titan missile program.
The Titan rocket family was used for everything from nuclear weapons defense on up to the Cassini Huygens mission to Saturn.
Lockheed Martin Space continues to expand its capabilities in the Denver area. A large number of satellites and space probes were built right here, or will be in the future as it expects to soon be one of the most prolific manufacturers in the world of space bound hardware.
Next we take a long drive through the amazing I25 corridor along the front range of the Rockies, into the Rio Grande Valley and Raton Pass. Santa Fe, Albuquerque and finally into south central New Mexico where an exciting new spaceport has just taken shape.
It begins nearly 20 years ago with Burt Rutan's vision of an air-launched Spaceplane that can reach the edge of space.
What was created by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites was SpaceShipOne and the WhiteKnight carrier plane.
Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites, and it's new sponser/investor, Richard Branson's Virgin did it twice and the team won the 10 million dollar Xprise. From this a new partnership and a new company were born. Virgin Galactic.Sony a7SIII Astrophotography, Geminids. Extreme Low-Light tests. Big Bend, Texasscience out there2020-12-26 | Taking my brand new Sony #a7S3 out to the Big Bend of Texas for some extreme low light tests. Speed-run Astrophotopgrahy, The Geminid Meteor Shower and more!
About 2 years ago I nearly purchased the Sony A7s2, which is a consumer grade camera known especially for its low light video capabilities. It would have replaced my T3i that temporarily bit the dust. But I've been historically a Canon guy and instead purchased a Canon 6DmarkII which has been my primary timelapse camera, and a Sony RX10M4, which I've used for everything else video.
I made this decision thinking that Sony would come out with a new replacement A7s model soon and while that really took a while, it was finally announced over the summer of 2020. And for 4 months I waited for my new Sony A7s3 to arrive . It finally did just in time for my birthday and just ahead of the #GeminidMeteorShower. (a7s3 Review)
So to put this camera to the test I went to one of the darkest places in the United States, Big Bend in West Texas.
Something special about big bend, not only is it dark, there is no air traffic. So every streak you see in these S&Q timelapses is a Geminid Meteor, not planes. And very few satellites either as this is in the middle of the night. And this was right at the peak.
S&Q mode makes meteor shower timelapses an absolute breeze and the results are wonderful compared to efforts I've made in the past.
But even more impressive for these high ISO, 1 frame per second timelapses, is that it had no issue capturing meteor smoke. And let me point out, I didn't notice these naked eye. Seeing these in post sort of blew me away and I didn't expect to capture so many smoke trails. Usually this is reserved for the brightest meteors, yet the A7sIII seemed to capture meteor smoke on even just run-of-the-mill meteors.
I'm just floored by how nice the day to night transitions are on this camera. I know this is likely something all Sony Alpha users are well aware of and used ot but, This is brand new to me and I'll be taking full advantage.
In Big Bend's super dark sky, Zodiacal light is annoyingly bright in person, and the A7S3 captures this phenomenon beautifully.
Now this is the part that really thrilled me, #Astrophotography speed runs. I'll have more examples in an upcoming video but I'll show off two. This is Andromeda. After just 5 over minutes of integration time. 10 seconds, ISO 20,000, and 35 subexposures stacked in DSS. In the past, I have taken hours long images of Andromeda in order to get results this clean.
Or how about just 5 minutes of M45. I actually don't really have much to say other than just, wow. I never thought I'd see the day that I could speed run astrophotography and take images of several targets in one night and still get results like this.
Anyway, I hope you are as excited as I am for future content I bring here. And if you are interested in the Sony A7S3, I hope this additional bit of information was helpful. Thanks for watching, subscribe so you don't miss more cool stuff like you just saw, and until then, I'll see you out there.
A rather huge, surprise feature I discovered is that in Live View and using the in camera frame stacking, You can actually sometimes see the deep sky object you are wanting to photograph. This is fantastic for composing your image without taking lots of test shots, trial and error.
Unmodified or non-astro specific Cameras are generally pretty bad at picking up Hydrogen Alpha Emission nebula which is at the very edge of human vision anyway, and the A7s3 is no different here. But even with these speed run images, I am still impressed I got as much as I did out of the North America nebula, for example. By comparison, my modified t3i picks up this Ha light like it's no one else's business. A modified A7s3 would probably kick some serious ass at Ha and I'm sure someone will be trying it soon.
In Contrast, the same settings and restrictions using the same telescope combination on my Canon 6DmII...It's well. Gross. It looks this bad because at ISO 20,000 and at the bottom of this camera's dynamic range, the color data is pretty aweful. But normally astro on this camera and gear combination would be done at ISO 3200 or 1600 with at least 10 times as much integration time and at least 3 minute long exposures. Bottom line is, I can do far more work in far less time using the A7sIII thanks to the nearly magical low-light performance. That said, the Canon has over double the resolution of the A7SIII. But even if I took a 4 panel mosaic or used some fancy drizzle processing with the Sony, it would still in theory be way less than half the time spent on integration.Camping at 10,000 Feet. 16 Miles Solo Overnight Backpack.science out there2020-12-08 | Backpacking 16.6 Mile Segment 4 of the Colorado Trail, Solo, Long Gulch to Rolling Creek. (Reverse). August 2020. Mother Moose! Mountain Rainbows. Beautiful Colorado scenery.
#Camping at 10,000 Feet above sea level for the first time. It rains a lot! Overnight #thunderstorm. I make stir fry for dinner over the stove. See a vivid rainbow. Experience wonderful calming atmosphere. Some ASMR vibes in this one for sure! I pay a visit to a mother moose and her calf.
Thunder and commercial jets sound very different at high altitudes. This segment had plenty of water this time.
#ColoradoTrail Segment 4Tornado Ghost Towns p3 (Fan Edition!) And why some towns survive devastation.science out there2020-11-30 | Thurman, Colorado. Last Chance, Colorado. Mose, North Dakota. Udall, Kansas. Hallam, Nebraska. (and a quick stop in Glazier, TX). Towns that didn't survive severe weather events.
Thurman, A Mennonite community declined soon after several families were devastated by an F4 Tornado. Last Chance is famous for Tornadoes, including one near the end of its life. However it was a fire the ultimately doomed Last Chance. Mose, ND didn't survive a major severe weather event. Was it a tornado? It's not conclusive. Udall, KS and Hallam, NE seemed to have survived due to lucky distance from major metro areas, among other things.
What is a Derecho, and what could happen in a major event like with Mose?, or the recent example in central Iowa.
Why do large tornadoes seem to have wild variation within the parent tornado? El Reno and Hallam have some similarities here.
While this video will look just fine if you don't have the hardware to support HDR, it will look an order of magnitude more brilliant if you do.
How to view in HDR Mode:
Easy:
Watch directly via the Youtube App on your High Dynamic Range capable SMART TV. See your TV's owners manual to confirm that you have an HDR Television. To confirm you are watching in HDR, find the 'stats for nerds' option (looks like a traffic light) on this video while it is playing. Confirm that the colorspace being used is "BT2020"
Harder, On your PC:
To support HDR you will need an HDR capable Monitor (or TV) connected to your Desktop PC or Laptop. Your graphics card must support HDR 10 bit or higher color modes. (Most nVideo GeForce/Quadro and Radeon cards support this.) Your operating system must support HDR: Such as Windows 10. You must have HDR support enabled in your operating systems display settings (Enable "HD Color Mode). Your Browser must ALSO suppport HDR....Firefox does NOT play youtube videos in HDR. Google Chrom and Microsft Edge browsers will play HDR videos. To confirm HDR video is playing, you'll see a red "HDR" tag on the gear on the lower right hand corner of this video.
High Dynamic Range Astrophotography. HDR Astrophotography. High Dynamic Range video. Comet Neowise. Great Comet of 2020. HDR Comet. Comet Lemmon. Comet Panstarrs.
7,000+ RAW 14-bit Images over 15 days, from 11 Locations: 2 areas near Chugwater, Wyoming Grinnel, Iowa Kalamazoo, Michigan Bailey. Colorado 2 areas near Simla, Colorado Elizabeth, Colorado Estes Park, Colorado Wiggins, Colorado Buena Vista, Colorado
Over 29 hours of exposure time. (most images were 15s in lenght)
Converted directly to HDR10 via Adobe Photoshop Raw to Adobe After Affects
Or, stacked with Deep Sky Stacker 32-bit depth, processed in Adobe Photoshop and converted to HDR10
Telescope: William Optics GT81 RefractorBackpacking Colorado Trail Segment 3 with my kid!science out there2020-10-27 | My daughter came with me to #backpack the next segment! (Mid July) #ColoradoTrail She sees Comet #NEOWISE for the first time. I'm getting in shape, conditioning against altitude sickness, and working with the lot 2020 has given me. Hiking segment 3 was much easier. Little Scraggy Peak Trailhead.
I also talk about the channel a bit. See some banter/dynamic I have with my kid. She has a lot of questions, and I'm that Dad that seems to try to answer everything.
I photographed a couple of timelapses of Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE which will also be included in an upcoming video specifically all about the Comet!Storm Chasing 2020 - Structureman - (a Survivorman Parody)science out there2020-10-08 | Looking back at all of my storm chasing videos in the context of a global pandemic, There was a certain aesthetic that seemed vaguely familiar. No Motels, No restaurants, sleeping in the truck and wearing something over my head to cover up the self-cut crazy mop on my head.
Photogenic, fully condensed Tornadoes this spring were very hard to find, in spite of 13 separate storm chases. A pretty darn low ratio. But, some of the reasons why Tornadoes were so hard to find lead to some top notch storm structure for the year. Shelf clouds, Mothership Supercells, Mammatus, Sprites, 2020 had it all in that regard.
Les Stroud (Survivorman) pioneered the concept of producing an (almost completely) unscripted 'reality style' TV show all by himself. However the techniques pioneered and the concept of recording yourself in an unscripted matter were catapulted into popularity by Survivorman. In many ways 'inventing' YouTube or Vlogging before that was even a thing. Today, it's an ubiquitous practice: recording oneself, telling a story, sharing an experience, and self-marketing that experience. At any rate, I've drawn inspiration from Survivorman in the past, and so have several other survivalist or bush craft YouTubers that I follow. But this time I couldn't avoid straight up mimicking the look, feel, and mood of an episode of the TV show in this parody. I try to check all the boxes, Moody science, time-lapse photography, down-paced, science /instructional content, Eerie and folksy music. Even the dual-pane shots.
13 Storm chasing events:
May 12 in the Texas Panhandle May 13 in the Texas Panhandle and Sayre, Oklahoma May 14 in the Northwest Oklahoma May 15 in Southwest Oklahoma May 20 in Central and Eastern Colorado, Southern Wyoming May 21 in Southwest Kansas May 23 in Northwest Kansas June 3 in Northern Nebraska June 4 in Rapid City, South Dakota June 5 in the South Dakota Badlands June 6 Western South Dakota bust June 7 North Dakota and South Dakota
June 26 Denver to Colorado Springs, Colorado
Spring 2020 season and storm chasing review.Halloween Geomagnetic Storm 2003: Case Studies. Forecasting the Northern Lights: 4science out there2020-09-07 | Aurora Case Studies. October 2003's major geomagnetic storms. 2019's Coronal Holes that produced very predictable and wonderful lights around the world in the Summer and early Autumn. This is the latest installment in the Aurora Forecasting Series! Prior to this I discussed terminology, why, where and when to catch Northern Lights (or Southern Lights). The satellites the collect data for us to watch and analyze, and finally where to get data.
In this episode I take a deep dive into the parameters that we can watch to know when and where to look for northern lights, but based on 2 real-world examples from the most common sources that produce aurora, Coronal Holes, and Coronal Mass Ejections (Or CMEs). I explain the Solar Flare X-Ray scale and how to know when a solar flare is producing, or has produced a CME.
CME's can lead to major geomagnetic storms that can bright northern lights deep into lower latitudes like Florida or Spain, New Zealand and Australia. While Coronal holes are common and predictable, and can bring northern lights down the United States' northern border or deep into Scandanavia. #spaceweather #auroraborealis #geomagneticstorms
Northern Lights Southern Lights Aurora Borealis Aurora Australia Geomagnetic storms The Halloween Storm of 2003Starlink RUINED my NEOWISE Astrophotography! But didnt. Astro Stacking Methodsscience out there2020-08-19 | A follow up to my previous #Starlink vs #Astrophotography video, but this time, a real-world scenario! Starlink crossed one of my shots of comet #NEOWISE back on July 15. Around the same time a few "ruined" images of NEOWISE came into twitter as again, I mentioned before that given enough people taking photos, someone, somewhere is going to have a bad day!
However, some of these photos were intentionally set up to sensationalize the problem without context and it's caused a few non-astronomy folks to direct attacks at Elon Musk or SpaceX, even as changes are being made to the satellite constellation to minimize the problem.
Stacking Astrophotos can be done using various methods, Like Maximum, Average, or Kappa-Sigma. Each one has its place, but Maximum stacking will undoubtedly make streaks from satellites way worse, so let's not fall for the 'tricks' and talk about how and why each stacking method works.
Twitter: twitter.com/ScienceOutThereSolo Backpacking Colorado Trail Segment 2 - Scenery, Altitude Training.science out there2020-08-01 | An overnight SOLO backpacking trip on the Colorado Trail (Segment 2) South Platte River Trailhead. I discuss my plans to solo hike more trails and learn to climb some 14Kft mountains! Get Healthier, and fight Altitude sickness which may or may not be an issue for me. I talk about my future video plans. See the burned over area from Buffalo Creek fire. What mixed use Pike National Forest looks like in early Summer. Chair Rocks, Pikes Peak, Raleigh Peak, and the South Platte River. Since this video I've already backpacked through segment 3 and segment 4!
Camping alone on the Colorado trail multiple times on the Colorado trial to get health will be the common thread through this series.
Wildfire recovery, Birds, Monsoon season, Lots to explore!
And of course, I play with some landscape photography with minimal gear and "cheap" cameras like a GoPro Hero 7 Black and a Sony Rx10mIV