Star light, car bright

 
A car drives by as I take a picture of Orion above the Superstition Mountains:

More Superstitions

The Superstition Mountains, shortly before sunset tonight:



And, fifteen minutes later:



Panoramas created with Calico. (Same goes for yesterday's rainbow photo.)

Christmas Day rainbow

Superstition Mountain, Arizona.

Merry Christmas!

Above: The Zaks' Christmas tree (elevated for baby-proofing purposes).

Light and high beauty, indeed

The Moon, Venus and Jupiter, shining bright over Denver earlier this evening:



It was a Venus-Jupiter conjunction in 2005 that first gave me the idea for what would become the title of this blog, "Light and High Beauty." Tonight's stunning three-way conjunction of those same planets, plus the Moon -- the three brightest objects in the night sky -- was even worthier of that name. Absolutely beautiful.

The above photo, incidentally, was taken from the 33rd-floor sun deck of the Barclay building downtown. It's a 0.6 second exposure, with a 3.5 f-stop and a 200 ISO.

More photos here.

Panorama

The view from our seats in Section 25, Row 90 at the Los Angeles Coliseum for Saturday's USC-Notre Dame game:



Here's a larger version of the same picture (which I stitched together using a nifty piece of software called Calico). And here's an even wider view, and the full-size version thereof.