Today the latest EUMETSAT 4th Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite returned it’s first image.  This is Europe’s latest geostationary weather satellite and the latest iteration in a long line of weather satellites going back to the mid the 1990’s with the launch of the first generation Meteosat satellites. In our changing world it is key to keep a keen eye on weather and weather systems.

PhenoCams track seasonality and the structure of the vegetation in a top down fashion, mostly looking down onto the the top of the canopy or vegetation. However, some of the cameras have a different vantage point. Instead of looking down on the canopy, they look through it!

The past two days I was out at Harvard Forest to help collect samples for Morgan, a PhD student in the lab. I know the skies at Harvard Forest can be pretty dark so in addition to working boots I packed my camera and tripod. The result of some patience and an hour of post-processing can be seen below. In the picture’s top left you see the Coathanger or Brocchi’s cluster. At bottom right Sagittarius and the galaxy’s center sets into trees lining Prospect Hill road. On the bottom the Torrey Labs (left) and the Fisher house (right) and the trees on Prospect Hill road are lit up by street lights. The final picture is a stacked exposure of 10 shots at 25 sec. each with a 12mm / f2 lens at ISO 6400. (click for a full sized version)

Another PhenoCam gem! Half Dome rises almost 3000m above sea level at the eastern end of the Yosemite national park. The western side lights up in the evening sun. That’s a lot of magnificent granite in the evening sun. Recently Google documented the ascent of another famous rockface in Yosemite, El Capitan, using their street view project. It makes for a good read and some sweaty palms if you are not so comfortable with heights.

Red foliage is often associated with autumn. Yet the same pigments, anthocyanin, which makes for spectacular leaf peeping in autumn is also present during spring, although short lived and more subtle.