Ohio Valley Aerial

Ohio Valley Aerial Fixed wing, helicopter using specialized stabilized cameras

The Rho Ophiuchi NebulaWe were able to photograph the Rho Ophiuchi Nebula the other night. Rho is essentially a giant, s...
06/18/2026

The Rho Ophiuchi Nebula
We were able to photograph the Rho Ophiuchi Nebula the other night. Rho is essentially a giant, stunningly colorful cosmic nursery located about 400 light-years (2.35 quadrillion miles) away, where hundreds of new stars are currently being born. It looks like a magnificent abstract painting in deep space. Hot young stars light up the cosmic dust to create a glowing blue fog, a dying supergiant star casts a warm golden campfire glow across the region, and thick, inky black rivers of space dust cut right through the middle. Because it is so close to Earth, astronomers use it as a window to watch the chaotic and beautiful process of baby stars and future solar systems coming to life.

The entire region of Rho is anywhere from 1-5 million years old. The individual baby stars forming inside its dark dust lanes are even younger, with many being under 100,000 years old meaning they are just beginning their life cycles.

Astrophotography allows us to use camera technology to bring out features such as nebula, galaxies, and other features of the night sky that were always there but we just could never fully see them with telescopes or our eyes. It allows us to view objects that were previously hidden from us so to speak.

Because it takes so long for the light from nebula and galaxies to reach us here on earth when you look at Rho, you are seeing the nebula exactly as it appeared in the year 1626 which was around the time Galileo was first turning his telescope toward the planets.

The M4 Globular ClusterWe were attempting to shoot some nebula last night and had to quit due to some upper level cloud ...
06/10/2026

The M4 Globular Cluster

We were attempting to shoot some nebula last night and had to quit due to some upper level cloud cover. We managed to get few frames of M4 Globular Cluster before the clouds. It’s not much exposure time at all but still good enough to make out is general structure.

The M4 Globular Cluster is the closest globular cluster to Earth. It is located about 7,200 light years away(42 quadrillion miles). It is a dense, sphere shaped swarm of 100,000 stars bound together by gravity and orbiting the Milky Way as part of the Galaxy's ancient halo population.

M4 is extraordinarily old with an age of about 12–13 billion years. That means it formed when the universe was still very young, billions of years before the Sun and Earth existed. Most of its stars belong to the ancient Population II stellar population and contain far fewer heavy elements than the Sun.

M4 is also famous for hosting the planetary system associated with PSR B1620-26. One of its companions called Methuselah is frequently cited as one of the oldest known planets with an estimated age of roughly 12.7 billion years.

Astrophotography allows us to use camera technology to bring out features such as nebula, galaxies, and other features of the night sky that were always there but we just could never fully see them with traditional telescopes or our eyes.

Gustfront from the complex of strong storms moving into far west Kentucky from southeast Missouri this afternoon ...
05/31/2026

Gustfront from the complex of strong storms moving into far west Kentucky from southeast Missouri this afternoon

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Astro photos of our Milky Way Galaxy! Over 80% of North America cannot see the Milky Way with their own eyes. This is du...
05/30/2026

Astro photos of our Milky Way Galaxy!

Over 80% of North America cannot see the Milky Way with their own eyes. This is due to light pollution. Seeing it now requires either going to a dark sky site or using extended exposures on DSLR cameras that can capture enough light to make it shine. Before light pollution from cities and towns it was very visible in the night sky with the naked eye.

When we look out at that faint, milky band stretching across the horizon, we aren't looking at some distant object. We are actually looking edge-on into the thickest part of our own galaxy's spiral arms from our little vantage point on the Orion Spur.

These are single 25 second exposures from a DSLR camera and do have some airglow.


In Depth Analysis of a Single Cumulus Congestus Cloud*Total Mass of Suspended Water in the Cloud~ 6.6 million kilograms*...
05/23/2026

In Depth Analysis of a Single Cumulus Congestus Cloud

*Total Mass of Suspended Water in the Cloud~ 6.6 million kilograms

*Total Cloud Mass~ 8.49 million metric tons.

*Updraft Velocity of ~33.5 MPH

*The total latent energy released into the atmosphere by this single convective tower is approximately 16,493,360,000,000 Joules (equivalent to the energetic release of approximately 3.9 kilotons of TNT). This represents energy released cumulatively over the cloud's entire formation.

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Liquid Water Content Evolution in a Small Cumulus Cloud Initially this cloud was opaque and rounded in physical shape, i...
05/09/2026

Liquid Water Content Evolution in a Small Cumulus Cloud

Initially this cloud was opaque and rounded in physical shape, indicating it was being actively fueled by a thermal updraft. At this time it had liquid water content (LWC) values peaking around 0.5 g/m^3. As time progressed this cloud stoped growing vertically and began to flatten. This signified that the buoyant energy from the ground had been exhausted or the thermal had detached from the surface, ending the moisture supply. Peak LWC values began to drop after this point.

As the updraft failed, this cloud became a passive participant in the local wind field. This cloud began to elongate horizontally. This suggested slight wind shear. This stretching increased the cloud's surface-area-to-volume ratio, which was the beginning of the end for its structural integrity. Peak LWC values began to lessen to around 0.25 to 0.3 g/m^3 as a result.

The most striking finding is the transition from a solid appearance to a more wispy or shredded one. This was evidence of dry air entrainment. The surrounding unsaturated air was mixed into the cloud margins. Once the edges thinned out, more surface area was exposed to dry air, which accelerated ev***ration further. It was a runaway process once the updraft was gone.

All in all, the combination of dry air entrainment and slight wind shear are the two main factors in this clouds dissipation after its updraft failed. The liquid water content values followed in suite with the cloud health, and went from the highest when the cloud was at its peak to the lowest when it was dissipating.

It is worthy to note that land surface heterogeneity likely played a role in initiating all of this. Looking at the ground below, there's a patchwork of fields, forest edges, and open land which is exactly the kind of varied surface heating that generates short-lived, localized thermals. The cloud was likely born from one of those heat sources, and when the cloud drifted past that source area, the thermal simply cut off.

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Ever wonder what the liquid water content looks like inside a regular cloud you see everyday?These compare and contrast ...
05/09/2026

Ever wonder what the liquid water content looks like inside a regular cloud you see everyday?

These compare and contrast “X-Ray” images of these clouds are not perfect but are estimates based on cloud shapes/textures, brightness levels along varying parts of the cloud, environmental conditions at the time, and other variables. Most of the cloud body is actually low-density v***r. Often, the visual center of the cloud is not the heavy center full of water like one would think. One can estimate where most of the water is concentrated in the cloud based on where the strongest updrafts are. The strongest updrafts are estimated based on cloud shape and texture identifying growing vs dying parts of the cloud along with other factors.

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Liquid Water Content Evolution in Neighboring Cumulus Congestus Towers ***r ...
05/03/2026

Liquid Water Content Evolution in Neighboring Cumulus Congestus Towers

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Liquid Water Content Evolution in Neighboring Cumulus Congestus TowersCumulus congestus clouds sit right on the edge, ca...
05/03/2026

Liquid Water Content Evolution in Neighboring Cumulus Congestus Towers

Cumulus congestus clouds sit right on the edge, caught between simple fair-weather clouds and the massive, precipitating engines of cumulonimbus storms. Because they represent such a critical transition, understanding what’s happening inside them, specifically how liquid water is distributed over time, is a huge deal for everything from aviation safety to refining our weather models.
While we’ve spent plenty of time studying single towers, we don't often get a high-resolution look at how neighbors interact in real-time. This paper digs into that handoff behavior where towers take turns intensifying. By looking at four specific snapshots over five minutes, we can see exactly how the internal LWC shifts as one tower rises and its neighbor falls.

We’ve paired standard aerial photos with co-registered 3D LWC renderings. To make the data easy to read, we used a LWC color scale. The cool colors (Blue/Green) equate to low LWC concentrations (0.0–0.5 g/m^3 and the warm colors (Yellow/Orange/Red) equate to high LWC concentrations (0.5–1.0+ g/m^3).
We tracked two specific towers : a Left Tower (LT) and a Right Tower (RT). Through a timelapse sequence we pulled frames every 75 to 100 seconds to catch the full arc of their development.

LT Dominant -Image 1
At the start, both towers are active, but the Left Tower is clearly the star of the show. It has a broad, deep red-orange core peaking at 0.86 g/m^3. The Right Tower is there, but it’s smaller and less dense (0.7 g/m^3). At this stage, both are expanding laterally; they haven't quite tightened up into narrow vertical columns yet. It’s clear that LT is further along in its life, having had more time to build up its droplet concentration.

RT Beginning to Surge-Image 2
The second frame is where things get interesting. The perspective shifts to a vertical cross-section, and suddenly the Right Tower is beginning to surge. It’s now a tall, narrow, intense column of liquid water.
Meanwhile, the Left Tower is showing subtle signs of already peaking and beginning to fall apart. Its core is losing its shape and spreading out at the base.

RT Dominant and LT Weakened-Image 3
By the third frame, the Right Tower is at its strongest, hitting those deep red LWC values (near 1.0 g/m^3) that the LT held just a few minutes prior. The LWC rendering tells the real story that the energy has officially moved to the right. The LT is now just a lingering small orange-yellow ghost of its former self.

RT Fading-Image 4
In the final frame, the party is mostly over. The RT is weakening, and the cloud top is losing its crispness. Interestingly, the highest LWC values are now bunched up at the bottom of the cloud. This happens because the updraft has become too weak

This five-minute window gave us a perfect look at how convective energy moves between neighbors. We found that the dominant tower can change in under two minutes. We also found that the LWC tells the truth, as visual height can be deceiving. The location and orientation of the LWC core in a cloud tells you where the actual strength is.

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Some thunderstorms from summer 2025 ***r
05/02/2026

Some thunderstorms from summer 2025

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