Chicago - Field Museum

The Field Museum is a famous museum of natural history in Chicago, and a must-see for anyone interested in such things. It includes many dinosaur skeletons, including Sue, an impressive T-Rex skeleton found in the main hall.

In addition to Sue are numerous dinosaur skeletons of various shapes and sizes.

It also includes numerous preserved animals.

We also saw the Inside Ancient Egypt exhibit, with hieroglyphics and mummies, and more.

These photos barely scratch the surface of this museum, and it's a great way to spend a day.

Skywatch Friday - Stormy Skies

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Here's another picture from a summer storm, in fact the same storm which spawned the lightning that hit the tree across the road.

For more photos of interesting skies around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

Close-Up Experiments

This summer I got a set of inexpensive close-up filters; basically they are small lenses that attach to the front of a lens and allow it to focus closer. I'd love to have a real macro lens but it's not in the budget right now, so these will have to do for now. Here are a couple of pictures I've taken while experimenting with these filters. There's an aspen leaf, a dried flower, and a pine tree.

Skywatch Friday - Thundercloud at Sunset

Back in the summer, I caught this thunderhead just before sunset. It was much bigger than it appears here, this is captured at 12mm (18mm in film equivalent). We get a lot of afternoon thunderstorms here in the May through September timeframe. If you like lightning photos I've got a couple here and here, and a distant thunderstorm with lightning here, all from before when I joined Skywatch Friday.

For more photographs of this kind, visit Skywatch Friday.

DC - Udvar-Hazy Center

Finally, here is the last of my blog posts from our Washington DC vacation this summer. These are from the final afternoon, when we visited the Udvar-Hazy Center, near Dulles Airport. It's a large extension of the Air and Space Museum, housing many amazing historical aircraft.

This is the Enola Gay. It's very sobering to realize the plane's part in history.

Here's an older plane, I don't remember which one.

Here are a couple of shots of an Air France Concorde.

A close-up of its engine and landing gear.

A fighter, as seen in the movie Transformers II.

Here's the Space Shuttle Enterprise. It never went to space, but did perform some test flights and landings.

And finally, from a simulated control tower, there are some great views of the airport and planes landing. It was a cloudy, rainy day when we were there, and the planes appeared out of the clouds just before they touched down.

I can't recommend this museum highly enough for anybody interested in the history of aircraft.

Skywatch Friday - Through the Pines

This is looking straight up at the sky on a hike this morning.

For more sky-oriented photos, visit Skywatch Friday.

Muscoco Mountain

It was an overcast day today, but not a cold one, so I decided to go for a hike. I started on the Mount Cutler Trail, but half way up went off on a different trail that leads towards Muscoco Mountain. This is a much more challenging trail than the Mount Cutler trail, and I wouldn't recommend it for children as there are some places with exposure.

This is the destination, Muscoco Mountain, from well up the trail. The trail circles around to the back and finishes the climb from there.

Here's a view of another trail switchbacking up a steep mountainside.

The trail winds through a pine forest.

Eventually it reaches the top, with some very nice views.

There were some outcroppings near the top that look like quartz.

It made for a very enjoyable morning.

Skywatch Friday - Sunrise

Here is this morning's sunrise, looking out in my front yard.