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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Stratocumulus cloud Observed from Chicago
01 June 2010

Whilst on walk this warm afternoon, I spotted a large stratus cloud forming in the south east - billowing nicely and with great photogenic potential. Arriving home, I grabbed the camera and started shooting from my alley:

One could see the active movement of the cloud formation quite easily...and grabbing a pair of 10x50 binos...it was bubbling and building very actively...

I had some errands to do and felt bad about halting the photo sequence. So I took the camera along for the ride and stopped in a Target parking lot - staying there for about half an hour - hoping to get some great sunset glow on the clouds....

This next sequence is very interesting.

A shaft was forming quickly on top of the stratus - quite fast really and was forming a bow shock...

I was anxious to get my errands done and caught a few more before ceasing the session...

In the west were some nicely back lit clouds as well....

I went to work out soon after and after exiting at 9:00 pm, a nice silver glow to new clouds were about in the east...

These clouds remind me of the clouds the Adler Planetarium used to project on to the screen dome before the sky shows when I was a kid.

I enjoyed this meteorological photo session with explosive water vapor - looking a lot like volcanic plumes.

[RobbW]

Joe, I love watching those towering clouds build and grow and puff out. They're especially nice when they are far enough away to see the whole system build, as in your pictures. You never get to see the system's full glory when it is right on top of you. I was out driving around tonight at about 11:30pm and saw the storms developing far to my south. Lots of lighting, but too far away to hear any thunder yet. Reminded me of heat lighting when I was a kid in my hometown.