When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
It was going to be Sunday. Regular checking of the tiltmeter data, watching the glow and spatter in the livestream cameras, and nearly a year of experience with the current eruption’s repetitive episodes had allowed me to be fairly certain. Others were betting it would be Friday or Saturday. Some folks had been camping out … Continue reading “Waiting for Episode 36”
Reading the tiltmeter data it was clear that the pressure was building again, an eruption appearing likely in the next day or two. The last episodes have produced ever higher lava fountains, I expect episode 15 to go even higher and I truly wish to see it when it happens. Right on schedule the first … Continue reading “Episode 15”
Reading the data it really looked like Saturday would be the day, the USGS forecast was for Saturday, the online chatter agreed… Saturday. The volcano does what the volcano does… The eruption started Sunday morning. This time I had followed up on my bet, spending all day Saturday in the park. Arriving well before sunrise, … Continue reading “A Day Without Lava”
I was ready… I had the day off, and the eruption was due. The camera was packed, batteries charged, memory cards cleared. Ready to go! Work, as usual, is the complicating factor when it comes to volcano photography. I had been planning for a week. Some experiments at work required me to go in on … Continue reading “Volcano Run… Not”
I somehow always miss the very start of the eruption. For episode 9 I was just a couple miles away in another part of the park when the eruption broke out. For episode 15 I had been on the rim for hours waiting for the expected start when I finally gave up and went to … Continue reading “The Start”
While enjoying and photographing episode 15 of the current eruption we got dumped on. It was while photographing the spectacular fountains of episode 15 that bits of tephra began drifiting down on the crowded viewpoints along the crater rim. There was little wind and the enormous volcanic plume drifted over the eastern end of the … Continue reading “Tephra”
