Sunrise 138: Ault Park (Purple and Orange Winter Twilight, a Crescent Moon)

Early twilight before Sunrise 138. Check out the crescent moon in the corner!

Heekin Overlook, looking out over the Little Miami River Valley. How many humans have seen the sunrise from this spot over the past ten millennia???

First Light @ Sunrise 138

If you were to look at the forecast right now, or even out the window, you would probably be surprised to find out that the sunrise this morning was another beautiful winter display. As I write this, the sky has filled with clouds and it looks like we’re hunkering down for some snow. But just two hours ago, the skies were clear and misty with humidity, and the sun rose amid a bright twilight display featuring some deep purples and bright oranges. Not bad for “71% cloud cover”, eh? Once again the changing weather has proven impossible to accurately predict.

I woke up a bit early this morning because my wife and I had the intention of trying out, for the first time, a 6am spinning class at the local gym. As 5:45am rolled around, it didn’t sound like the best plan. We continued to sleep, but fortunately I mustered up some mental energy and peered out the window to see if I could see any stars. What did I see through the silhouetted trees? Why, a misty halo surrounding a crescent moon! This was enough to get me up by 6:45am, catch up on some email, and then head down to Mt. Lookout for some coffee.

As it turned out, the atmosphere held off the clouds that vacated the sky last night just before sunset. There was a substantial amount of misty humidity in the air, causing quite a beautiful scatter of the early morning twilight colors. Purple was well represented this morning, probably due to the thicker haze that tends to keep the yellows and oranges subdued until just before sunrise. The fuchsia palette was present throughout the early twilight, but it wasn’t the dominant player. Just before sunrise, the sky exploded, for about 20 seconds, in this brilliant orange glow, similar to the shade I saw during Sunrise 137 that basked the overlook in its rich hue.

I imagine that the ice crystals up in the humid atmosphere have a lot to do with these extended winter twilight displays. I was worried about the winter, but as it turns out I love the winter sunrises just as much as the ones during the rest of the year.

Oh, before we continue, I’d like to share some exciting news. This week, the Eastern Hills Journal is featuring a follow up to the May 2011 article on Ault Park Sunrise. It’s a nice piece and Lisa Wakeland, as always, did a great job. The journal is available at local book stores and other venues around the city. I picked up a copy at Joseph-Beth bookstore in Norwood.

As I peddled up the hill to the park, the moon hanging over this beautiful silhouetted tree caught my eye. We can see the sky starting to light up at the base of the tree.

I’m starting to amass a nice, but small, collection of twilight pictures with this tree of heaven as the subject. I was looking for a large tree silhouette, but I’m quite content with this little guy for the time being.

My friend, the adolescent Tree of Heaven. A new project favorite and the subject of an unexpected series.

The early twilight colors of Sunrise 138 over the Little Miami River Valley. The thick haze that hung high over head once again broke just above the horizon, similar to Sunrise 137. This time, however, the haze was thin and the opening much larger. My camera had no problem with the lighting today.

A soft textured sky as the colors begin to shift up the energy spectrum from blue/purples to orange/yellows.

If you’re on the front page, please click to continue. There are about 22 pictures total for this morning. 

A soft twilight gradient with the moon high in the sky. It isn’t often that we get to see the moon in the same region of the sky as the sunrise.

Here we get a glimpse of the subtle purples that were slowly fading out as the sun approached the horizon.

I can’t help but think about these ancient cultures that lived in this valley over the past 2000 years. Their civilizations (at least three, probably four) tended to this land for many times longer than the age of Cincinnati.

A plane comes in to land at Lunken at twilight. I got lucky and captured him right as he dropped down into the brightest region of the sky.

The Tree of Heaven, reaching upward towards, well, the heavens.

Looking out from the lower overlook, under Heekin Overlook. We can start to see the yellows beginning to concentrate over by the water tower on the horizon.

A vertical shot of the sunrise gradient just before First Light.

What a unique palette this morning’s display had.

Sunrise 138

Heekin Overlook, from the classic location.

The sun is just about to peak!

Vertical Heekin Overlook

First Light over the valley.

Sunrise 138.

Here’s a nice view west-ward across the misty valley. I noticed that one of the houses on the ridge line was reflecting the sunlight directly towards me.

As always, thanks for reading along.