An astronomer in Texas – 1

Astronomy has a few perks, one of them being able to travel to far-away continents (depending on the perspective) and explore locations you can otherwise never access. My main scientific work is the hunt for extrasolar planets and in the context of this, I regularly travel into the mountains of Texas, to the McDonald observatory.
Living close to a young mountain range, the Bavarian alps, I was amazed by the completely different look of the much older geology of the Texas mountain range. My observing run took place in summer 2018, during the local monsoon season, which led to things I never thought I would see: thunderstorms below the milky way, beautiful, multi-layered rainbows and huge forest fires that darkened the sky for days, to name a few. Armed with a full-spectrum camera and another one dedicated to infrared, I attempted to capture my experiences. The following essay is a condensed view of several observing runs, always taking place at the same time of the year.

Our flight took us over the UK and Greenland, with a particularly scenic moment over the Isle of Skye. The NDVI filter was perfectly suited for that with its combination of gold and blue. As it happens with airplanes, the edge of its wing was inside the photo so I had to remove it. Therefore, the geology of the island that is photographed here may not be 100% accurate.