Time-Lapse Video of Pyrocumulus from the Hermit's Peak Fire (Shallow Thoughts)

Time-Lapse Video of Pyrocumulus from the Hermit's Peak Fire

The Cerro Pelado fire that was threatening Los Alamos is mostly under control now (71% contained as of Tuesday morning), and the county has relaxed the "prepare to evacuate" status.

That's good, and not just for Los Alamos, because it means more people who can fight the much larger Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon fire, currently 26% contained and stretching over a huge 299,565 acres.

For those of us on the Pajarito Plateau, that means we're getting views of enormous pyrocumulus clouds towering over the Sangre de Cristo mountains from Las Vegas to just south of Taos.

I keep missing the opportunity for photos, but on Sunday night I took a series of images and made this time-lapse movie.

The smoke plumes from Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon have been much smaller yesterday and so far today. Bad for photography, but I hope it means they're getting things under control.

Speaking of bad for photography, I was also hoping to make a moonrise sequence from Sunday's lunar eclipse, but clouds interfered, and the most we caught was a couple of brief glimpses. I hope you got a better look.