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http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/montreal/What+that+mysterious+boom/9216575/story.html MONTREAL - What was that boom? What was that flash of light? And where were they coming from? Hudson, St-Lazare and towns farther afield were rocked briefly by the sound of an explosion and a flash of blue-green light in the night sky at around 8 p.m. Tuesday. But the source of the big boom remains a mystery. Officials in the off-island towns, as well as at the Sûreté du Québec, were flummoxed, leaving residents who heard the noise to wonder what happened. "No one seems to know what it is exactly, but a friend described it as bright blue flash in the sky followed by the sound," tweeted Kalina Laframboise. "It's been heard all over the region but no details," wrote Greg Patterson. "My opinion is that it was a meteor hitting the atmosphere with sonic boom." "Felt like an explosion, or a 'short' earthquake," Faith MacLeod said on Off Island Gazette's Facebook page. "Stepped outside and neighbours were out wondering what it was." "Yes, was sitting watching TV and I thought one of my kids fell out of bed. It was super loud," added Jenn Ryan Baluyot on the same Facebook page. Residents from Pincourt to Pointe-Claire and Pierrefonds reported hearing the sound. On social media, it was even reported as far away as Ormstown and Cornwall, Ont. St-Lazare mayor Robert Grimaudo said he had no idea what the source of the explosion was. Nor did the SQ, nor Environment Canada. Nothing in the weather patterns in the area could be to blame, least of all the snow that began to fall around the same time, an Environment Canada spokesperson said. Tracy Moore was at home in St-Lazare with her boyfriend and heard and felt something strange around 8 p.m. "It was really freaky — we heard this boom outside," she told The Gazette an hour later. "It sounded like that explosion we had last summer at the fireworks factory here. "It was just this boom. It lasted a few seconds." Moore went online to a local Facebook "community connections" group she's a member of, and wrote: "Did anybody hear the boom? Or was it just us?" "And, like, 211 posts later, people are still talking about it," she said. "People felt their house shaking and thought a tree had landed on it. The dogs were freaking out. My girlfriend in Cornwall, her husband works for Ontario Hydro and he saw this flash of light in the sky. "He says he never saw anything like it before — and he works for Hydro!" Did you hear anything? Let us know on Twitter @mtlgazette or by leaving a comment on this story. For more on this story visit the Montreal Gazette's Off Island site. © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

Collection from a photographer in Chicago Myspace profile: http://www.myspace.com/delobbo Some of you may have seen these already but wanted to share for the rest of the class. click any pic for a larger version. I didn't use a tripod for any of these, but I did use ledges or other supporting structures to balance. As noted, many were hand-held (using burst shots). This is handy for instance when, you want to take a night shot in the middle of the street, with cars around. (EXIF for as many shots as I could find and/or applicable.) 6-shot panorama taken from Millenium Park - click for 1920px version EXIF from one of the main shots: Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: 2008:08:27 18:51:22 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 24.0mm Exposure Time: 0.100 s (1/10) Aperture: f/2.8 ISO equiv: 125 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: Manual Exposure Mode: Manual The Bean, single-shot HDR from RAW - click for 1920px version Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: 2008:08:27 18:26:29 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 48.0mm Exposure Time: 0.017 s (1/60) Aperture: f/2.8 ISO equiv: 125 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: Manual Exposure Mode: Manual Looking south down LaSalle Street towards the Board of Trade, Chicago. Single-shot HDR from RAW, hand-held. Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: 2008:08:26 19:16:38 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 28.0mm Exposure Time: 0.125 s (1/8) Aperture: f/2.8 ISO equiv: 125 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: Manual Exposure Mode: Manual 17-shot panorama of Lake Michigan, Grant Park, Chicago Loop, looking south from 39th floor on Randolph Street. Advisable to view large (1920px) Chicago at night. You may recognize some buildings from The Dark Knight.. Camera Model: NIKON D70 Image Date: 2005:07:05 22:30:14 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 18.0mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm) Exposure Time: 0.400 s (1/3) Aperture: f/3.5 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix downtown Chicago, by the river and Marina City, IBM building.. b/w conversion. Camera Model: NIKON D70 Image Date: 2005:07:05 22:41:31 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 18.0mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm) Exposure Time: 0.200 s (1/5) Aperture: f/3.5 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix looking north from Roosevelt, South Loop Chicago. 3-shot panorama from single-shot RAW HDR. click for 2560px version Railyard north of Roosevelt, Chicago. Single-shot HDR. Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: 2008:08:10 22:20:33 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 68.0mm Exposure Time: 0.200 s (1/5) Aperture: f/2.8 ISO equiv: 160 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: Manual Exposure Mode: Manual Navy Pier single-shot HDR panorama, Chicago. Navy Pier single-shot HDR panorama, Chicago. Made from 2 shots. 18-shot HDR (from single RAW) panorama, looking north from the Adams St bridge on the Chicago river. looking east from South Loop Chicago. 11-shot panorama (no HDR). missed a couple of shots to get a complete pano, I will most likely go back and redo this one - hopefully during more dramatic sky conditions as well. Of note, the white house towards the center of the picture is the Clarke House, which is regarded as the oldest surviving building in Chicago. Looking North down Michigan Avenue from Randolph Street. hand-held Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: 2008:08:26 19:01:01 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 70.0mm Exposure Time: 0.050 s (1/20) Aperture: f/2.8 ISO equiv: 125 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: Manual Exposure Mode: Manual heading to Chicago on 94-West. single-shot HDR Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: 2008:06:22 19:55:25 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 51.0mm Exposure Time: 0.067 s (1/15) Aperture: f/2.8 ISO equiv: 200 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: Manual Exposure Mode: Manual (not HDR) taken during the filming of Batman: The Dark Knight, Chicago Loop 2007. Single-shot HDR, hand-held. What you see in the middle with the spotlights surrounding it is the ramp leading to the lower level of Wacker drive - these are the scenes with the trucks going down/up the ramps and the related chase scenes. Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: Thu Aug 23 21:21:06 2007 Focal Length: 73.0mm Exposure Time: 0.386 s (1/3) Aperture: f/4.0 ISO equiv: 100 (not HDR) Camera Model: NIKON D70 Image Date: 2005:07:03 17:54:10 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 18.0mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm) Exposure Time: 0.0031 s (1/320) Aperture: f/9.0 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Stormy night.. 08/23/07.. facing west from Wacker Drive. Behind glass. multiple exposure HDR (3 or 4), the spots at the top are raindrops on the window.. Looking east from Franklin Street at Delaware at 5AM. Single-shot HDR. Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: 2008:06:22 04:17:16 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 32.0mm Exposure Time: 0.0050 s (1/200) Aperture: f/2.8 ISO equiv: 200 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: Manual Exposure Mode: Manual D70, 2005. note: this is one of my earlier HDR's, it is definitely on the "wilder" side.. intentionally. go Cubs! 34-shots, Canon SD550. Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: 2008:06:22 04:30:06 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 70.0mm Exposure Time: 0.0031 s (1/320) Aperture: f/2.8 ISO equiv: 200 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: Manual Exposure Mode: Manual Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Image Date: 2008:06:22 04:15:41 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 42.0mm Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160) Aperture: f/2.8 ISO equiv: 200 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Exposure: Manual Exposure Mode: Manual multiple exposure HDR, 4 shots Camera Model: NIKON D70 Image Date: 2005:02:15 19:45:00 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 56.0mm (35mm equivalent: 84mm) Exposure Time: 0.050 s (1/20) Aperture: f/4.5 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix Camera Model: NIKON D70 Image Date: 2005:08:28 12:28:51 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 22.0mm (35mm equivalent: 33mm) Exposure Time: 0.0031 s (1/320) Aperture: f/9.0 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix State of Illinois building, Chicago. 3-shot HDR. Merchandise Mart, Chicago. hand-held Camera Model: NIKON D70 Image Date: 2005:07:05 22:16:28 Flash Used: No Focal Length: 24.0mm (35mm equivalent: 36mm) Exposure Time: 0.200 s (1/5) Aperture: f/3.8 White Balance: Auto Metering Mode: Matrix

Record heat forces closure of Canada Arctic park David Ljunggren, Reuters Published: 3 minutes ago OTTAWA (Reuters) - A major national park in Canada's Arctic has been largely closed after record high temperatures caused flooding that washed away hiking trails and forced the evacuation of tourists, an official said on Friday. Every year around 500 people visit Auyuittuq National Park, which covers over 19,000 square km (7,340 square miles) on Baffin Island and is dominated by the giant Penny ice cap. The park is popular with hikers and skiers. The combination of floods, melting permafrost and erosion means that the southern part of the park will remain shut until geologists can examine the damage, said Pauline Scott, a spokeswoman for Parks Canada. "We've lost huge proportions of what was formerly the trail in the park. It's disappeared -- gone," Scott said by phone from Iqaluit, capital of the Arctic territory of Nunavut. Most visitors walk through the park -- which is slightly smaller in area than Israel -- starting from the southern edge, near the town of Pangnirtung. The problems started last month with two weeks of record temperatures on Baffin Island that reached as high as 27 Celsius (81 Fahrenheit), well above the July average of 12 C (54 F). This, Scott said, triggered massive melting which sent "a huge pulse of water through the park," washing away 60 km (37 miles) of a trail used by hikers and destroying a bridge over a river that is otherwise impassable. Earlier this week, once the extent of the damage had become clear, 21 visitors had to be evacuated by helicopter. "We're not as worried about the flash flooding as we are about the instability of the ground and the slumping and the cracks appearing all along that entire 60 km length (of the trail)," said Scott. Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to climate change. Last week, giant sheets of ice totaling almost 20 square km (8 square miles) broke off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic and more might follow later this year, scientists said. Scott said more problems could be in store for the park. "We've had lots of hard rain in the south part of Baffin Island in the last five days so we don't know what this is doing to further destabilize melting permafrost, because this is what is causing the erosion," she said. In June, Pangnirtung declared a state of emergency for three weeks after flash flooding cut off the town's water supply and sewage system. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson)