Both Sides Now

As a result of collaboration with a good friend, I was able to achieve my goal of looking at clouds from both sides. Simultaneously. Well, almost.

Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and they snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Source Credit: Both Sides Now, by Joni Mitchel.

Looking up

The following "Sky Lapse © 2025" time lapse videos show approximately 10 minutes of elapsed time compressed into ~20 seconds of video. Both videos were created using my Apple iPad mini 6 to record the sky as seen from the top of a seven-story parking garage at my home in suburban Washington, D.C. (USA). [For technical details, see "Tech Tips" (below).]

15 September 2025 beginning at 1:40 p.m.

15 September 2025 beginning at 1:53 p.m.

Notice the vertical wind shear shown by the cloud motion in both videos.

Looking Down

The following image was captured from Meteor M2-4 -- one of two Russian polar orbiting weather satellites -- on 15 September 2025 by Luis Acosta, my good friend and amateur radio guru. Luis's ground station is located in New Jersey (USA) but as you can see the view shown in the satellite image includes my location in Northern Virginia (USA). Although the time of the satellite pass (3:00 p.m. EDT) isn't perfectly synchronous with the times of my time lapse videos it's close enough, or as we say in Washington, D.C. it's good enough for government work.

Zoom in on the mid-Atlantic region. Notice Luis's weather satellite image (below) shows the same mix of cumuliform and cirroform clouds as is shown in my time lapse videos (above).

Meteor M2-4.

Tech Tips

The Apple "Camera" app can be used to record time lapse videos on iOS devices such as my iPad mini 6. The process is simple and straightforward, and works well. How to shoot TIMELAPSES on iPhone (7:15), by Matthew Vandeputte, time lapse guru, is a helpful how to video that provides step-by-step instructions for shooting time lapse videos using the "Camera" app on an iPhone. The same process works for Apple tablets too.

Luis's weather satellite receiving ground station includes the following hardware and software: Raspberry Pi 4 running the RaspiNOAA V2 image; RTL-SDR V3; Generic wideband LNA; and DIY QFH antenna.

Related Resources

• How to shoot time lapse videos on Apple iOS devices - a blog post by Walter Sanford
• More "Sky Lapse (c)" Videos

Post Update: I received a message from Luis Acosta that said "You inspired me." Hyperlapse on a Saturday afternoon (2:50) was created by Luis using the Camera app on his Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra smart phone to create the time lapse video. Luis recommends a recording speed of 15x to 30x. Well done, Luis!

Copyright © 2025 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.