• Jim Nintzel

If any trouble had struck in Maricopa County last weekend, there were plenty on heroes on hand to save the day at the Phoenix Comicon 14, which lured a lot of Avengers, Justice Leaguers, Guardians, Black Widows and others to downtown. Here are a few snapshots of the cosplay underway at the con.

YIKÁÍSDÁHÁ from Sunchaser Pictures on Vimeo.

Photographer Gavin Heffernan of SunchaserPictures.com talks about capturing the stunning images in the above video:

In April I had the privilege of being invited to Northern Arizona University as an "artist in residence" to speak with their Photography students about my timelapse experiences. While there, we also took shooting field trips to some of the magnificent locations a few hours away, most notably Grand Canyon National Park and Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park (spotted in many epic John Ford Westerns and countless other classics like EASY RIDER and BACK TO THE FUTURE III bit.ly/1lngv3x!) The weather was very intense at times, with high winds, frigid temperatures, and stormfronts passing over us, but the locations were absolutely stunning and the clouds parted for long enough to reveal some incredible starscapes, meteors, and the clearest Milky Way I've ever seen!

• Photo credit: Savannah Douglas and The Daily Wildcat archive.
• Daily Wildcat pays tribute to a photograph taken by Tim Fuller in 1947.

The latest Weekend Wildcat cover is more than just sweet, lustful eye candy.

Weekly alum and Daily Wildcat editor Tatiana Tomich thought it would be a good idea to pay tribute to Tim Fuller's Wildcat fashion edition cover from 1973. It seems right considering that today's fashion is highly influenced by that time period. Wildcat photographer Savannah Douglas took this picture of UA students Luke Della and Joey Callahan while they enjoyed a brisk cup of tea in Tomich's backyard.

The story behind Fuller's original take is comparatively interesting and almost impossible to recreate by today's standards.

Click here for the full story, but here's a excerpt from Fuller's op-ed:

The forces of truth in Phoenix, not content to concern themselves with the obvious immorality of this sophomoric prank, whipped up bonus indignation by pointing out the anti-war editorials being written by our “Commie traitor” editor Jay Parker (later to become Colonel Jay Parker, the director of International Relations & National Security Studies at the United States Military Academy). By that afternoon our newsroom was filled with TV cameras and reporters and the basic theme of the day was, if they fool with the Wildcat, they are messing with freedom of the press. We became “press heroes” and there were few people in southern Arizona that didn’t know, and giggle slightly, about what we had managed to pull off.

The Tucson based photographer went on to have a prosperous career. Fuller has shot for Forbes, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and many more publications. Click here to see his portfolio.

Keep shooting for the stars.

Photographer Eric Kroll made some photographs of the cowboys and cowgirls at La Fiesta del los Vaqueros this week. The rodeo is back in full swing this weekend. Details here.

• Jim Nintzel

The bulls seemed to get the best of the cowboys yesterday afternoon at Tucson's Fiesta de los Vaqueros. The rodeo continues through next Sunday. You can get the scoop on Thursday's parade here and the rest of the rodeo schedule here.

More photos after the jump.

• NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

One of The Range's favorite spacecrafts is the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which carries the UA's HiRISE camera high above the surface of Mars. One of HiRISE's latest photos of an impact crater is getting a lot of attention this month. Here's Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait at Slate:

Bang! That is one of the newest craters on Mars: It’s about 30 meters (100 feet) across, and formed by the explosive impact of an asteroid no more than four years ago. We know that because it wasn’t there in an image of Mars taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft in July 2010, but it was in one taken in May 2012.

Plait goes on to explain how a recent experiment here in the Arizona desert gives us some idea of how big the meteorite was:

• Jim Nintzel

Yesterday's 76-54 win over Oregon State delivered a confidence boost to the Arizona Wildcats, following their first loss of the season, the season-ending injury to Brandon Ashley and the recent trouble the team has had with free throws.

This week, the Cats—now 23-1 overall and 10-1 in the conference—are going up the road for a Valentine's Day date with Arizona State. Tip off is 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14 and you can catch the game on ESPN.

After the jump: Some photos from yesterday's game.