Month: November 2021

Dark Nebulas

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date November 30, 2021

For the past week I have been putting a lot of time into dark nebulas. There are hundreds of them listed in Stellarium but almost no photos anywhere online to see what they look like. I tried for a few of the better- known dark nebulas, these are the ones with some bright stars lighting up the clouds. They are difficult targets; the dust is dim and it is hard to get enough exposure. With the C8 (at f6.3) it is nearly impossible but with the 500 mm lens at f4 I can get one nebula done in a couple of nights if all goes well. Framing is hard too, I can’t see the clouds in the images, all I can see is areas with no stars, obscured by the dust. Anyway, I will post some of the results below. As always, right click on an image and open in a new tab for a larger view.

The Helping Hand Nebula is a very faint dust cloud in Cassiopeia. It is made up of two main dark nebulas, LDN 1357 and LDN 1358. There are lots of other faint things in here too, some small reflection nebulas and other small dark nebulas. I was just happy to see that I was able to get the hand!

This is in the Taurus Molecular Cloud. The main features are Barnard 7 (the dark nebula) and LBN 782, the blue reflection nebula.

I added more exposure to NGC 1333, the Embryo Nebula. I think it looks pretty good and will leave it as is.

Dark nebulas and reflection nebulas abound in this image of VdB 14 and VdB 15. This one was more difficult than I expect and I probably need a lot more exposure. VdB is a catalog of reflection nebula published by Sidney van den Bergh in 1966.

A Gray Flycatcher at the golf course. It has been a long time since I’ve seen one here in the Ajo area.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk at the golf course.

Birding Insects Photography

Another Rufous-backed Robin

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date November 24, 2021

I stopped by the plaza a couple of days ago and was watching some robins on the grass when I realized one of them was a Rufous-backed Robin. Since then, I’ve been able to get some pretty good photos. Greg Gilson found a Williamson’s Sapsucker at the golf course but by the time I got there, we could not locate it again. If I could get it, that would be all of the North American sapsuckers for me in one location, the Ajo golf course. I looked this morning for a couple of hours and still couldn’t find it, so I suppose it has left.

Rufous-backed Robin on the sidewalk, getting a drink.

Rufous-backed Robin with American Robin.

A Green-tailed Towhee in an arroyo near my campsite.

The saying is that “any gull is a good gull in Pima County”. Here are 41 Ring-billed Gulls at the ponds. I have been seeing lots of Ring-billed Gulls but other than the Heermann’s Gull that was here earlier, no other species.

Eighty American Avocets, may be a high count for the Ajo ponds. As always, right click on the image and open in a new tap for a larger image.

Astrophotography Photography

Jupiter and Two Galilean Moons

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date November 14, 2021

Last night the forecast for “seeing” ranged from excellent to good. Excellent seeing is very rare so I decided to try some planetary photography. Jupiter is about the only planet in a good place right now, Saturn is getting lower in the west and Venus isn’t a very photogenic planet. So, Jupiter it was. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

I think these are the best photos of Jupiter I’ve ever taken. These are stacks of video frames, taken over about three minutes. In this image, I got two of Jupiter’s moons. Europa is in the upper left and Io at lower right. Io and Europa are two of the Galilean moons. The other two, Ganymede and Callisto, are out of the field of view. Io and Europa are approximately the size of our moon. Apparent size from Earth is about 1 arc second, so it is like taking a photo of a dime 2.5 miles away.

Another photo of a Kit Fox at the den. One couldn’t ask for nicer light!

Astrophotography Birding Insects Photography

Barn Owls in a Hole

A few days ago I went out to Hot Shot Well to check it out. I had heard about Barn Owls potentially using the site quite a few years ago. I think it was about four years ago when I first visited the old well, which is actually a really big hole that someone dug many years ago. It is maybe 25 ft. across and more than 50 ft. deep. On my first visit, there was evidence of owls using it but there were no owls. The following year I returned and found that a colony of bees had moved in and I got chased off by them. There were aggressive. Every year since, I have carefully checked it and the bees have been there but no owls. On my visit this year, it appeared that the bees were gone and lo and behold, there were two Barn Owls at the bottom. I contacted Joe and Mary Staab, in Mesquite, Nevada as I knew Joe really wanted a Barn Owl. They came down here on Tuesday and we all hiked out there, the owls were still there. Unfortunately, this time we saw bees too but they didn’t bother us.

Shooting almost straight down at the Barn Owls. I think they may have some young ones stashed away out of sight.

I’m working on the Embryo Nebula again but this time with the 500 f4 lens. I get a much wider field of view, which I like, and I gather light almost twice as fast as I can with the C8. I like the result so far. I put a lot of time into this nebula, also known as NGC 1333, with the C8 last year and never got very satisfying results.

Astrophotography Insects Photography

Too Many Butterflies

As I posted previously, there are enormous numbers of butterflies around the area, mostly where there is Chuckwalla Delight in flower. I have been searching for a new species for me, but mostly the same ones, especially Sonoran Metalmarks. There are literally thousands of them. I have been doing some astrophotography too. It has warmed up here quite bit, record high temps again, but that is only about 90 degrees so it is tolerable.