Ruddy Ground Dove and some Astro

A Ruddy Ground Dove had been reported at the Ajo plaza about a week ago, but yesterday was the first time I saw it. This is the second Ruddy Ground Dove I’ve ever seen and the only female. This morning I went back and got some pretty good photos of it. I’ve been doing quite a bit of astrophotography with the 500 f4. I quit working on the really faint ones for a while and back to some bright and easy ones. I am looking forward to the galaxy season coming up when I can go back to using the C8.

Female Ruddy Ground Dove at the Ajo plaza.

The Soul Nebula, I think this is the first time I’ve done this nebula by itself, usually it is paired with the Heart Nebula at lower focal length. At 500mm focal length, this is a nearly full frame image.

M45, the Pleiades. I’ve done this many times but the seeing on this night was very good and I think it helps to preserve detail in the dust clouds.

Yes, once again, the Horsehead Nebula. At least once a year, I have to do it. It is amazing to me how easy this nebula is to image, but it is completely invisible in the scope or with binoculars.

California Nebula. This large nebula is also a full frame image at 500mm focal length.

A very striking sundog I saw late afternoon over Child’s Mountain.

One reply on “Ruddy Ground Dove and some Astro”

All very good pics. I saw a ruddy ground dove once upon a time in south Texas, but a long time ago. Very small dove.
I for one never get tired of seeing the horsehead nebula or the Pleiades. The name for the Pleiades in Japanese is Subaru, I always thought it was odd that they only had 6 stars in the vehicle symbol since it’s also called the seven sisters. Obviously from your image there are a lot more stars in it than we can see without a telescope.
That’s an impressive sun dog, too, on the swirl of clouds.

Comments are closed.