The last few nights have been clear and dark. This area has the darkest skies to be found anywhere in North America and it is pretty amazing at night with no moon. I can see the Andromeda Galaxy with no difficulty, even without binoculars. I set up the Losmandy G11 and used the 500 f4 for a dark nebula and a comet.
I will have to leave pretty soon. I have an appointment in Pierre Monday morning. It is going to be hot there!
This is comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS). It is an Oort Cloud comet with a very long orbital period, it probably took millions of years to arrive at our sun from its origin in the Oort Cloud. It is a very large comet, at about 11 miles diameter. It cannot be seen without at least a 6-inch telescope. In my image, a faint red nebula is visible to the left of the comet. Its current location is in the constellation Ophiuchus. I wanted to get more exposure, but I had to deal with some tall trees that obscured it shortly after it got dark enough for photography. LDN 1082, a dark nebula in Cepheus. It is also known as Barnard 150. Also known as the Seahorse Nebula. This is actually upside down, I flipped it so the “seahorse” shape is more obvious. The interstellar cloud is so dense that the light of the stars behind it and all other background emissions are completely absorbed. An active star formation takes place almost invisibly inside the nebula.Flip it again, and it looks like a person walking, maybe with a long cape. So, the Batman Nebula?While out for a walk a few days ago, this American Kestrel started hazing me. It flew over many times, not happy with my presence. I assume there were young nearby. More elk, a cow and young calf inspecting something. I had 8 elk pass by in just a few minutes. A pair of Trumpeter Swans that nested at the JB Dam. Two cygnets can be seen hunkered down on the nest. There are some Painted Turtles sharing the nest with the swans. A Spotted Towhee that posed nicely for me.
