Month: December 2022

Categories
Astrophotography Birding Uncategorized

Birding and Astro Update

It has been very typical Sonoran Desert winter weather, daytime highs in the 60’s and lows in the 40’s. Perfect, in my opinion. On New Year’s Day the forecast is for rain. I’ve been on a search for Black-chinned Sparrows, which I usually can find in the mountains around the area, but so far, I haven’t found any. The Ajo Mountain Loop Road in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is the best place to find them, but it is closed for repair until mid-January. I’ve been having some nice hikes though.

I was hiking on Child’s Mountain when I came to a large canyon, so I tried a Canyon Wren call. This one came right in. I get a thrill every time I can get a nice photo like this!
On my hike up the slopes of Black Mountain (searching for Black-chinned Sparrows) I found another wintering Gray Vireo.
A mother Javelina and her baby.
I had to try the Horsehead Nebula again. Good nights for astrophotography have been somewhat limited. The few I’ve had have been with the 500 f4 lens mounted on the Losmandy. Next round of astro will be with the C8.
The Jellyfish Nebula in Gemini. It has been a long time since I tried this one. It is a difficult object, very faint and in a rich star field. Some astrophotographers use software to remove the stars and artificial intelligence software to enhance the image. Images seen online that look really artificial are just that. AI software tends to add artifacts and other issues that I don’t really like. So, I avoid doing those things. This nebula, IC 443, is a huge supernova remnant. It is about 70 light years distant and from our perspective, larger than a full moon, but much too faint to see. The bright star in the upper right is Propus, also known as Tajat Prior, and also as η Geminorum.
One of my favorites, M45, the Pleiades.
This dark nebula is variously known as the Vulture Head, Baby Eagle Nebula, and officially LBN 777. It is located near the Pleiades.
Categories
Astrophotography Birding

Ajo CBC and Cold Weather

I know that the folks back in South Dakota aren’t going to have much sympathy for me here. But it has been pretty cold for this area, and it has been a long-lasting cold snap as well. The end is near though as a warming trend is finally coming. Daytime highs in the low 50’s will soon be in the upper 60’s and 70’s. The Ajo CBC was held on Friday, and I had my usual unit. A Spotted Towhee was probably the best bird for me, and I got the other two species of Towhees as well, Green-tailed and Canyon, all within 100 yards of each other. Another good find was a Canyon Wren, and I got some nice photos of that. Astrophotography has been slow and cold. Quite a few cloudy nights and the nights that were clear had heavy dew that later froze on surfaces.

Way back on December 7, Mars passed behind the full moon, a rare occultation of the red planet and a full moon. I had the C8 set up for it and this is what I got.
Here’s my Canyon Wren. It was singing a lot. Always nice to hear!
Not far away, a Rock Wren was wondering what all the commotion was about.
A female Northern Cardinal, I saw the male too but couldn’t get a good photo of it.
IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula in the constellation Auriga. I imaged this nebula a long time ago. I like this image a lot better than the old ones I took. The brightest star in the nebula is AE Auriga, a runaway star. AE Auriga lights up the Flaming Star Nebula as it passes through the nebula at high speed.
IC 348 with the 500 f4. I tried the brightest part of this dark nebula with the C8 and liked the results so much I went for this wider-angle view of the area. Located on the edge of the Perseus Molecular Cloud, it is not far from the Pleiades and the Embryo Nebula.
Categories
Astrophotography Birding Photography

Coyote vs Bobcat

I’ve had two trail cams out at Highway Tank for a couple of weeks now. I am trying for the Mountain Lion that has left tracks there but so far, no luck with that. Here is a YouTube LINK to a video I captured that is described by the title to my post. I find it amazing that something like this would happen right in front of my camera. The cameras are still there so maybe I will have a lion to show soon. The weather has been very nice and I’m enjoying the warm days.

This is Highway Tank. The water level is dropping but should last most of winter even without any rain. When I first got to Ajo the water was about 2 feet higher.
A female Red-naped Sapsucker at a sap well in Bud Walker Park. As far as photography, it doesn’t get much better than this!
My final image of M33. Astrophotography is over for now until after the next full moon.
Here’s a large crop of the M33 image, this is NGC 604. Keep in mind that this is over 2.5 million light years away! The brightest stars are foreground stars in our galaxy. Some of those other bluish blobs are probably star clusters in M33.