Month: January 2023

More Astro and the Green Comet

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date January 25, 2023

The last few nights have been clear, cold and good for astrophotography. Just in time for the return of the moon. I’m done for now, having put everything away until the next full moon passes. I suppose I could get up in the early mornings and shoot but it is too cold to make that very enjoyable.

M82, the Cigar Galaxy. I added more exposure to what I had from last year. I think I’m getting close to showing an overprocessed image, trying to show the red tendrils of glowing hydrogen emitting from the core of the starburst galaxy.

The Monkeyhead Nebula in Orion. Another one that I’ve imaged in the past and am just adding more exposure to it.

Comet ZTF (C/2022 E3) is approaching Earth for a close encounter on Feb. 1st. Right now, it is easily seen in binoculars in the area between the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. It doesn’t get high enough until nearly midnight, MST. The press has been promoting this a lot as a “the green comet”. Comets in general glow green when near the sun so this one is not unusual at all. What is unusual is the anti-tail, the comet appears to have 3 tails now, the dust tail, ion tail, and an anti-tail. It will continue to brighten and should be easy to see in another 2-3 weeks.

Astrophotography Photography

January Astro

It has been a strange month, starting out cloudy a lot of the time, then rain, now cold. It is cold enough at night to take a lot of the fun out of being outside doing astro. I’m still doing it though. A couple more nights to go then the moon will take over for a while.

I’ve put in parts of three nights doing Thor’s Helmet, again. This time with the C8. I did some pretty fancy processing to make it look this good. I’m starting to think I need new software rather than a new camera!

Same with M78. My favorite nebula showing interstellar dust clouds and reflection nebulas, in the constellation Orion.

This is the Headphone Nebula, officially Jones-Emberson 1, a very faint planetary nebula in the constellation Lynx. I have wanted to try this one for a long time. Last winter I planned on it but could not even find it, it is far too dim to see in the scope and even long exposures are barely enough to show it. I figured out where it is this winter. At the center is a very blue **white dwarf star**, leftover from the shedding of the outer layers of gas from the dying star.

The Flame Nebula, actually a part of the Horsehead Nebula complex. With the C8 this is about all of the Horsehead Nebula that will fit in the frame. The huge bright star is Alnitak. Alnitak is a blue supergiant with two companion stars, all three appear as one.

I took an afternoon hike on Black Mountain and while coming down a steep arroyo I discovered this Desert Bighorn skull. This is certainly the largest ram specimen I’ve seen around here. I’m going to check on the legalities of possessing something like this and if it is OK, I will go back and salvage it.

Astrophotography Birding Photography

Time for an Update

It has been a long time since I’ve posted anything, due mostly to not having much to post. It has been poor for astrophotography and not much for new birds. Of course, this time of year is very slow for herps and butterflies. So, I just go for hikes, read books, find what birds I can and try to get some good photos. This is turning out to be a fairly wet winter and the hope is that the spring bloom will be a good one. As always, right click and open in a new tab to see a larger image.