I left Pierre yesterday and drove to the Slim Buttes. There has been some good rain out here and the flowers are abundant as are the butterflies. After being in Pierre for almost 2 months, the quiet out here is welcome. There are no trains, barking dogs, loud vehicles, airplanes, or other noisy things. Just birds and the wind. This morning, I went for a walk and got 26 species of birds. My eBird checklist is here. I hope for a few clear nights so I can do some astrophotography in the dark skies of Harding County.
I found this Plains Garter Snake in a puddle on the road, I’m not sure what it was doing but it refused to leave the water. Butterflies are really abundant. Here’s a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell. A Two-tailed Swallowtail nectaring on a thistle. Aphrodite Fritillary.Great Spangled Fritillary.While in Pierre, I took one trip out to the Fort Pierre National Grasslands. Here’s a Burrowing Owl that was harassing me about being too close to its nest hole. This is Wedgeleaf Frogfruit, Phyla cuneifolia. It was growing in a prairie dog colony near Richland Dam. This location is the farthest north this species has been reported, according the iNaturalist. Typically a species of the southwest, the Navajo reportedly used it to treat spider bites. A Marbled Godwit. I’m experimenting with some new software for astrophotography. StarXterminator lets me remove the stars for processing then add them back. NoiseXterminator is a much better method of reducing noise. I think the results are impressive on the North America Nebula, which I took several years ago. Now if I can just get some astrophotography done! The weather has not been cooperative.
2 replies on “Slim Buttes in July”
It’s nice that the flowers are still in bloom and there are plenty of butterflies. The snake seemingly has found its quiet spot.
I read that the North American Nebula is located near the tail of Cygnus. I’ve looked at Cygnus many times and of course had no clue that nebula was there. I need to get a good telescope.
Actually, I should relabel that as the Cygnus Wall, just a part of the North American Nebula. I copied this info from Wikipedia:
The North America Nebula covers a region more than ten times the area of the full moon, but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. Binoculars and telescopes with large fields of view (approximately 3°) will show it as a foggy patch of light under sufficiently dark skies. However, using a UHC filter, which filters out some unwanted wavelengths of light, it can be seen without magnification under dark skies. Its shape and reddish color (from the hydrogen Hα emission line) show up only in photographs of the area.
The portion of the nebula resembling Mexico and Central America is known as the Cygnus Wall. This region exhibits the most concentrated star formation.
2 replies on “Slim Buttes in July”
It’s nice that the flowers are still in bloom and there are plenty of butterflies. The snake seemingly has found its quiet spot.
I read that the North American Nebula is located near the tail of Cygnus. I’ve looked at Cygnus many times and of course had no clue that nebula was there. I need to get a good telescope.
Actually, I should relabel that as the Cygnus Wall, just a part of the North American Nebula. I copied this info from Wikipedia:
The North America Nebula covers a region more than ten times the area of the full moon, but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. Binoculars and telescopes with large fields of view (approximately 3°) will show it as a foggy patch of light under sufficiently dark skies. However, using a UHC filter, which filters out some unwanted wavelengths of light, it can be seen without magnification under dark skies. Its shape and reddish color (from the hydrogen Hα emission line) show up only in photographs of the area.
The portion of the nebula resembling Mexico and Central America is known as the Cygnus Wall. This region exhibits the most concentrated star formation.