Month: January 2024

Categories
Astrophotography

A Jellyfish and a Dolphin

No, I haven’t been to the coast. Just cruising around the Milky Way Galaxy with my 500 f4 lens. Despite the brightening moon, I’ve been having great success with the new IDAS Nebula Booster filter. This filter is a real game changer for me. It is like having a new astronomy camera, it is that good.

First up, the Jellyfish Nebula, IC 443. I have imaged this nebula many times in the past but always with marginal success. Part of the problem is the dense star field, StarXterminator helps with that. However, the IDAS filter also reduces light from stars, leaving mostly the very bright ones. It also allows me to do longer exposures, gathering more light from the two spectrum bands I want, OII and Ha, and less light that I don’t want. In this case, the nebula is mostly Ha. In the constellation Gemini, about 5000 light years from Earth, C 443 is most likely the remains of a supernova that occurred 30,000 – 35,000 years ago. 
This one is just incredible, in my opinion. I’ve tried this before (with no filter) and could never get anything worth using. Not even close. This is the Dolphin Head Nebula, Sh2-308, locate about 8 degrees south of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Sh2-308 surrounds the Wolf–Rayet star EZ Canis Majoris, the bright star in the center of the nebula. This nebula is composed mostly of OII and some Ha, it is very faint. There is a larger Ha nebula that just starts to show in the upper left. In the lower right side of the Dolphin Head is the magnitude 4 star, Udra. The most amazing thing to me is I could do this in a bright moon and still get results like this. I am really looking forward to doing more with the IDAS Nebula Booster filter.
Categories
Astrophotography Birding

January Astro

Although I haven’t had many good nights for astrophotography, I do have a couple of images to show. I spent many hours on each one, including the taking of images and then the processing. It was so cold one night I just quit. Now, the weather is back to more normal temperatures but tonight looks like it will be too cloudy again. And the moon is getting bright but with my new nebula booster filter I can still shoot for another week or so, assuming I get any clear skies. As always, a larger image can be seen by opening in a new tab or window.

Harold Lower and his son Charles were amateur astronomers and skilled telescope makers in the 1930’s. Harold reported that by utilizing red-sensitive film and a deep-red filter, he and Charles had encountered considerable success in imaging dim emission nebulae. Among these objects was a previously unknown nebula in Orion which decades later was given the catalogue designation Sh2-261. In honor of its discoverers, this nebula is commonly known as Lower’s Nebula. I have read that this is a difficult nebula to image, but I tried it last night and am very happy with the results. It is found in the Orion constellation.
The Strawberry Nebula, Sh2-263, also located in the Orion constellation. This one took many hours of imaging to get this much signal. I could probably use a lot more. The nebula includes both emission and reflection nebulas. In our daily lives, we bask in the light of one star, look at all the stars in just this one image!
At Highway Tank a few days ago, this female Common Goldeneye and a Redhead were new species for me at this eBird hotspot. I didn’t get any good shots of the Redhead but the Common Goldeneye came out nice. I now have 119 species at Highway Tank.
Categories
Birding Photography

Yikes! Shrikes!

This afternoon I was just finishing up birding the Ajo golf course. I came around the rear of the truck and there on the ground, right by the front door, was a Loggerhead Shrike and a Cactus Wren in a deadly struggle. I was quite amazed as I have never seen a Loggerhead Shrike kill anything much bigger than a lizard. The Cactus Wren was nearly as big as the shrike and it was putting up quite a fight. Several times it tried to get its claws into the shrike’s eyes. The shrike never gave up and eventually it killed the wren. I timed it at 16 minutes, but I have no idea how long they had been battling before I found them.

My first few shots were like this, the wren actually seemed to be getting the better of the shrike. Notice how it has it claw in the eye of the shrike.
The shrike is maneuvering for a better hold.
Now it is going for the neck, a typical attack point for a shrike. They are known to snap the vertebrae, but it was having a hard time of it.
The struggle moved out into the late afternoon sunlight.
The shrike gave up on its hold and tried another. It took a few more minutes before it finally killed the wren.
I’ve read that shrikes can fly short distances carrying birds as large as themselves. This shrike couldn’t even get the wren up the first step. I suppose it was exhausted. I took the wren and impaled it on a thorn in a mesquite tree. By then it was getting too dark for sharp photos, and I left the shrike to feed on its prey. Why this shrike would take on such a large bird and continue the attack for at least 16 minutes, even at the risk of losing an eye, is a puzzle. I have read about and seen a few other encounters between shrikes and birds of equal size, the shrike normally backs off. Not this one though.

Categories
Astrophotography Birding Mammals

A New Year

Since I’ve started using eBird for my bird sightings, I now have an easy way to tabulate all my sightings from last year. That’s assuming I remember to use it. I generated a report, and it came in at 262 species for 2023. However, I noticed that I did not report Sharp-tailed Grouse or Common Tern and I know I saw those species at some point in 2023. So, I probably missed a few other species too. That brings me to my New Years Resolution, do a better job of documenting my sightings and see how big of a list I can come up for 2024. Maybe this will give me some enthusiam for a birding trip to somewhere I can pick up lots of species, like south Texas or Florida. We will see. On the local scene, it has really cooled down here. I have not had many good nights for astro, lots of clouds.

I was birding in The Thicket a few days ago and I always check the tree where I saw a Gray Fox a few years ago. There was one there, again. It does not seem like a regularly used tree but if one keeps checking, sometimes it works out.
I have not seen many Sagebrush Sparrows this winter. I went out Pipeline Road a few days ago and found that area to be my best bet. Yesterday I had eight. I keep checking carefully for Bell’s Sparrow but so far, I have not found one.
Another Sagebrush Sparrow.
I’ve been having unusually good luck with Kestrels this winter. Usually, I can’t get close enough for a good photo.
I have managed to get in about 2 hours on this scene in the constellation Auriga. There is a lot to look at here. On the left is the open star cluster M 38. To the right of M 38 is a smaller open star cluster, NGC 1907. The largest and brightest nebula is known as the Spider Nebula (IC 417) and the smaller one below is the Fly Nebula (NGC 1931). I want to put in a lot more time on this but for now, here it is.