I’m still here. It has been over two weeks since my last post. There hasn’t been much going on, until the last few days. Now there more signs of spring with some new birds migrating into the area. I am finally getting a few clear nights for astrophotography. By next week we will be seeing temperatures near 90 F. Still no rain and it does not look promising for the foreseeable future.
A Neotropic Cormorant appeared at Lake Ajo one day, this is the first one I’ve seen here, although they are common at Gillespie Dam and other places that have water with fish. This bird did not stay long, as soon as it realized there were no fish in Lake Ajo it took off. A female Mountain Bluebird that has been in the campground all winter. A few days ago, I got this shot of it in the soft late afternoon light. I made my first trip this winter to Alamo Canyon. There was actually a very small seep in the South Fork, in a bosque that usually is good birding. And it was good birding! Here is a Rufous-crowned Sparrow I photographed there. I also got my FOS Hooded Oriole, Cassin’s Vireo and a Gray Vireo. Here is a LINK to my eBird checklist. It as been several years since I’ve seen a Bell’s Sparrow. One has to search all of the much more common Sagebrush Sparrows for a bird with no stripes on the back and black malars. I found one (maybe 2) at Highway Tank. The back is not striped, there are black streaks on the scapulars, but that is normal. Here a frontal view showing a strong black breast spot and black malars. Hubble’s Variable Nebula, NGC 2261, in the constellation Monoceros. I have photographed this before but only as part of a wider view of the Cone Nebula. I’ve never tried it with the C8. It is a small target but very bright. This is one of the few space objects that exhibit rather rapid changes in shape and brightness. One can track changes over time with a sketch or photos each time. It’s not the nebula changing shape, but rather clouds of thick dust and gas near the illuminating star (R Monocerotis) that are casting shadows into the nebula. Discovered by William Herschel in 1783, Edwin Hubble was the first to describe this pulsating nebula. This is NGC 2467, with the common moniker of Skull and Crossbones Nebula. I have never tried this one before. It does not rise above 30 degrees in the south, so it stays in the murk of the atmosphere all the time. However, it is quite bright and large, so it worked out OK. Located in the constellation Puppis, it is a large star forming region, rich in ionizing hydrogen and even OII. I need a lot more exposure to bring out all the details and it may not even be possible at that low elevation.
The Sonoran Desert is in a heat wave. Near record heat started yesterday and continues through tomorrow, it was 86 F here at the campground today. It feels good! Night time lows are much warmer too. I don’t suppose it will last too long. I have had many nights of clouds again. I wouldn’t mind so much if it would rain, but that does not happen. I have got a little astrophotography done but not much.
Vikki and I made another trip to Gillespie Dam. This time the White Ibis was there, but the Reddish Egret was not. This is the first White Ibis I’ve seen since my 2010 trip to south Texas. A nice pose from a male Western Bluebird. There is a flock of six that comes into water at Highway Tank, this is one of them. This is my finished IC 2169. I posted this in my last update, but now have added two more hours of exposure. Last night I spent a few hours on IC 443, the Jellyfish Nebula. I used the IDAS Nebula Booster Filter. This is a supernova remnant that I have imaged before. I wanted to add this to my results from last year but the framing was too far off, so this is what I have. From Earth, the nebula is nearly twice the size of a full moon, but in reality it is about 70 light years in diameter. The power of a supernova is unimaginable, this one is thousands of years old. I did some planetary imaging Saturday night. The “seeing” was forecast to be good and it turned out OK. I caught the transit of the Galilean moon Io. In this image Io has passed in front of Jupiter and the shadow of the moon is still passing. I spent a little time on Mars too. With a C8 this is about as good as it gets. At least the polar cap stands out.
