It has been almost two weeks since I’ve updated. Not a lot is happening. It has been typical Sonoran Desert winter weather, except for a lack of rain. There is a promise of some rain in the next few days. I hope it materializes. I drove north to Gillespie Dam on the Gila River to look for a Reddish Egret that keeps popping up. As it turned out, it popped up an hour before I got there and then disappeared again. I may try again, I haven’t seen a Reddish Egret since my trip to south Texas in 2010.
At Gillespie Dam I did get some good shots of a Virginia Rail. I was hoping for a Least Bittern too, but did not see one. A Common Gallinule, also at Gillespie Dam. This species never shows up at Lake Ajo because there are no cattails. The numbers of wintering Sage Thrashers is higher than usual, same for Sagebrush Sparrows, which seem to be very common in the right habitat. Last winter both species were hard to find.The south end of a north bound Javelina. I saw it getting a drink from a tank out by Burro Pass. In town, Javelina are quite tolerant of people but out in the desert, they are very wild and wary. This is LDN 1622, a dark nebula in the Orion constellation. I framed it like this to show the long streamer of cosmic dust below it. The red glow of ionizing hydrogen is a part of Barnard’s Loop. The obscuring dust of LDN 1622 is thought to lie at a distance of 1,500 light-years. At that distance, this nearly two degree wide field of view would span about 60 light-years.I want to add more exposure to this, but it has been too cloudy or windy and looks like it will be a few more days before I can do anything. So here it is, for now. This is IC 2169, also known as Dreyer’s Nebula, in the constellation Monoceros. It is named after John Louis Emil Dreyer (1852 – 1926), the Danish astronomer who compiled the NGC and IC catalogues. This image also includes some smaller reflection nebulas and dark nebulas. It reminds me of M78. I think it will be worth putting more hours into a final image. A Western Bluebird at Highway Tank this morning. Here’s a Rock Wren that was foraging around the camper a few days ago.
One reply on “January Update”
I got a laugh at the north bound javelina. All good pics. I like the Virginia Rail, they always looks like they’re meticulously painted, every feather in perfect order.
That the Dreyer nebula was discovered in 1894. Makes me curious about what kind of instruments they had back then.
One reply on “January Update”
I got a laugh at the north bound javelina. All good pics. I like the Virginia Rail, they always looks like they’re meticulously painted, every feather in perfect order.
That the Dreyer nebula was discovered in 1894. Makes me curious about what kind of instruments they had back then.