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Astrophotography Birding Photography

Some New Birds and New Galaxies

The weather has been a little on the hot side but not too bad. My opportunities for astrophotography have been limited due to clouds and wind. Still no rain at all. The few areas that have got some water (mostly due to being watered or from runoff from paved streets) have been producing some birds. Tomorrow I have an appointment at Jones Ford in Buckeye to see what I need to do about the check engine light. I hope that doesn’t take too long.

M88, a spiral galaxy in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster.
I would like to put more time in this but it looks that will have to wait. This galaxy group is known at Arp 286 (Arp is the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, named after Halton Arp, the astronomer who developed it). The largest galaxy in the image is NGC 5566. It is the largest galaxy in Virgo but is so far away it appears small, even for the C8. Distance from Earth is about 65 million light years. I had to crop a lot but it still looks pretty good.
NGC 3521, also known as the Bubble Galaxy. The large area of nebulosity surrounding the galaxy is from stars that have been torn out of the galaxy and dwarf galaxies that collided millions of years ago.
A Sora I found at the golf course. It was right out in the open, very unusual for a Sora.
A very cooperative male Hermit Warbler I found this morning. My prize bird for the day!
Another view of the same Hermit Warbler.