M82 is an interesting galaxy due to the fact it is an edge-on starburst galaxy. Stars are forming 10 times faster than in the Milky Way Galaxy. M82’s red (ionized hydrogen) outflow filaments are created by energy released by supernovae in the galaxy center which occur at a rate of about one every ten years. I have messed around with this galaxy a few times but never got an image I’ve really liked. So, the last two nights, this is all I did. I now have 5 hours of exposure on this galaxy with the C8 (at 1200 mm focal length using a .63 reducer).
Five hours of total exposure and probably about the same amount of time stacking and processing, this is the final result. I’m not sure if I will add more exposure or not. I’ve seen photos with as much as 16 hours exposure and they are impressive but that is a lot of time spent on one object!
I haven’t been taking many photos other than astrophography for a couple of weeks now. So, the new ones have just been sitting in the camera until today. It looks like I might have one or two more good nights for astrophotography then it is back to looking for birds or anything else that is interesting. It is beginning to feel like spring and apparently ducks feel the same way as some new species showed up today at the pond, including some Northern Pintails, Cinnamon Teal, and Gadwall. The question is: are they moving back north or moving south from the bitter cold? Looking at the weather back in South Dakota, I’m sure glad I’m here! Some of the desert vegetation is starting to green up now, but more rain is needed.
A Cactus Wren that hopped up on a rock, too close to even get the whole bird in the frame. I was at Gillespie Dam about a week ago. It was nice to see some new water (besides the Ajo sewage ponds) and some new birds. I liked how this Green Heron is framed in the opening in the wall. While hiking along Ten-mile Wash, I came across this rock pile and started noticing petroglyphs. This one is apparently snakes and maybe indicates that this rock pile was a snake den. Who knows? Another petroglyph, obviously a Saguaro.
It has been a pretty productive February for astrophotography. I had 4 nights that were too cloudy. It will be cloudy again tonight but tomorrow night might be good. Birding has been very slow again, nothing new to report there.
A new nebula for me, the Angel Nebula, in the constellation Monocerus. It took a lot of exposure to get this but I think it was worth it. I’ve wanted to try this for a long time, the heart of the Coma Cluster of galaxies, located in the Coma Berenices constellation. The mean distance to the galaxies in this cluster is about 320 million light years. That is by far the farthest I have ever photographed anything. By far. When the photons I captured left these galaxies there was only one continent on Earth and the land was covered in dense, swampy forests, during the Carboniferous Period. There are over 1000 galaxies in this cluster, I would guess there are over 100 galaxies in this photo. Here’s a tighter crop of the image. All of these galaxies are in the Coma Cluster. The blue star is in our galaxy. The Seagull Nebula with the 500 f4 lens. NGC 4725, a new galaxy for me. This is located in Coma Berenices and a good target for the C8. M66, one of the galaxies that make up the Leo Triplets. This is the first time I’ve imaged it separately with the C8. It is very colorful. The Intergalactic Wanderer, a very distant star cluster. I recently discovered that there are two listed in Stellarium, one is a mistake. This is the correctly identified Intergalactic Wanderer, NGC 2419, in the Lynx constellation. It is about 300,000 light years away. The Little Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major. Officially NGC 3184. The UFO Galaxy, NGC 2683, in the constellation Lynx. NGC 2903, 30 million light years away in the constellation Leo.
The big excitement of the past few days has been a Red Phalarope that showed up on the Ajo Sewage Ponds. I found it late Tuesday afternoon and got the word out, but it was too late for birders from the Tucson area to come over. The following morning was cold, 28 degrees at my campsite. I got to the pond before sunrise. Roger Clark and Linda Birkel were already there and Brian Nicholas showed up right after I got there. It finally got light enough to see, but no Red Phalarope could be found. Discouraged, we decided to go check on the Long-eared Owls in the thicket. There were still a few there and a Barn Owl too. Then back to the pond but still no phalarope. About then Roger checked his messages. Quite amazingly, another Red Phalarope had been found at Canoa, south of Tucson. They all piled into their cars and took off. And they all got that one.
Red Phalarope in winter plumage. Quite rare inland and especially in the Sonoran Desert. This is the first record of the species at Ajo.There are lots of White-throated Swifts at the pond. I keep trying to get good photos of them but it is hard. Western Meadowlark at the golf course. This was one of the rare times when I could get close to them with the sun behind me.
It started yesterday as forecasted and last night it rained fairly steady for several hours. Although the weather station in Ajo said only .21 inches, I’m sure more rain than that fell where I am. It is pretty soggy out there. I went to the golf course and there was standing water in many places. The forecast is for even more rain next week. I watched the rain develop on radar and it appears that Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument got a good drenching as did most of the Sonoran Desert. So far, the rain has made no difference for birding, there still isn’t much to see.
I haven’t seen many Sage Thrashers this winter and this is the first one I could get a good photo of since I left Granite Gap last fall. I followed it around for awhile till it hopped up on this branch. A juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk that was on the hunt and ruining my birding at the golf course.
The January astrophotography period is ending. It was marred by clouds on too many nights. I wouldn’t mind some clouds if they would bring rain, but that didn’t happen. All in all, I still got some good images. I have moved back to the county campground now. The weather forecast for this week is looking good for rain, finally. I hope it rains a lot!!!
I spent one night on M81, Bode’s Galaxy. Of course, I have done this galaxy before but not with guiding. It is one of the most photogenic galaxies in the universe, as seen from Earth. I spent about an hour one night imaging this area of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. There are dozens of galaxies in this image. This image only covers about .5 degree of the sky. The galaxies that look so close together are separated by millions of light years. It is really hard to comprehend the immensity of the universe. NGC 2403, also known as the Jewel of Camelopardilis, in the constellation of Camelopardilis. Known for its many and large h-alpha star-forming regions, the galaxy is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy. It is about 8 million light years away. I tried to make the large nebulas as visible as I can, but they are difficult at this image size. Had to do it. The Great Nebula in Orion. I can never get tired of this one!
The nights are dark again but with that comes a series of nights with clouds. Mostly the clouds are just high and thin but they are not good for astrophotography. Despite that, I’ve had some success. The Cosmic Bat didn’t turn out so well and I spent a lot of time on it. Oh well, there will be more good nights, I hope.
The Cosmic Bat and associated dust clouds. This small and dim nebula is located in the Orion constellation. I would need to spend many more hours to get a good image, but I think I will quit with this. I gathered photons for three nights, between clouds, for a total of 6 hours. After the Cosmic Bat I needed to work on some more spectacular nebulas. I’ve done the Rosette Nebula before but that was prior to having guiding and dithering. With guiding, I rarely have to throw out any subs. Before, I would sometimes lose 25-50% of my subs due to poor tracking and oblong stars. Dithering (small random movements of the image framing) eliminates much of the noise and random errors that result from long exposures. The end result, I get more and better keepers and therefore more exposure on a given night. It has been a whole year since I’ve done the Horsehead Nebula and I was excited to do it again, this time with guiding and dithering. I think this came out exceptionally nice!
I’ve been working on this image for awhile now. I’ve gathered images over two nights for about 6 hours of total integration. I was interrupted by two nights of clouds and last night I had to wait till almost 9 PM before the clouds went away, but then I got a good 3 hours on it. The nebulas are in the Orion B molecular cloud complex and about 1,350 light-years from Earth. It takes a lot of exposure to show the dust clouds around the nebulas. The large area of red is part of Barnard’s Loop, a huge emission nebula that encompasses nearly half of the Orion Constellation.
This is one of my favorite parts of the night sky to photograph. I have no idea how the name of Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula was arrived at but that is what is shown in Stellarium. Of course the official designation of M78 is most often used. Taken with Canon 500 f4 lens, Canon 7DMII H-alpha modified camera, Losmandy G11G mount, guiding with Lacerta M-Gen III and an Astronomics 60mm guide scope.
As always, one can right click on the image and open in a new tab to see a larger image.
Tonight, with luck, I will be shooting the Cosmic Bat. Stay tuned for that!
Another year gone by. Birding has been very slow here and not much else worth mentioning until now, when the moon is starting to rise later every night. I did make a move of my campsite. I got tired of listening to dogs barking all the time and left the county campground. I’m now located in a remote site and enjoying the quiet here.
NGC 1300 again. I’ve been adding more exposure to this when I can, but it is in a difficult location, low in the south. I still like the look of this galaxy and will keep trying. This is the Monkey Head Nebula (NGC2174). This is a nebula that I’ve never imaged before. I do not see a monkey head in there, but maybe someone else can. It is located in the Orion constellation, about 6400 light years from Earth. I took about 5 hours of exposure with the C8.Another planetary nebula, Cleopatra’s Eye. The nebula is very small, less than an arc minute, so not much bigger than Jupiter from Earth. I thought I’d give it a try one night while waiting for the Monkey Head Nebula to rise. It is very bright and I’m thinking I could photograph this at much higher magnification and with fast exposures. Maybe I will try it some night. And here’s a bird. Another Long-eared Owl in The Thicket. I was able to get a pretty clear shot this time.
December has been kind of disappointing for astrophotography. The weather varied from cloudy and cold to cold and clear, but more clouds than I would expect. It seems to me that there are more cloudy nights the last couple of years than I experienced in my first winters in the Sonoran Desert. Only one rain event in December and that was .15 inches in Ajo. Birding has really slowed down.
I spent far more time on this than I should have. M45, the Pleiades, but I used my Canon 6D, a full frame camera and not modded for H-alpha. This gives me a much wider field of view and that is what I wanted, to show the dust clouds surrounding this bright reflection nebula. I have never tried to image the Witch Head Nebula (IC 2118)with the 500 f4. I used the 6D for this too, for the wider view. IC 2118 is an extremely faint reflection nebula. It is a cloud of gas and dust illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in the constellation of Orion. It is about 900 light-years from Earth.For this I used the H-alpha camera to capture the red light emitted by the ionizing hydrogen in this emission nebula, the California Nebula. At 500mm it completely fills the frame. Lots of galaxies in this image. Located in the constellation of Cetus, this group of galaxies makes a good area to image. At the top right is spiral galaxy NGC 1042 and in the lower left is NGC 1052. There are at least 8 galaxies visible. Right click and open in a new tab to see a larger image. NGC 1398, located in the Fornax constellation. It is about 65 million light years away. It has an interesting double ring structure at the center. This is one I’d like to spend a lot more time on but it is so low in the south that I can only get about an hour on it per night. To see a really good image of this galaxy, check this LINK. Saturn and Jupiter approaching an historic conjunction. It has been about 800 years since they have been seen this close together. December 21 is the date that the two are at their closest and Saturn will be within the area of the Jupiter’s Galilean Moons. Jupiter and Saturn are actually 456 million miles apart. Saturn is nearly twice as far away from Earth as Jupiter.
I took this last night with the C8. I had to really overexpose to get some of Saturn’s moons and then combine images for this composite. The largest moon, above Saturn, is Titan. I think the other three are Rhea, Tethys, and Dione. Saturn has lots of moons but most are far too small to see from Earth. Only 13 have diameters greater than 30 miles. Titan is larger than the planet Mercury. The four Galilean moons of Jupiter are much easier to photograph. Going out from Jupiter, they are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
