Finally, some rain. Last night a thundershower moved through and it rained hard for about 30 seconds. There was a little more rain overnight but altogether it didn’t add up to much, I suspect about .1 inch. I need to get a rain gauge, I guess. There is a weather station in town but it has been offline for a few days now, so it is not very reliable. Not much for new birds in the area. I have been getting some very nice photos at the golf course.
My favorite new photo, a Cedar Waxwing displaying the red, waxy tips of the secondary feathers. Here’s a link to good article about those red waxy feather tips. Another Western Bluebird feeding in the palms. They let me get very close. A Long-eared Owl in The Thicket. This would be a very nice photo if it weren’t for that stick in front of the owl’s face. It is very difficult to get any clear shots, or for that matter any shots at all. They are like ghosts in the trees. It is impossible to sneak up on them, they know I’m there, it is just a matter of seeing them before they fly. They have excellent camouflage and are masters at finding a roost where I can’t see them. Another shot of the Hepatic Tanager, probably the best photo I have so far. Notice the notched tanager bill, diagnostic. I saw this Sharp-shinned Hawk soaking its feet in the community pool at Bud Walker Park. I was able to get very close but had to shoot through a woven wire fence. It still came out pretty good. M77, Cetus A, a galaxy in the constellation Cetus. This galaxy has a very bright core surrounded by a very faint layer of stars and dust. This adds up to a difficult exposure job. Charles Messier and William Herschel described this galaxy as a star cluster in 1780, but now we know M77 is a galaxy.
I’d like to put more time on this, maybe tonight. On the other hand, I’m about ready to put to 500 f4 on the mount and shoot some nebulas for a change.
The full moon is waning to the new moon on December 14. I have had three nights with enough dark sky for a few hours of astrophotography. Of course, now is when the clouds decide to roll in. For the next three days, it is forecast to be mostly cloudy, but the good news is, there is a good chance of some rain on Wednesday. It has been cold at night, down around freezing. Now with the clouds moving in the night temperatures won’t drop much below 50 F.
The Sculptor Galaxy. I have done this galaxy before with the 500 f4 lens, this is the first time with the C8. This is a large and bright galaxy. Even at this latitude, it never rises more than about 35 degrees above the southern horizon, so it is less than ideal for photography. I put about 3 hours into this and think it came out pretty good. It is a starburst galaxy with a high rate of star formation. This leads to lots of young stars, very bright and blue, giving the outer rings a strong blue color. Older stars in the center are more yellow. NGC 1232, a very faint galaxy that is over 60,000,000 light years from earth. Before I imaged this I had read that it was faint and low surface brightness, making it difficult to photograph, so I was surprised that this came out so well. Like the Sculptor Galaxy, it is low to the horizon. Another of the low-hanging galaxies of the south, this is NGC 1300. Like both of the galaxies above, it is in the constellation Eridanus. It is about the size of our galaxy, and about 60 million light years out there. NGC 1055. I posted this one last week, but now I have added more photos to it. I really like this galaxy. Of all these galaxies that I have posted recently, I suppose it all adds up to 4 or 5 trillion stars in total, maybe more. I wonder if there is someone or something else out there photographing the Milky Way? it seems quite likely. I found this in Stellarium and decided to try it just because of the name. Darth Vader’s Starfighter Galaxy, NGC 936. The view through a telescope doesn’t show the fainter part of this galaxy, just the bright core and outer bars, so I can see how it got the name. I decided to watch Star Wars that same night. I used a 200mm f2.8 lens for this, the California Nebula, and captured the dust clouds seen on the left too. A composite image of the moon rising over the Batamote Mountains, east of my campsite.
As always, right click on an image and open in a new tab to see a larger image.
Nothing much new here. The big excitement lately has been a McCown’s Longspur at the golf course. Mark Otnes saw it first, yesterday morning, just before I got there. We had planned to go to Alamo Canyon later, but he found this longspur first and we spent more time on it than planned. Alamo Canyon turned out to be dry and not very birdy anyway. This is the first record of McCown’s Longspur in the Ajo area and for the most part, the entire Sonoran Desert. There are more records in Arizona east of Tuscon and in northern Arizona.
The full moon is finally fading and I should be doing astro again, probably starting tomorrow night. Looks like a series of clear nights coming up too.
McCown’s Longspur (now called the Thick-billed Longspur) in winter plumage. A very rare bird in this part of the world. My annual photo of a Black-throated Sparrow, this one on an Ocotillo stem. Gilded Flicker. This bird was feeding on palm berries and landed on this branch with soft light and the sun behind me, very close, which makes for a nice image. Probably the best photo I have of this species. Here it is again, on the palm. Male Mountain Bluebird on the golf course green at sunrise. It was 32 F. this morning, kind of chilly. I can add Western Bluebird to my list of birds photographed eating palm berries. An out of season Hepatic Tanager at the golf course. Very unusual this late in the fall. One of six Long-eared Owls I found in The Thicket a few days ago. Another coyote that I got very close to.
With astrophotography going away for awhile it is time to start focusing the camera on wildlife again.
A Cedar Waxwing feeding on palm berries. Another Summer Tanager. In all the time I have spent in Ajo I’ve never seen a Summer Tanager here until this fall. This fall I have seen three different Summer Tanagers. A Townsend’s Solitaire in Bud Walker Park. One of my favorite birds, I can never pass up a good shot, although the light was not very good in this situation, Photoshop saved the day. A Variegated Meadowhawk on a nice perch. It let me get very close too.
The moon is growing bright again. I gave up astro a couple of nights ago due to the moon, which now is setting pretty late, and the clouds which have not encouraged me to get up early. Back to normal sleep mode for awhile.
I added more exposure to M1. This is without a doubt the best image I have made of this supernova remnant. Mellote 15, the star cluster at the heart of the Heart Nebula. The nebula’s red color and its heart shape are driven by the radiation from this small group of stars near the nebula’s center. NGC 1055, 52 million light-years distant, with a diameter of about 115,800 light-years. I’ve done this before with the 500 f4 but it looks much better with the C8, due to its small apparent size. Those two stars that appear so bright are actually 6-7 magnitude, probably not even visible to the unaided eye. There is another very small, distant galaxy in the lower right. My final version of Hind’s Variable Nebula. I really like how it turned out. Not so pleased with this one though. NGC 1333 with about 7 hours of exposure. Looks like I need another 7. I’m getting tired of it. Also known as the Embryo Nebula, it is a faint reflection nebula in the constellation Perseus. The Whirligig Galaxy, NGC 488. A large galaxy in a far away place, 90 million light years in the constellation Pisces. I’ve been spending a lot of time learning how to better process planetary images. Now, one can see the faint, blue atmosphere of Mars (this image was made in October when Mars was closer to Earth), around the edge where the atmosphere is the thickest from our point of view. Olympus Mons is clearly visible on the right a little below center. To the left of Olympus Mons are three smaller volcanoes, Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arsia Mons.
Astrophotography has been great the last few nights. I have been working on two objects that require a lot of exposure, one of them is close to being done and the other will take more time. While waiting for my preferred targets to rise high enough in the sky, I have been shooting a few new galaxies, ones that I’ve never imaged before. An added benefit to being out at night is watching the local wildlife, mostly Merriam’s Kangaroo Rats and a Kit Fox that I’ve been seeing in the area.
The Superman Galaxy, NGC 7479. About 105 million light years away in the constellation of Pegasus, the odd shape is thought to be due to a recent merger of two galaxies. I guess no explanation is needed for the name. NGC 891, this galaxy looks a lot like the Needle Galaxy that I have imaged before, but it is a different galaxy, located in Andromeda, about 30 million light years from Earth. Here is one of my faint, long exposure subjects, Hind’s Variable Nebula. I posted an image of this some time back, but now I have a lot more exposure on it. I really like this image, one can see the dark dust cloud being pulled into the star forming region that lights up the nebula. Located at the edge of the Taurus Molecular Cloud, Hind’s Variable Nebula is about 400 light years from Earth. M1, the Crab Nebula. I have done this before, this is the first time with C8 telescope and guiding. Last winter, before I started autoguiding, I had to throw out half of my subs before stacking. Last night, I only lost 2 out of 50 subs. I will probably take more tonight, if I can stay up long enough.
Finally, once again I am able to do more astrophotography. The last three nights have been pretty good, tonight the jet stream is directly overhead so the atmosphere is very unstable. I think I will catch up on sleep.
M74, also known as the Phantom Galaxy. Due to its low surface brightness, it has a reputation for being hard to see in a telescope. Thirty-two million light years distant, this galaxy is located the constellation Pisces. It contains an estimated 100,000,000,000 stars. And here is NGC 772, the Fiddlehead Galaxy, again. I’ve added about 3 more hours of exposure to this. Very faint and distant, about 130 million light years, but it is twice the size of our Milky Way Galaxy. NGC 770 is a dwarf galaxy, seen to the upper right of NGC 772, and its gravity is probably responsible for the odd shape of the larger galaxy. NGC 1514 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Taurus. It is very small and I am pretty happy with how this turned out. I tried this last winter before I started guiding the C8, but had to throw out half of my subs. Now that I’m guiding, I only lost 4 subs out of 70, all ninety second exposures. This is my latest project photographing a very faint object. This is NGC 1555, also known as Hind’s Variable Nebula. This is a variable nebula, illuminated by the star T Tauri, in the constellation Taurus. Both star and nebula vary significantly in brightness but not necessarily at the same time, adding to the mystery of the intriguing region. Struve’s Lost Nebula, visible for only a few decades in the 19th century, was in this area but has not been seen since. It was probably illuminated by another star that is now obscured by dust. I’ve only got about an hour on this so far and it already looks pretty good.
For the past several days, I’ve been lugging the 500 f4 with a 1.4 teleconverter (700mm focal length) on a tripod. Why? It is so heavy that I don’t like to carry it much, like I used to do. But, I wanted some better images of the Varied Thrush and the Rufous-backed Robin and 400mm focal length just isn’t enough. I’ve had some luck with the Varied Thrush but the Rufous-backed Robin has been hard to find. While carrying that combo around, I’ve had some other good photo opportunities and the results are so good, I will probably keep using the 500 f4, for awhile at least.
I now have lots of nice images of the Varied Thrush. Eastern Phoebe getting a drink. Female Red-shafted Flicker feeding on palm berries. And a male doing the same. This coyote has been eating palm berries too, off the ground. It spends a lot of time around the pond at the golf course. Here it is again, looking for trouble or maybe just looking something to eat beside palm berries.The coyote would find this a tasty meal if it could catch it. This is a Botta’s Pocket Gopher, the only species of pocket gopher found here. I just happened to see it pushing dirt out of its burrow. A hybrid Red-naped/Red-Breasted Sapsucker. A typical Red-naped Sapsucker would have a black band under the red throat, while a Red-breasted would much more red on the head and breast. Female Cassin’s Finch getting a drink from a puddle.
All of the photos shown above were taken with the Canon 500 f4 lens with a 1.4 teleconverter. As always, right click on an image to open in a new tab for a larger image.
The last week has just been fabulous for birding. It seems like everyday something new shows up. Being in Arizona makes it seem even more exciting because there are lots of birders who will travel to see birds. Take a Herring Gull for example, in South Dakota a pretty easy bird at the right time of year, here in the Sonoran Desert, a rarity. Today I had two of them, along with a Brown Pelican, two or maybe three Heermann’s Gulls, a couple of dozen Bonaparte’s Gulls, and a California Gull along with a bunch of Ring-billed Gulls. As the Arizona birders say, any gull is a good gull in Pima County. The reason for all this bird movement is the weather, of course. A strong front came through last night and today was very windy, with SSW winds blowing up to 35 mph, straight up from the Sea of Cortez.
I was just about to leave this morning when I took one last look and was amazed to see this Brown Pelican coming in for a landing. Brian Nicholas texted me yesterday to let me know someone had seen one flying along I-8 at Gila Bend, he thought it might come this way. Is this the same bird? Who knows. One of the Heermann’s Gulls that was here today, in late afternoon light. For awhile all the celebrities were together, Brown Pelican, 2 Heermann’s Gulls, and a Herring Gull, the gull on the right is a Ring-billed Gull. One of the Herring Gulls. I’ve never seen this species in Arizona before, today I saw two. Some of the birders who came today. Yesterday afternoon I got more photos of the Varied Thrush, this time with the 500 f4 and a 1.4 TC, for 700mm focal length. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and gloomy so I didn’t have very good light. Still, I think this is the best photo of Varied Thrush I have so far. I took more photos of Black-throated Gray Warblers today, getting some really nice ones. Pretty hard to beat a warbler photo like this!
As always, to see a larger image right click on the photo to open in a new tab.
This afternoon I got the best photo I’ve ever taken of a Rufous-backed Robin. The Varied Thrush is still here too. The good birds here are also attracting birders. Mark Otnes, who has moved to Tucson from North Dakota, came out this morning. I have been meeting more birders from Arizona and some from California this fall than ever.
Rufous-backed Robin at the golf course pond. Light was nice, I had to crop more than I like but it still looks pretty good. This species is very skittish and hard to approach. Why is its mouth open? Because it is hot, temperature was hovering around 100F this afternoon, record breaking heat again. Varied Thrush eating an earthworm. Another Eastern Phoebe has appeared, this one is at the golf course. This is NGC 772, the Fiddlehead Galaxy. I will need to get a lot more time in on this galaxy before it will look very good. It is twice the size of the Milky Way Galaxy, but it is so far away (130 million light years) it appears small and faint.
