Author: Doug Backlund

Some More First of Spring

Temperatures are rising and is so is herp activity. I made a trip out to Valentine Well one night but bats weren’t very active, I only got one good shot. The weather forecast shows another warm day today and Saturday, followed by a rapid cool down.

Yesterday I saw three Western Diamondbacks.

I also found two Goode’s Horned Lizards.

Last night, Vikki Jackson and I checked out the pond at the golf course. There were lots of bats flying around, but the best find was breeding Great Plains Toads. One has to be there to appreciate how loud these toads are. The sound is deafening at close range.

The only bat I’ve been able to photograph so far, at Valentine Well. I am not convinced that these bats are Yuma Myotis, but that seems to be the consensus at iNaturalist.

It is mating season for Black-tailed Jackrabbits too, and they are often seen moving around in daytime now.

Bluedicks, or Desert Hyacinth, are blooming profusely now. This plant is in the Asparagus family. Many species of wildlife and Native Americans use the root (known as a corm) for food.

Desert Wishbone, a flower with a nice drop of nectar at the base of the anthers. In the Four-o’clock family, the flowers open at night and only last one day. The common name comes from appearance of the forked and white-bleached year old stems.

Desert Lotus, or Desert Bird’s Foot Trefoil. The flowers are tiny, the plant forms low mats.

Astrophotography Photography

Rocket Launch

This evening a Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to launch from Vandenberg SFB, shortly after sunset. The timing was perfect for a big show if the launch actually happened. And it did! Mike Venard came out to watch the show with me and we were both quite impressed. One really has to see it to appreciate the spectacular view, but I took photos, of course, and so here some of them are. They don’t really do justice to what we saw though.

Here’s liftoff, at about 7:30 PM. The planet Mercury can be seen in the center of the image, on the left side is the radar station on Child’s Mountain. Taken with a 35mm Sigma lens. The rocket is about 600 miles west heading south over the Pacific Ocean.

The rocket rapidly speeds south leaving behind a wake of exhaust gases (mostly water that has frozen into ice crystals) that are lit up by the sun below the horizon. Perfect timing. The rocket has passed over Child’s Mountain and is heading south at probably around 5 miles per second. The booster can be seen falling away into the Pacific Ocean.

By now, the whole western sky is filled with this. The booster is streaking away toward the Pacific Ocean.

After the rocket was gone, these clouds remained for quite a while, basically man-made noctilucent clouds, very bright and colorful.

I quickly changed lenses to a 135mm for this shot, a close up of the exhaust cloud. What a show! This is the third time I’ve seen this happen, but this was the best one I’ve seen. I posted some photos on Spaceweather.com and see this morning that one is featured in on the main web page, it can be seen at this LINK.

Birding Flowers and Plants Photography

New Flowers and a Mockingbird

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date March 17, 2024
1 Comment on New Flowers and a Mockingbird

This morning I went on hike up Child’s Mountain. It has been pretty chilly the last few days and it still was this morning, until the sun finally came out. My hiking trail is the road that leads to the summit. It is gated and open only to foot traffic. Off road, the terrain is very rocky and steep. The flowers are really coming along, Brittlebush is starting to bloom profusely. About a mile up, there is a flat and there I discovered a new plant for me, growing in abundance.

The new plant, Desert Onion, *Allium macropetalum*, a species of wild onion that is reported to be common and widespread in the southwest. However, according to records in iNaturalist, it is rarely reported in most of the Sonoran Desert. It is not even listed in my book Sonoran Desert Wildflowers. UPDATE: After some discussion in iNaturalist, it has been decided that this plant is Sperry’s Onion, *Allium perdulce* var. *sperry*. Rather than repeat what has already been said, if interested, read the information at this LINK .

The flowers on various plants range from creamy white to a light pink, as this one shows.

Here is a plant with nearly white flowers. I spent a long time looking at the variability among the plants. There were literally thousands of plants, quite amazing considering I have never seen it before. I don’t think the flowering stage will last very long though.

Here’s another new plant for me, Spiny Goldenweed, *Xanthisma spinulosum*. Like the onion, it appears to be more common in other areas of the American southwest, outside the Sonoran Desert.

Northern Mockingbirds are well known for this flight display. This is the time of year when they are very actively doing this. From a high, exposed perch, the males sing and then periodically fly up a few feet and display the white feathers in the wings and tail. I’ve tried to capture this with a camera before with little success, it is very difficult to maintain focus and the action is fast. Yesterday, I finally got a few photos that are worth showing. I would have liked a little more light on the eye, but this is the best I have so far.

Astrophotography Flowers and Plants Herps

Another Comet and Few More Photos

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date March 14, 2024

Last night I finally got the 500 f4 pointed to Comet 12P/Pons Brooks. This is the comet that the media has somehow come up with the name of Devil Comet, due to its odd shape earlier this year. All the hype aside, it is a bright comet right now and can be seen with binoculars low in the west after sunset. 12P/Pons Brooks is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 71 years. I thought I was going to have a hard time with it since the moon was quite bright, but it turned out to be quite easy to process.

I think if the moon hadn’t been so bright I could have got more of the tail, but I’m pretty happy with this. This is the result of 27 twenty-second exposures stacked in Deep Sky Stacker comet mode.

Emory’s Rock Daisy is quite common now, rocky slopes are loaded with it.

I haven’t seen much Owl Clover this spring. It is one of my favorite desert flowers, and had to photograph this one.

My first Desert Spiny Lizard of the spring, out getting warmed up in the morning sun.

Astrophotography Birding Flowers and Plants Insects

More Photos from the Ajo Area

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date March 13, 2024
1 Comment on More Photos from the Ajo Area

I made a trip to Buckeye to stock up at Walmart and on the way there, I birded. There were lots of birds at the Gillespie Dam, hundreds of egrets and herons, two species of cormorants, and lots of pelicans. Astrophotography continues to be hard, with too many clouds. But I have managed to get some done. I also made a trip down to Alamo Canyon, long overdue.

This is Abell 31, also known as Sh2-290. It is a very faint planetary nebula in the constellation Cancer. It is so faint that I cannot see it in any of my images until I stack and process. As far as planetary nebulas go, it is fairly large in view. This is what I got after 8 hours of exposure with the Nebula Booster filter and the 500f4 lens.

Comet 62P/Tsuchinshan is now passing through the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, so I tried it last night. At magnitude 10.5 it isn’t very bright. The comet is over 50 million miles distance. The galaxies are on the order of 50 million light years, some are nearly 90 million light years out there.

On a walk in Alamo Canyon, I found lots of Miner’s Lettuce, *Claytonia perfoliata*.

And also Redmaids, *Calandrinia ciliata.*

Some of the pelicans and one Snowy Egret at Gillespie Dam.

Some of the egrets I saw. At 100mm focal length, this is all could get in one frame.

Also in Alamo Canyon, I saw several Empress Leilia nectaring on Gooding’s Vervain. For me, this is unusual for two reasons. I rarely if ever have seen this species of hackberry butterfly nectar on anything and in my experience, not many butterflies nectar at this species of plant.

At the parking lot in Alamo Canyon, I watched this Northern Cardinal repeatedly attack its image in a sideview mirror on another car parked there. Then it flew up onto this Saguaro to sing loudly!

Astrophotography Flowers and Plants Photography

March Update

It has been a while since I posted anything, so here it goes. The weather here has been just perfect, not too hot, not too cold. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of clouds cutting into my astrophotography. All the rain has started another spring bloom that could rival last years. I have to keep reminding myself that it is only early March, once the weather turns warmer, the herps, plants, insects, birds, mammals will all be more prominent. I am really looking forward to it.

This is an Acuña cactus (*Echinomastus erectocentrus acunensis*), an endangered cactus that only occurs in five known populations in the United States, according to my book Field Guide to Cacti and other Succulents of Arizona. I recently was shown where one of those populations is, right here in Ajo. Today I checked it out again and found one in flower. There is a dozen or more cactus in this population, though I have not made an exact count.

This is Silverpuff, *Uropappus lindleyi*. There are a lot of these in flower now in localized areas. I liked how this photo turned out.

Pelotazo (*Abutilon incanum*) is flowering too. A true plant of the Sonoran Desert, it requires warm winters and summer rains. It is not found in the Mojave Desert region.

A late afternoon scene from last week. I was watching for a rainbow to form after some showers passed by but instead got this. The setting sun lit up the mountain known locally as Noah’s Ark in the Sikort Chuapo Mountains, east of Ajo.

I had the C8 out for a few nights and did a test run on M81, Bode’s Galaxy. This came out really nice. Below M81, just above the edge of the frame, is Holmberg IX, a faint dwarf irregular galaxy and a satellite galaxy of M81. A little above on the right side of M81 is a double star that is clearly seen split. It was 100 years ago, in 1924, when Edwin Hubble proved that many of the nebulas seen in space were much further away than previously thought, millions of light years away, and that these were actually other galaxies like our own Milky Way Galaxy. M81, once known as Bode’s Nebula, is one of the billions of galaxies we now know exist.

Astrophotography Birding Insects

More Astrophotography and a Couple of Others

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date February 16, 2024
2 Comments on More Astrophotography and a Couple of Others

The new moon has come and gone, and I had to deal with a lot of clouds, heavy dew, and cold. However, with the new filter I was able to take advantage of some good weather over the last few days and I had great results. Birding has remained extremely slow, nothing but the regular desert birds. I had nine photos printed for the Sonoran Desert Photo Show that is taking place in March. It is always interesting to see all the photos that are on display, I hope there is good turnout.

I tried this once before with the C8 but it is so dim that details were hard to catch when imaging at f6.3. The last couple of nights I used the 500f4 and the IDAS Nebula Booster filter and the results were amazing. This is the Medusa Nebula, or Sh-2 274 or Abell 21. It is a planetary nebula, what our sun will look like sometime in the distant future as it loses its outer layers of gas and transforms into a white dwarf. The Medusa Nebula is about 4 light years in diameter and 1500 light years distant toward the constellation Gemini.

Also done with the 500f4 and the new filter, the Cone Nebula, the Christmas Tree Cluster, and the Fox Fur Nebula. The faint nebula is approximately seven light-years long (with an apparent length of 10 arcminutes) and is 2,700 light-years away from Earth.

Thor’s Helmet with the new filter. I also used StarXterminator to remove the stars before processing. There are so many stars they overwhelm the image if they aren’t removed. I’ve never been able to get so much detail from the dimmer areas of this nebula.

This is the Seagull Nebula, a large emission nebula between the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major. I could not fit the entire nebula in the frame with the 500f4. I may have to try a mosaic someday. You may notice the prominent bluish arc in the lower center area. This is a bow shock from runaway star FN Canis Majoris.

I was at Highway Tank a couple of days ago and found this Least Sandpiper. Not exactly an exciting bird to see but it was the first one I’ve ever seen at Highway Tank. This bird puts my species total for Highway Tank at 120.

This is a Desert Orangetip, the Pima variety. The Desert Orangetip ranges widely from far west Texas to southern California and into Nevada. The eastern populations are yellow on the upper wing (Pima Orangetip) and western populations are white. One of the earliest spring flying butterflies, this one is nectaring on Fairy Duster.

Astrophotography Birding Flowers and Plants

February Update

It is hard to believe that it is already February. It is also hard to believe how much rain the Ajo area has been getting. The ground is soggy and the mountains are green. Barring an unwelcome spell of freezing temperatures, there should be another spectacular spring bloom of flowers. Already, some are showing up. Birding has been very slow but there are signs of migration, friends in town reported seeing a Rufous Hummingbird today!

I have added more time to the Dolphin Head, I’m up to about 6 hours of exposure now. Using the new duoband filter sure makes this pop out.

This is Ten-mile Wash a day after the heavy rain last week (January 22-23). Some areas around Ajo got nearly 4 inches. I’ve been coming to Ajo for almost 10 winters now and have never seen the wash with flowing water. This morning it was running again, after another inch of rain last night. Ten-mile Wash is about 1/2 mile from my camper.

This morning Vikki Jackson and I hiked up McGrady Wash. We saw one butterfly, this Sara Orangetip. Fortunately, it landed a few times and let me get some photos. It has been a long time since I have had any good butterfly photos to show! Some consider this to be one species within the Sara Orangetip complex, the Southwestern Orangetip.

A Canyon Wren that eventually came close enough for some photos.

We also found this flowering plant, *Pseudorontium cyathiferum*, common name Deep Canyon Snapdragon. It is the only species in the genus *Pseudorontium*. It is native to the deserts of northern Mexico and adjacent California and Arizona. I’ve never seen it before, apparently it is not very common in Arizona according to records in iNaturalist. The leaves are hairy and glandular, the flowers small.

Astrophotography

A Jellyfish and a Dolphin

No, I haven’t been to the coast. Just cruising around the Milky Way Galaxy with my 500 f4 lens. Despite the brightening moon, I’ve been having great success with the new IDAS Nebula Booster filter. This filter is a real game changer for me. It is like having a new astronomy camera, it is that good.

First up, the Jellyfish Nebula, IC 443. I have imaged this nebula many times in the past but always with marginal success. Part of the problem is the dense star field, StarXterminator helps with that. However, the IDAS filter also reduces light from stars, leaving mostly the very bright ones. It also allows me to do longer exposures, gathering more light from the two spectrum bands I want, OII and Ha, and less light that I don’t want. In this case, the nebula is mostly Ha. In the constellation Gemini, about 5000 light years from Earth, C 443 is most likely the remains of a supernova that occurred 30,000 – 35,000 years ago.

This one is just incredible, in my opinion. I’ve tried this before (with no filter) and could never get anything worth using. Not even close. This is the Dolphin Head Nebula, Sh2-308, locate about 8 degrees south of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Sh2-308 surrounds the Wolf–Rayet star EZ Canis Majoris, the bright star in the center of the nebula. This nebula is composed mostly of OII and some Ha, it is very faint. There is a larger Ha nebula that just starts to show in the upper left. In the lower right side of the Dolphin Head is the magnitude 4 star, Udra. The most amazing thing to me is I could do this in a bright moon and still get results like this. I am really looking forward to doing more with the IDAS Nebula Booster filter.

Astrophotography Birding

January Astro

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date January 15, 2024

Although I haven’t had many good nights for astrophotography, I do have a couple of images to show. I spent many hours on each one, including the taking of images and then the processing. It was so cold one night I just quit. Now, the weather is back to more normal temperatures but tonight looks like it will be too cloudy again. And the moon is getting bright but with my new nebula booster filter I can still shoot for another week or so, assuming I get any clear skies. As always, a larger image can be seen by opening in a new tab or window.