Now that the moon is approaching the new moon phase, the clouds are rolling in. I had a few good nights but for the next few days at least, it does not look good. As far as birding goes, it is very slow. A few new birds have appeared, indicating some migration. Two dowitchers at the pond and a couple of Greater Yellowlegs, along with a Ring-billed Gull were the most exciting birds I’ve seen. Still not warm enough to get the herps out, except for the most common ones I’ve seen all winter.
I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to try making an image of the Andromeda Galaxy as it was close to the horizon. My goal was to show how large this galaxy would appear if we could see it as bright as the moon. I wanted to get it setting over the Air Force radar installation on Child’s Mountain. It was close and I even got an unexpected Saguaro in the scene. I took about 30 minutes of exposure of the galaxy as it came lower but the moon came up before it was low enough. So, I had to make some adjustments. It worked out pretty good because the moon lit up Child’s Mountain. As always, right click on the image and open in a new tab to see a larger version.
I think I enjoy imaging galaxies more than nebulas. There are lots of them and all are different. But, mostly it is because they are so awesome and fascinating; entire galaxies, thousands of light years in diameter, millions of light years away, with billions of stars, all captured in my images. Most are too small for the 500 f4 lens but with the C8, many more are now within my range. And it is galaxy season now, with many of the nebulas now shifting to the south and west.
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).
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.
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!!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
