Yes, I’m still here. However, the weather in the Sonoran Desert is finally going to cool down and I will be in Ajo by Wednesday. It will be nice to be closer to a grocery store. I’ve been busy with astrophotography and my usual hiking and reading. This is a nice spot for quiet camping. I have a good crew of hummingbirds coming to my feeder now, Black-chins, Anna’s, and Rufous. I’ve been putting out the trail camera every night hoping for the mountain lion to come by but so far all I’ve got is coyotes, a gray fox, and rabbits.
As always, right click on an image and open in a new tab to see it displayed at a larger size.
Tarantula Hawk walking on a board. These are somewhat difficult to get a good photo of. A Robber Fly sucking the juice out of a bee. I can’t resist a shot like this. I now have an Anna’s Hummingbird at my feeder. This is a juvenile male.I’ve spent two nights gathering photons for this image. I now have a total of about 4 hours of exposure. In the upper left is the Iris Nebula and lower right is the Ghost Nebula. Both are in clouds of space dust in the direction of the constellation Cepheus. Here is the Ghost Nebula cropped out and some rather heavy-handed processing. It is a pretty neat nebula, I can see why it is named the Ghost! I am out tonight gathering more light from this region, so will see what another two hours of exposure will do.
I’m still here at Granite Gap. No break in the heat out in the Sonoran Desert. That’s OK because this is a great place for astrophotography and nights are currently moonless. Every night is good, clear, usually no wind, dark. Compared to South Dakota, this is great for astro. Up there I can only wish for a good night or two during the new moon period. Yesterday I put quite a bit of time in on Sage Thrashers trying for a better shot of them eating juniper berries.
Finally, I got a good shot of a Sage Thrasher eating juniper berries. Once they get used to me sitting there, they will come out in the open, but it takes awhile. It is too bad that branch is covering the tail, but nothing I can do about it. This is M15, the Pegasus Cluster. Located, as one would suspect from the name, in the constellation Pegasus. M15 is about 33,600 light years from Earth, and is an estimated 175 light-years in diameter. It is one of the oldest star clusters known, at around 12 billion years. The Cocoon Nebula. I have done this before but it is quite small and by using the C8, it looks much more impressive. Located in Cygnus, it is is a stellar nursery where star-formation is ongoing. M33, Triangulum Galaxy, which I have done many times with the 500 f4 lens. This image was done with the C8. The galaxy is nearly too big to get it framed but it does fit.
As always, right click on any image to open in a new tab if you want to see it at full size.
I’m still here at Granite Gap. This is sure a nice, peaceful campsite. I am surprised at the lack of use since the Forest Service campgrounds are closed and this is listed as a free camping area on the various internet sites. I suppose it is due to it not being a good place for the big trailers and motorhomes. It is suited to small campers only. The long range weather forecast doesn’t show much hope for going to Ajo for at least a week but I might move further west in a few days.
Sage Thrasher eating juniper berries. This was in a bad place for photography, with the bird in the shade and a bright background, but some work with Photoshop made it look pretty good. The Wizard Nebula with the C8. I have about 3 hours of exposure on it now. This is an emission nebula that surrounds the open star cluster NGC 7380 in the constellation Cepheus. I’ve seen some really nice images of this nebula but it takes 8-10 hours (or more) of exposure to really get the fine details and I’m not sure I have the patience for that. It was pretty windy one night so I used the 500 f4 lens instead of the C8. The C8 really does not do well in wind. I elected to put the entire night (until the moon came up) on the Andromeda Galaxy. This was an experiment. NGC 1333 (also known as the Embryo Nebula) is very small and faint. I have tried it before with the 500 f4 but it is too small. With the C8 the issue is getting enough exposure. I used ISO 12000 to see what would happen with 2 minute exposures. It isn’t too bad but there is a lot of noise and the image quality is poor. At this low resolution I suppose it looks fine. This is another one that would take many hours to get a really good image.
I’ve moved to the camping area in Granite Gap that I investigated last week. It is pretty nice here. So far, I have the whole place to myself. There is some shade and the elevation is high enough to lower the temps a few degrees. It was getting pretty hot down in the valley at Rusty’s RV Ranch. I’ve seen some Sage Thrashers, Cassin’s Vireo, Green-tailed Towhee, and all the usual desert birds. This is a great spot for hiking and one can go for miles on BLM land. Before I left Rusty’s, I had another good night of planetary photography.
Here’s Jupiter again. This time the shadow of Callisto is moving across the face of the planet. My best image of Mars so far. Later this month the planet will be oriented so the big volcanoes like Olympus Mons will show up. I think I can capture them if I have good conditions. Unlike on Earth, some of the volcanoes on Mars are gigantic because there is no plate tectonics to move them around, they just grow bigger and bigger. Olympus Mons is about the size of the state of Arizona and is 16 miles elevation.
Mars is approaching opposition next month (October 13th) and is currently as close to Earth as it will be for a long time, in addition it rises high in the sky overnight, out of the haze and atmospheric gunk that Jupiter and Saturn are in now. Now is the time to photograph the planet. I tried it last night with the C8 and a 2.5 Televue Powermate. With this combination I’m getting about 5000mm focal length, but good atmospheric “seeing” is essential. Last night was just OK, I’m hoping for at least one good night with excellent seeing. It may be possible to see some volcanoes on the surface, like Olympus Mons, with excellent seeing. I don’t know if I can pick up on things like that with my equipment but I will keep trying.
This is the best I could get. It is much better than my previous attempts. This is a stack of over 2000 video frames selected by software from over 8000 frames, then stacked. The south polar cap is on the upper left and one can see north polar ice clouds at lower right. The largest dark area in the center is Mare Erythaeum. At this link is a good map that labels the features: https://www.wa2guf.org/mars-opposition-of-2020-2021/ Jupiter didn’t turn out so well but one can see the moon Io peeking out from behind the giant planet.
I had to return to Pierre to see a dentist. Actually two dentists, one (an endodontist )for a root canal and the other (my general dentist) for a crown. Got that taken care of now. I am ready to head south for Arizona. I’ve been here for about a week and while nothing too exciting has happened, I have taken a few photos, as usual.
I had one good night for astrophotography and took more exposures of the Deer Lick Group. Added to the ones I took while I was at my spot in the Black Hills, it looks a lot better now. One morning while hiking on the Lewis and Clark Trail, I came across this just hatched Snapping Turtle. Lots of Franklin’s Gulls migrating through now. This photo was taken on Fisherman Point a couple of days ago. This morning, while walking on Farm Island, I saw this vine growing on a dogwood. I do not recall having ever seen it before. I identified it on the internet, Polygonum scandens, Climbing False Buckwheat. It is a native plant, a new species for me. I have to wonder how common it is in South Dakota. It seems like I would have noticed it before.
I had to make short trip back to Pierre to get a small skin cancer removed from my forehead. That was done successfully. It was too hot to stay there so I’m back out at my Black Hills campsite again. It looks the heat will only get worse for the next week or so, but it is nice here, at about one mile elevation. This morning I went for a walk in Hell Canyon, starting at the trailhead off of Highway 16. I hadn’t gone far when I found a herd of Bighorn Sheep browsing on the chokecherry bushes on the hillside. The oddest thing about these sheep is that not one is wearing a tag, neck band or anything else. A couple of years ago, every sheep I saw had some kind of marking or tag. I walked up to the spring and back to the trailhead, when I got near the truck I started seeing some Lewis’s Woodpeckers. I eventually counted nine. They all stayed too far out for photos though.
Bighorn Sheep in Hell Canyon. I counted 14 total, but couldn’t get them all in the photo. I always find it hard to pass up a good chipmunk photo. This one was posing nicely. Getting set up for astrophotography again, but the smoke from western forest fires may foil my plans for tonight. The Bubble Nebula. I started on this last week on one of the two good nights I had. I need to get more time on it, maybe tonight. This is taken with the C8 telescope. The Deerlick Group. The largest galaxy here is NGC 7331, the smaller galaxies are actually much further away and not really a group, but the name persists. I have photographed this before but this is the first time with the C8 and the extra focal length makes a lot of difference. Now I just need more time to get more exposure of it. I suppose I should add a bird photo. Here’s a juvenile Mountain Bluebird that let me get fairly close.
Astrophotography in the summer in South Dakota can be difficult. Nights are short, clouds are often a problem, as is the wind. Last night was about perfect though. I was up till 2 AM. The sky is dark and moon is rising late. The sky is so dark here at my camp that the Milky Way is bright enough to light up the area. I can see the Andromeda Galaxy with no visual aid. This is a great place for astrophotography when the weather cooperates.
Our galaxy. Jupiter and Saturn are the bright objects on the left. M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. I’ve photographed this many times but had to try it again now that I’m guiding and can take longer exposures. I think it looks pretty good!
I’m still here at my summer campsite in the Black Hills. Weather has been near perfect and it was even good enough for an evening of astrophotography. There is a small stock pond near the camper that is usually dry but this summer there is a few inches of water from a heavy rain a couple of weeks ago. I have been watching birds coming to water there. One morning a Common Nighthawk came swooping in, again and again, finally it flew low over the water and drank! I have never seen nighthawks do this before, but it makes perfect sense. Birds that are not used to walking on the ground often do this, as do bats. Swallows and swifts are known for this behavior. I wanted to photograph this behavior and the next morning I was able to get some so-so images. Here’s the best one.
Common Nighthawk taking water. M27. Image created from 93 one minute exposures stacked in Deep Sky Stacker. Celestron C8 with .63 reducer, Canon 7DMII, guided with Lacerta MGEN III, Losmandy G11 mount.
It was pretty exciting to finally have a comet visible to the unaided eye. July of 2020 was the month of Comet Neowise and of course I had to photograph it. A lot.
Comet Neowise rising over Hell Canyon in the South Dakota Black Hills. Venus and the Pleiades can be seen on the right. 35 mm lens. A closer view with a 200mm lens and longer exposures, stacked. The blue ion tail stretches straight back from the comet while the dust trail arcs and spreads. Banding of the dust tail, known as synchronic bands or striae, is caused by sorting of the dust particles. Comet Neowise behind my campsite. Comet Neowise rising over Hell Canyon, near Jewel Cave National Monument.
