Category: Astrophotography

Coyote vs Bobcat

I’ve had two trail cams out at Highway Tank for a couple of weeks now. I am trying for the Mountain Lion that has left tracks there but so far, no luck with that. Here is a YouTube LINK to a video I captured that is described by the title to my post. I find it amazing that something like this would happen right in front of my camera. The cameras are still there so maybe I will have a lion to show soon. The weather has been very nice and I’m enjoying the warm days.

This is Highway Tank. The water level is dropping but should last most of winter even without any rain. When I first got to Ajo the water was about 2 feet higher.

A female Red-naped Sapsucker at a sap well in Bud Walker Park. As far as photography, it doesn’t get much better than this!

My final image of M33. Astrophotography is over for now until after the next full moon.

Here’s a large crop of the M33 image, this is NGC 604. Keep in mind that this is over 2.5 million light years away! The brightest stars are foreground stars in our galaxy. Some of those other bluish blobs are probably star clusters in M33.

Astrophotography Birding Photography

Thanksgiving Day Post

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date November 24, 2022

Happy Thanksgiving! I’ve been keeping busy. Birding, astrophotography, and hiking. Now I’m working on digging up 89 photos of butterflies for Gary Marrone’s 2nd Edition of The Butterflies of South Dakota. That will be a great book when it is published. Weather here has been cool but still pretty nice.

I found two Gray Vireos in the Darby Well area, first time I’ve seen Gray Vireos there for several years now.

I photographed this one capturing a leaf-footed bug.

A Verdin perching on flowering Condalia. I really like this one!

Male Northern Cardinal peeking out from the mesquite.

I’ve been adding more exposure to my Crab Nebula image, started this several years ago. I think there will be more coming.

Same with M33, Triangulum Galaxy. The giant nebula, NGC 604, is very clear in the lower left. Forty times the size of the Orion Nebula, it would outshine Venus if it were the same distance as the Orion Nebula. But it is almost 3 million light years away.

A very poor photo of a Varied Thrush, a very rare bird for this area. I found it by the school baseball field. This is only the second one I’ve seen in the Ajo area. I’ve been trying to relocate it but so far, no luck.

Astrophotography Birding Herps Insects

A Hike up Alamo Canyon

I’ve been wanting to do this since I got here, but my knee hasn’t. My left knee has been pretty sore since I left South Dakota but is slowly getting better. Today, I tested it out on Alamo Canyon, and it did fine. The park biologist, Danny Martin, told me he had seen some good butterflies there this summer, including Tropical Leafwings and Zilpa Longtails. The Zilpa Longtail would have been a lifer, but I couldn’t find any today. Probably getting too late in the season, but there were still some Tropical Leafwings, and I was very happy to get the best photos I have ever taken of that species. I saw some Tropical Leafwings years ago at Miller Canyon but had poor luck photographing them.

A Tropical Leafwing, finally posing the way I needed it to. They have a strong tendency to land, fold their wings, and face directly toward or away from me. After many failed attempts I finally got this one in a decent position, with the sun behind me. This species is very similar to the Goatweed Butterfly, but has a small tooth below that larger tooth and above the lower corner of the wing.

Then, miracle of miracles, it opened the wings up and I got just a few shots before it flew off again. The wing pattern is that of a male.

I found this Sonoran Collared Lizard basking on a rock; I don’t remember ever seeing one this late in the season.

A couple of days ago I was hiking off Pipeline Road when I found what I believe is a metate, a grinding rock used by Native Americans. It was the only large rock in the area and the flat, slightly concave surface makes it a likely metate.

The latest big excitement at Lake Ajo, a Surf Scoter.

Jupiter is now rising up over 50 degrees above the horizon, the highest altitude I’ve been image it since I started doing this. The higher altitude helps get it out of the murk and turbulence of the atmosphere. I tried it a few nights ago despite only average “seeing” conditions. I took 6 three-minute videos and stacked the best frames. Expect more Jupiter images in the near future!

Astrophotography Insects

Some Astro

The full moon is coming back strong now but I had some good nights over the last few weeks. I’ve been thinking about what I can do to improve my astrophotography and I think my best bet is a dedicated astro camera. I’ve been using an old Canon 7D MII that was modified for H-alpha. The images are always pretty noisy though and hard to process. So, maybe in the near future there will be change.

The Fiddlehead Galaxy, I started this last winter and just added several more hours.

This is called the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also designated M76. It is only about 3 arc minutes in diameter. I tried this once with the 500 f4 but it was too small to be much good. This is a planetary nebula, one of Charles Messier’s “not a comet” nebulas. It is actually quite bright, just small in view. It can be seen in Perseus; it is about 2200 light years away and a little over one light year in diameter.

NGC 654, an open star cluster in Cassiopeia. It is large enough and bright enough that it can be seen as a faint glow with binoculars. The brightest star is HIP 8106, a magnitude 7.3 star, not visible to the unaided eye.

NGC 891, an edge-on galaxy in Andromeda, about 30 million light years out there. It looks a lot like the Needle Galaxy, but it is much smaller in view. I started this one last winter too, and just added more exposure.

The Northern Trifid, located in Perseus. It is part of the huge California Molecular Cloud and very faint, a combination of dust, emission nebula and reflection nebula.

And one butterfly photo, a Ceraunus Blue nectaring on Chuckwalla Delight.

Astrophotography Photography

Space X Falcon 9 Rocket Launch

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date October 28, 2022
3 Comments on Space X Falcon 9 Rocket Launch

It was December of 2017 when I saw my first nighttime rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. I had no idea what it was and was not prepared for photos. I managed to get a few that were handheld and poorly focused, which can be seen at this LINK. Since then, I’ve been waiting for another opportunity and last night I got it. I have subscribed to Launch Alert and I knew this one was coming. Vandenberg AFB is now Vandenberg Space Force Base, it is about 500 miles west, on the California coast. This rocket is a Space X Falcon 9 that was launching 53 Starlink satellites into orbit. The timing of the launch put the rocket and the exhaust in the light of the setting sun while I was far enough east where it was dark enough to see it. I was set up with the Canon 6D and 35mm Sigma lens on a tripod.

Launch was scheduled for 6:14:10 PM Pacific daylight time. Arizona is not on daylight savings time so there is no time difference. At nearly 6:15, I was beginning to think the launch had been delayed, when there it was!

The rocket rapidly gained altitude, remember this is all about 500 miles away. The first stage booster can be seen falling away. The radar on top of Child’s Mountain is on the lower left. This launch was not as spectacular as the one I witnessed in 2017.

Now passing over the setting Moon. The rocket is probably traveling around 18,000 mph by now or getting to that speed.

Cropped view showing the separated booster.

Astrophotography Birding Insects Photography

Ajo for the Winter

I arrived in Ajo almost a week ago. I’ve been waiting to accumulate some new photos before posting an update. The area has had a good monsoon season, everything is green, and all the tanks and ponds are full of water. The bird migration is building up slowly here, so far nothing very exciting. I had a Kit Fox near the camper last night while I was out doing astro. It is good to be back in the Sonoran Desert.

A California Patch, first one I’ve seen in a long time. This species is not common here. This one was nectaring on Desert Broom.

This is only the second Pyrruloxia I’ve seen in the Ajo area. More common to the east. I found this one this morning near Darby Well.

A female Phainopepla, these birds should be happy this winter, there is a huge crop of mistletoe berries for them to eat.

Another dark nebula, this is known as the Wolf’s Cave Nebula, or LDN 1217. It is located in the constellation Cepheus.

Astrophotography Aurora Borealis

Back in Pierre and More Aurora

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date September 4, 2022
1 Comment on Back in Pierre and More Aurora

The Slim Buttes area was getting pretty crowded with the opening of archery deer season and the Labor Day weekend. I decided to move back to Pierre for a while. Last night, I was about to go to sleep but decided to check Spaceweather.com one more time to see what the aurora was doing. There was a geomagnetic storm in progress, so I loaded what equipment I needed and drove north of town. Rural Hughes county is not as dark as Harding County but it is pretty good. The only problem was the moon, it is about half phase now and was still above the horizon. By midnight it was sinking below the horizon and conditions improved a lot. This was far from the best displays of aurora borealis I’ve seen, but it has been at least a decade since I’ve seen one this good!

This was my first stop, just before the moon set. At this point, I could see pillars and rays of the aurora with my unaided eyes. It stayed low on the horizon.

After the moon set, I drove a few miles further east to get away from the lights of the Pierre area. There, I watched aurora come and go for a couple of hours. It never got much brighter but it was still worth staying out there!

Another view. Tonight could be even better if the forecasters are correct.

While I was the Slim Buttes, I spent three nights working on this with the C8. The Ghost Nebula, a very faint dark nebula near Cepheus. I knew it was going to be hard with the C8, this one requires a lot of exposure and I need more, but here it is anyway. About 6 hours of exposure.

Astrophotography Birding Photography

Astrophotography at the Slim Buttes

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date July 29, 2022

The last few nights have been clear and dark. This area has the darkest skies to be found anywhere in North America and it is pretty amazing at night with no moon. I can see the Andromeda Galaxy with no difficulty, even without binoculars. I set up the Losmandy G11 and used the 500 f4 for a dark nebula and a comet.

I will have to leave pretty soon. I have an appointment in Pierre Monday morning. It is going to be hot there!

This is comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS). It is an Oort Cloud comet with a very long orbital period, it probably took millions of years to arrive at our sun from its origin in the Oort Cloud. It is a very large comet, at about 11 miles diameter. It cannot be seen without at least a 6-inch telescope. In my image, a faint red nebula is visible to the left of the comet. Its current location is in the constellation Ophiuchus. I wanted to get more exposure, but I had to deal with some tall trees that obscured it shortly after it got dark enough for photography.

LDN 1082, a dark nebula in Cepheus. It is also known as Barnard 150. Also known as the Seahorse Nebula. This is actually upside down, I flipped it so the “seahorse” shape is more obvious. The interstellar cloud is so dense that the light of the stars behind it and all other background emissions are completely absorbed. An active star formation takes place almost invisibly inside the nebula.

Flip it again, and it looks like a person walking, maybe with a long cape. So, the Batman Nebula?

While out for a walk a few days ago, this American Kestrel started hazing me. It flew over many times, not happy with my presence. I assume there were young nearby.

More elk, a cow and young calf inspecting something. I had 8 elk pass by in just a few minutes.

A pair of Trumpeter Swans that nested at the JB Dam. Two cygnets can be seen hunkered down on the nest. There are some Painted Turtles sharing the nest with the swans.

A Spotted Towhee that posed nicely for me.

Astrophotography Birding

Back in South Dakota

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date May 16, 2022

I’ve actually been back almost two weeks now. I’ve been keeping busy chasing migrant birds. For a few days there were good numbers of migrants, I suppose it could be characterized as a fallout. The numbers of warblers were pretty amazing, but the diversity of species wasn’t that great. I’m hoping for an even better “fallout” later this week, when a cold front moves through.

Here’s one I don’t get to see very often, a Black-throated Green Warbler.

Several orioles are coming to oranges in my parent’s backyard. I spent one afternoon photographing them.

Red-headed Woodpeckers just showed up a few days ago. I got lucky with this one.

Just a Chipping Sparrow, but I really like this photo with its smooth background.

Last night I went outside to see the lunar eclipse. I couldn’t resist, I had to set up the 500 f4 and take some images. According to Spaceweather.com, this lunar eclipse is darker and redder than most due to the eruption of the Tonga volcano back in January.

Common Yellowthroat up close with the 500 f4.

Astrophotography Insects Photography

On the Road Again

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date April 30, 2022

I left Granite Gap this morning. I have been spending the nights photographing some galaxies and hiking and birding during the day. The weather has been far too windy most of the time and it makes astrophotography hard. I put all that gear away and now I am focusing on birds. I’m at Bosque del Apache NWR near Socorro, New Mexico. After spending the last 7 months in the Sonoran Desert, it is sure nice to see lots of water again! The refuge is full of birds, lots of shorebirds, ibis, herons, ducks, warblers and others. I didn’t do much birding today but tomorrow will be a full day.