Categories
Photography

Full Moon Rising

This turned out about perfect for photography. The moon was rising over the Batamote Mountains but the sun was still up in the west. No bracketing, HDR, or other usual methods of combining overexposed and underexposed images were needed. Just the standard photoshop routine and this is what I got. Something I’d like to try is shooting the Andromeda Galaxy in a similar setting. If we could actually see the Andromeda Galaxy in its actual size, it would be 4 or 5 times wider than the full moon. It is too faint for our eyes but if I can photograph it setting behind the mountains here, it might be a nice image. I may be able to do that tomorrow night if I can find the right location. Timing and location will be important! Right now the galaxy is setting in the west from 9-10 PM but the moon comes up about 9:30 PM.

Not much editing needed. Light was perfect.
Categories
Birding Herps Photography

Full Moon Days

Nothing going on here for astrophotography, the moon is too bright. Birding is still very slow and in my walks around the desert I’m not finding many flowers or butterflies. All in all, not much going on. At least the weather is nice. Many of the campers have left now, the campground is very quiet again.

While hiking out by Valentine Well I came across this homemade grave marker. I’m not sure what Quate means, it could be cuate, which can mean brother or friend in Spanish. I suppose Francisco was another immigrant looking for a better life.
A Harris’s Antelope Ground Squirrel feeding on something. Like chipmunks and Red Squirrels, hard to pass up.
It is hard to find anything new to photograph, so here’s another Common Side-blotched Lizard in breeding colors.
I found this Wilson’s Snipe this morning, at the golf course. It was probing in the soft soil around a leaking pipe. It let me get pretty close. Not very often one can find one of these out in the open like this.
Probing for earthworms.
Categories
Astrophotography

More Galaxies

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.

This is the Tiger’s Eye Galaxy, NGC 2841, in Ursa Major. Several other smaller galaxies are visible too. NGC 2841 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. It was discovered in 1788 by William Herschel. Known as a flocculent spiral galaxy, a type of spiral galaxy whose spirals are blotchy and discontinuous. M63, the Sunflower Galaxy is similar to the Tiger’s Eye Galaxy.
NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It is one of three galaxies known as the Leo Triplets.
Categories
Astrophotography

M82-The Cigar Galaxy

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).

Five hours of total exposure and probably about the same amount of time stacking and processing, this is the final result. I’m not sure if I will add more exposure or not. I’ve seen photos with as much as 16 hours exposure and they are impressive but that is a lot of time spent on one object!
Categories
Birding Photography

Catching Up With Some Photos

I haven’t been taking many photos other than astrophography for a couple of weeks now. So, the new ones have just been sitting in the camera until today. It looks like I might have one or two more good nights for astrophotography then it is back to looking for birds or anything else that is interesting. It is beginning to feel like spring and apparently ducks feel the same way as some new species showed up today at the pond, including some Northern Pintails, Cinnamon Teal, and Gadwall. The question is: are they moving back north or moving south from the bitter cold? Looking at the weather back in South Dakota, I’m sure glad I’m here! Some of the desert vegetation is starting to green up now, but more rain is needed.

A Cactus Wren that hopped up on a rock, too close to even get the whole bird in the frame.
I was at Gillespie Dam about a week ago. It was nice to see some new water (besides the Ajo sewage ponds) and some new birds. I liked how this Green Heron is framed in the opening in the wall.
While hiking along Ten-mile Wash, I came across this rock pile and started noticing petroglyphs. This one is apparently snakes and maybe indicates that this rock pile was a snake den. Who knows?
Another petroglyph, obviously a Saguaro.
Categories
Astrophotography

February Astro

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.

A new nebula for me, the Angel Nebula, in the constellation Monocerus. It took a lot of exposure to get this but I think it was worth it.
I’ve wanted to try this for a long time, the heart of the Coma Cluster of galaxies, located in the Coma Berenices constellation. The mean distance to the galaxies in this cluster is about 320 million light years. That is by far the farthest I have ever photographed anything. By far. When the photons I captured left these galaxies there was only one continent on Earth and the land was covered in dense, swampy forests, during the Carboniferous Period. There are over 1000 galaxies in this cluster, I would guess there are over 100 galaxies in this photo.
Here’s a tighter crop of the image. All of these galaxies are in the Coma Cluster. The blue star is in our galaxy.
The Seagull Nebula with the 500 f4 lens.
NGC 4725, a new galaxy for me. This is located in Coma Berenices and a good target for the C8.
M66, one of the galaxies that make up the Leo Triplets. This is the first time I’ve imaged it separately with the C8. It is very colorful.
The Intergalactic Wanderer, a very distant star cluster. I recently discovered that there are two listed in Stellarium, one is a mistake. This is the correctly identified Intergalactic Wanderer, NGC 2419, in the Lynx constellation. It is about 300,000 light years away.
The Little Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major. Officially NGC 3184.
The UFO Galaxy, NGC 2683, in the constellation Lynx.
NGC 2903, 30 million light years away in the constellation Leo.
Categories
Birding Photography

Red Phalarope at Ajo

The big excitement of the past few days has been a Red Phalarope that showed up on the Ajo Sewage Ponds. I found it late Tuesday afternoon and got the word out, but it was too late for birders from the Tucson area to come over. The following morning was cold, 28 degrees at my campsite. I got to the pond before sunrise. Roger Clark and Linda Birkel were already there and Brian Nicholas showed up right after I got there. It finally got light enough to see, but no Red Phalarope could be found. Discouraged, we decided to go check on the Long-eared Owls in the thicket. There were still a few there and a Barn Owl too. Then back to the pond but still no phalarope. About then Roger checked his messages. Quite amazingly, another Red Phalarope had been found at Canoa, south of Tucson. They all piled into their cars and took off. And they all got that one.

Red Phalarope in winter plumage. Quite rare inland and especially in the Sonoran Desert. This is the first record of the species at Ajo.

There are lots of White-throated Swifts at the pond. I keep trying to get good photos of them but it is hard.
Western Meadowlark at the golf course. This was one of the rare times when I could get close to them with the sun behind me.
Categories
Birding Photography

Finally, Some Rain!

It started yesterday as forecasted and last night it rained fairly steady for several hours. Although the weather station in Ajo said only .21 inches, I’m sure more rain than that fell where I am. It is pretty soggy out there. I went to the golf course and there was standing water in many places. The forecast is for even more rain next week. I watched the rain develop on radar and it appears that Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument got a good drenching as did most of the Sonoran Desert. So far, the rain has made no difference for birding, there still isn’t much to see.

I haven’t seen many Sage Thrashers this winter and this is the first one I could get a good photo of since I left Granite Gap last fall. I followed it around for awhile till it hopped up on this branch.
A juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk that was on the hunt and ruining my birding at the golf course.
Categories
Astrophotography

January Grand Finale

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!!!

I spent one night on M81, Bode’s Galaxy. Of course, I have done this galaxy before but not with guiding. It is one of the most photogenic galaxies in the universe, as seen from Earth.
I spent about an hour one night imaging this area of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. There are dozens of galaxies in this image. This image only covers about .5 degree of the sky. The galaxies that look so close together are separated by millions of light years. It is really hard to comprehend the immensity of the universe.
NGC 2403, also known as the Jewel of Camelopardilis, in the constellation of Camelopardilis. Known for its many and large h-alpha star-forming regions, the galaxy is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy. It is about 8 million light years away. I tried to make the large nebulas as visible as I can, but they are difficult at this image size.
Had to do it. The Great Nebula in Orion. I can never get tired of this one!
Categories
Astrophotography

Dodging Clouds

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.

The Cosmic Bat and associated dust clouds. This small and dim nebula is located in the Orion constellation. I would need to spend many more hours to get a good image, but I think I will quit with this. I gathered photons for three nights, between clouds, for a total of 6 hours.
After the Cosmic Bat I needed to work on some more spectacular nebulas. I’ve done the Rosette Nebula before but that was prior to having guiding and dithering. With guiding, I rarely have to throw out any subs. Before, I would sometimes lose 25-50% of my subs due to poor tracking and oblong stars. Dithering (small random movements of the image framing) eliminates much of the noise and random errors that result from long exposures. The end result, I get more and better keepers and therefore more exposure on a given night.
It has been a whole year since I’ve done the Horsehead Nebula and I was excited to do it again, this time with guiding and dithering. I think this came out exceptionally nice!