The ninebark put on quite a show this spring.
From the Garden – Physocarpus opulifolius (Ninebark)
Tag: missouri
Peacock Brenthia (Brenthia pavonacella)
Here is another set from the bowels of Facebook that I wanted to make sure gets captured here. This is the diurnal metalmark moth (Choreutidae), Brenthia pavonacella (Hodges #2627). It is known as the peacock brenthia, due to its unusual mating display behaviors that can be seen here.
Photography and Observations of a Northern Flicker (Yellow-Shafted) Nest
Bird nests are my favorite photographic subjects and I was ever so fortunate this spring to have an ideal situation land in my lap. Many thanks to my friends and neighbors, Larry, Sheryl and Beth for telling me about this and allowing me to setup camp in their yard for quite a few morning hours. This nest was right across the street from our St. Louis County, Missouri home, making this an easy target to get to in the early minutes of daylight. Due to a very busy year at work, I have had less flexibility in my schedule and this opportunity helped save my sanity. I can’t imagine what early morning passersby must have thought, seeing me sitting there with my long lens pointing in the general direction of a neighbor’s upper windows.
Northern Flicker nesting behaviors
Like most woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker excavates their nesting cavities in the dead or dying wood of tree trunks or large limbs. Where this nest cavity was located was quite fortuitous. Dead wood is difficult to find in the suburbs where we live. Many suburbanites immediate cull dead limbs and whole trees as soon as they show the first signs of decline. This is both for safety of life and property as well as what many consider the poor aesthetics of the imperfect tree. I’m thankful for the neighbors who put up with a dead bough of their silver maple that gave this pair of beautiful Flickers the opportunity to nest. I’m hoping they let it be! This is because Flickers are one of a few woodpecker species that will use the same nest cavity in successive years. I really hope for a replay of this one!
Unfortunately, I missed all of the interesting pre-nesting courtship behaviors that this species is well known for. By the time I was turned onto the nest, eggs were well into their development and I believe the eggs hatched shortly before or right when I began my observations. Northern Flickers can have a large range in clutch size, laying between three and 17 eggs, depending on things like nest latitude, food availability and nest cavity size. The more typical range is six to eight eggs per clutch. In this case, the pair had three male chicks that hatched and fledged. After hatching, chicks may take 24-30 days before fledging and they will typically spend another six weeks with the parents before going their own way.
As in most bird species, the Northern Flicker exhibits bi-parental care. Both parents take part in nest excavation, brooding the eggs and young, feeding of chicks and protection. Because there is a lot of down time when sitting at a nest and waiting for that decisive moment, I was happy to collect some of my own minimal data on the nesting behaviors of this particular pair.
My observations
Because woodpeckers use tree cavities to raise their brood, this somewhat limits the opportunities for those wonderful photos of parents bringing food to their young. In addition, the habits of Flickers and most woodpeckers is to feed their young via regurgitation. I did not witness a single event in which a parent brought food in its bill to handoff directly to a chick. When the developing chicks are young and small, the parents will enter and spend their time in the nest, each parent taking turns feeding and brooding. At a certain point, the chicks are developed enough to climb the inside walls of their cavity and reach the entrance. Due to this and the more considerable space the larger chicks occupy, the parents cease entering the nest and will visit only to feed and presumably check on the welfare of their developing brood.
In this case the change was quite rapid. From one day to the next, the parents quit entering the nest regularly and I have broken down my observations into these two parts. I began collecting data on May 19th, although I did visit the nest to photograph a few days before this. After the early morning hours of June 4th, the parents quit entering the nest. During the period where the action was taking place inside the nest cavity, I spent my efforts on the challenging task of getting sharp enough photos of the parents coming and going.
May 19th – June 3rd (Table 1)
Between the 19th of May and the 3rd of June, I observed the nest mostly during early morning hours on nine days. During these nine days, I spent a total of 18 hours and 55 minutes at the nest. The number of times visited and time spent by each parent in the nest was pretty similar, with the male visiting a couple of times more but averaging slightly less time per nest visit.
June 4th – June 9th (Table 2)
Between June 4th and June 9th, I observed the nest for six straight days, again mostly during early morning hours. During the 16 hours and 56 minutes I spent observing during this period, the female visited the nest to feed 30 times (1.8 feedings per hour) compared to the male who visited the nest to feed 25 times (1.5 feedings per hour).
My observations described above and in the accompanying tables are in agreement with published data suggesting that overall provisioning rates do not differ between the sexes in the Northern Flicker.1
The fascinating case of momma dominance
Copulations are common during the egg laying phase of nesting in this species. Unfortunately, I missed this portion of the show. However, I did witness “copulations” that mostly took place at nest duty changeovers between the two parents during the brooding phase.
Cases of female dominance in the pair bond of this species has been documented2, but I have not yet found documentation on this particular “copulatory” behavior. I admit, it took me a while to discern that anything was out of the ordinary. I guess I was too busy with the camera. After looking at the photos in the camera a little more closely, it finally dawned on me that the female was mounting the male! This wasn’t a single fleeting bit of behavior. I observed the female mounting the male on at least 11 different occasions and I never once observed the male mounting the female.
I wonder if this has something to do with the size of the two birds in this pair. Field guides and other sources suggest that males in this species are usually slightly larger than females. In my opinion, that is not the case with this pair. In this image and in the video below, the female looks significantly larger than the male.
Trials and tribulations of suburban cavity nesters
Another behavior that was relatively easy for me to record was the interactions between the Flicker pair and European Starlings. As mentioned above, cavity sites can be difficult to find in the suburbs. As a consequence, competition for this resource can be considerable. Exotic invasive European Starlings are known to aggressively mob and dislocate native cavity nesting species. During the brooding period, I counted six times where a parent chased away a European Starling that had come too close for comfort (Table 1, 2). On one occasion, a parent chased away a Red-bellied Woodpecker that came very close to the cavity opening. Although I never observed a Starling chase while the parents were visiting the nest in the post-brooding phase, this likely occurred outside my range of viewing. Additionally, the risk from European Starlings taking over a nest cavity is probably highest immediately after the cavity construction and during egg laying. I was not on the site to make observations at this stage.
Another significant competitor for larger cavity nesting birds like these Flickers is the squirrel. My friend, Dave, told me about a similar opportunity he had from his property vantage this spring, in which a grey squirrel actually took over the nest cavity from a pair of Flickers, presumably destroying and potentially eating the eggs or developing chicks.
I was really concerned that I was going to witness something like this with my nest as well. Less than three feet about their nest cavity was a much larger, natural cavity that faced straight up and was being used by a couple of grey squirrels as a sort of day bed. The squirrels moved up and down the bough of this tree, right past the nest on several occasions but the parents never seemed too concerned about them.
Get busy Feeding
Obviously, I enjoyed myself the most during the time that the chicks were old enough to stick their heads out of the nest and be fed by the parents. This didn’t always result in good photo opportunities – often the parents would stick their heads far into the nest, blocking clear views of these interactions, but I caught enough to make me happy.
Fledging
Before we get to the details, I want to share a video of the behaviors the adults took to try and coax the chicks to leave the nest. This one is shot in normal speed with on-site audio. You can hear the adults giving the chicks their keeyer calls and the chicks responding. It was near impossible to predict when the chicks would take their dive out of the nest. I filled memory cards with video and stills in hopes of capturing this.
I guess I’ve grown used to the heartache that comes with not catching the first flights of chicks on camera. It seems there is always something that gets in the way. In this case, Miguel and I watched as the first chick took his first flight out of the nest. Or I should say, Miguel got to watch and take a series of unforgettable photos (see the GIF I put together of these below). I was busy at the time taking feeding notes… But, I was still optimistic. This was early on a Saturday morning and I didn’t have to get to work. I felt confident that the other two would be sure to follow shortly. Five hours later and a total of nearly eight hours of continuous sitting at the nest, I decided to call it a day. I had grass to mow, needed a meal and a shower. So, I packed it up, feeling confident that the other chicks would likely wait until the next day to take their leave from their wooden nursery. I checked that evening around 7:00 and the nest was dead silent. The remaining chicks were gone. I heard Flicker vocalizations coming from the surrounding neighborhood. I missed this opportunity but was warmed by the idea that all three chicks were successfully on to their next stage, learning to forage from two obviously apt parents.
And that is that. I’m glad there are a few more Flickers in the neighborhood and will anticipate and hope these two will return to their nest cavity next year. I hope you’ve enjoyed this story a fraction as much as I did telling it.
Ozark Bill
Literature Cited
1 Weibe KL. and Elchuk, C.L. 2003. Correlates of parental care in Northern Flickers Colaptes auratus: do the sexes contribute equally while provisioning young? Ardea 91(1): 91-101.
2 Kilham, Lawrence 1959. Early reproductive behaviors of flickers. The Wilson Bulletin Vol 71, No.4.
Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex @ 144 mm
Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex
Within the constellation Ophiuchus (the Serpent Bearer) lies one of the most spectacular scenes in the summer night’s skies. It is arguably one of the most interesting as well. This area holds one of the closest stelar nurseries to our Sol and is composed of six primary bright objects and some dark nebula to boot.
Starting at the bottom point that makes up the pentagon of this object, we find the red supergiant star, Antares, and it’s accompanying cloud of warmly-colored, ionized hydrogen gas. Up and to the left of Antares is the blue reflection nebula, IC 4605, and continuing along the pentagon, we next come to a smaller blue reflection nebula – IC 4603. Outside the pentagon, just to the upper left of IC 4603 is yet another reflection nebula, illuminated by the five-star system known as Rho Ophiuchi. Moving to the next point in the pentagon, the upper right as seen in this image, lies Sh2-9, a combination reflection and emission nebula. Finally, making up the last point of our pentagon is M4, a fantastic globular star cluster comprised of at least 100,000 stars.
But it doesn’t end there! Also visible in this image are several named dark nebula, streaming away from the cloud complex moving towards the core of the milky way, just to the east of my frame. The primary dark nebula is catalogued as B44 and is known by its apt common name of the Dark River.
If that isn’t enough, There are also two other globular clusters, NGC 6144 and M 80 that can be seen in this frame. By clicking here, you can move your cursor around to identify the various objects in this image.
Collecting the data
Miguel and I have had a rough couple of months for our astrophotography goals. We were completed clouded out during the new moon period in April, but we did get a session in in May, where we focused on the Blue Horsehead Nebula (IC 4592). But, due to some issues with working with some new gear (more on this below) and an unexpected processing issue, this one is still in the works for me.
In June, the weather (clouds and smoke from the big Canadian forest fires) was touch and go, but we did get a night that turned out to be about as close to perfect as you can expect for a summer night.
Date and location
Imaged on the night of 19/20 June 2023 at Danville Conservation Area in Montgomery County, Missouri (Bortle 4).
Dark period: 22:32 – 03:41
Target period: 20:27 – 03:06
Conditions
Clear skies over the course of the session. Temperature ranged from 67-62 F. Winds at or below 5 mph.
Equipment
Astro-modified Canon 7D mkii camera, Canon 90mm f/2.8 macro tilt-shift lens (144mm focal length equivalent), Fornax LighTrack II tracking mount without guiding on a William Optics Vixen Wedge Mount. QHYCCD Polemaster. Gitzo CF tripod, Canon shutter release cable, laser pointer to help find Polaris and sky targets, lens warmer to prevent dew and frost on lens, dummy battery to power camera, lithium battery generator to provide power to camera, dew heater and laptop computer.
Let’s talk about the new equipment used in the making of this image. First off, the Canon 90mm f/2.8 macro tilt-shift lens got its “first light” in astrophotography use. I suspected this lens could be very good for AP use due to its relatively wide open aperture and its larger imaging circle. This lens has next to no distortion or vignetting on my crop sensor body. I was looking for a good AP lens option around 100mm and am very excited about how this lens performed. I love a multi-trick pony!
The big new toy is the tracker I picked up for my birthday. The Fornax LighTrack II is likely the best portable and “affordable” tracking mount you can buy for optimal star tracking without guiding. I will likely publish a full review of this tracker system here in the future. I had some big issues when using it with the manual polarscope I purchased with it. This was a source of frustration for a while, but was solved by getting some more technology. In order to get the most precise polar alignment possible, which this mount needs to really shine, I picked up the QHYCCD Polemaster. This is basically a small camera that you attach to the mount and uses a computer program to allow you to perfectly align the mount to the north celestial pole. With this, I was able to get as accurate of a polar alignment as possible in less than 15 minutes. To use this, I did have to buy my first ever personal laptop computer – a nice refurb that only set me back $200. The main point here is that this new mount will allow me to get up to 4 times the exposure length for my sub-frames than what I was able to get with the Star Adventurer mount with no star trailing or drifting.
Imaging Details
Lights taken (ISO 800, f/2.8, 90 second exposure): 150
Lights after cull due to tracker error, wind, bumps, etc.: 150!
Used best 95% of remaining frames for stack for a total of 142 subs used for integration (3.56 hours)
Darks: 30 taken at same exposure time and ISO as lights
Processing
RAW files converted to TIF in Canon DPP, stacked in Astro Pixel Processor, GraXpert for gradient removal, Photoshop CS6 for stretching and other cosmetic adjustments.
Problems and learnings
In a way, despite the more comfortable temperatures we would be working in, I was dreading the summer months when it came to prospects of astrophotography. I knew the scrambling that would need to be done to take advantage of the dark skies during the shortest nights of the year, but this isn’t what I am referring to. Since I use a non-cooled dSLR for this purpose, I was worried about sensor noise that increases dramatically as the temperatures rise. I knew this could be a significant issue, but wasn’t expecting the problem that it would bring.
I have now become aware of what is known as “Canon banding.” This problem manifests as broad horizontal bands of color noise that alternate in greens and magentas across the frame and is a well known issue with astrophotographers using older model Canon dSLRs. I couldn’t see this on the individual subs, but after stacking and just a slight amount of stretching, they became distinctly obvious and impossible for me to correct with my processing skills.
Up steps Miguel to save the day again. In PixInsight, the AP processing software Miguel uses, there is a script function that can reduce Canon banding dramatically. Miguel ran my unstretched stacked image through this and it made a world of difference. It did not eliminate the problem completely; I was still limited on how much stretch I could apply to this image because of it. But, with a little bit of touch up to the final stretched image, I was able to produce something I am happy to share.
Conclusion
Overall I am very pleased with the final image, although it wasn’t exactly what I had in my mind’s eye when planning. Part of the problem was the banding issue, explained above. Additionally, I have come to realize that many summer DSO targets would greatly benefit from being shot on multiple nights. I think this would have come out more to my expectations if I had double or triple the amount of integration time. This simply isn’t possible in a single short night in summer months. I have never given the possibility of multi-night sessions much thought – one night’s sleep a month lost is enough I think. But, to do summertime DSO’s justice, especially nebulas, this might be worth considering when I have the opportunities.
I really do love this target. There are a lot of opportunities here that I look forward to trying in the future. I speak specifically to the different options of focal length. Using a longer lens (200-300mm) will focus in on the different great nebulas, bringing out more of their details, while using a wider lens, will show the dark river nebula flowing into the much brighter core of the milky way to the east.
If you made it this far, thanks for visiting and reading. I hope you liked this month’s AP image!
Some Lovely Lycaenids
Tonight I’m just sharing some photos of a few lovely Lycaenid butterflies that I had the pleasure of photographing this season. The Lycaenidae family is the second largest family of butterflies, with about 6,000 species worldwide. The highlight was the bountiful season that the juniper hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus) had. Prior to this year, I had only seen one or two in a season, usually without my macro rig with me. In a few trips to the glades in Jefferson County this spring, Casey and I had at least two dozen individuals. They are not usually cooperative, but we worked pretty hard to get something.
First up is the afore mentioned C. gryneus.
Special Guest Post – Overlooked Landscapes
Today I’m happy to provide a platform for renowned nature photographer and friend, Casey Galvin, to share his words and fantastic landscape photography from lesser known areas between the coasts. This article is exactly my philosophy when it comes to landscape photography – what little I do of that these days. I am much more interested in finding hidden gems without a plane trip or a multiday car ride. This is actually much tougher to do than placing your tripod in the holes dugout by the throngs of photographers chasing the iconic landscape subjects. Casey doesn’t usually present his works in an online format, so prepare yourself for a real treat! What follows are the writings and photographs of Casey.
When one thinks of great landscapes, Missouri and the two other Midwest states, Iowa and Illinois, do not come to mind. With the great American West along with coastal states available to most landscape photographers it is easy to fly over or drive through these three states without a thought of stopping. What makes this area special, most landscape photographers have never taken the time to be here in the Midwest. You make images no one else has, unlike in the western USA. However, because of this anyone who does stop and take the time to explore will find something that most people do not think of photographing. These three states have unique and special geological sites and plenty of water resources (rivers, creek, lakes, world class springs and seepage areas) and open landscapes.
Iron County, Missouri
This being the heart of Tallgrass Prairie, there are still remnants left of this rarest of North American biomes. These systems were lost because it is some of the most productive farmland in the world, sand and gravel mining took others and conversion to urban development took the rest. Most people do not understand these grasslands probably because they have never experienced a true prairie. Unfortunately, there are not many large areas that are left untouched, but one can still find several remnants that are 1000 acres or even larger. This is where the buffalo roamed in large herds and in some locations, one can still find these animals ranging freely. The other nice feature for a photographer when visiting these sites is that you will most likely be the only one at that location. I have been on many a prairie for hours and have never seen anyone else.
Franklin Grove, Illinois
Like the West, where they get super blooms with the heavy winter rains, as long as the rains are steady, Tallgrass Prairies get super blooms at least once a month in the growing season. These systems are made for hot, dry weather. May brings profusions of paintbrush (Orabanche coccina), in June coneflowers rule (Echinacea pallida or if you are lucky in prairies near the Ozarks, E. paradoxa), in July blazing star (Liatris pycnostachia) takes over. Autumn is dominated by yellow composites, gentians and late Liatris species.
Harrison County, Missouri
Savanna, another biome type, is usually tied to the prairie. This is the transitional biome between prairie and forest, and here you will find a mix of species from both. I have found that you can get good to great photographs on these lands, but because it does take work, you can develop photographic skills you can use elsewhere in the world. These can be difficult landscapes because of the open space
Kankakee County, Illinois
There are also unique geological features found in this region. The Saint Francois Mountains in SE Missouri are extinct volcanoes and ancient lava flows. Most have been exposed for over one billion years. With its acid soils it make for great plant diversity. When a river or creek flows through one of the lava flows you have what Missouri calls a shut-in (water is restricted or shut-in to a narrower passage due to the slow-to-erode nature of the underlying granite). These are extremely attractive to photograph in all seasons. Unfortunately, some of the more attractive ones are well visited. So unless you’re early or late in the day you may find yourself in large crowds. These are not tall mountains, being eroded for eons, but this is still mountainous country.
Reynold’s County, Missouri
In southern Missouri there is also a unique set of monadnocks, an example being Caney Mountain Conservation Area – a remote area was once one of the last bastions for deer and turkey in the eastern USA.
Ozark County, Missouri
In southern Illinois the Shawnee National Forest with its limestone and sandstone escarpments (Greater and Lesser Shawnee Hills and Ozarks) can make for nice areas to explore photographically. Garden of the Gods is very scenic. Wet weather waterfalls are abundant (yes, Illinois is not flat here). La Rue Pine Hills ecological area not only has tall limestone bluffs. Below them is one of the most floristically rich areas in the Midwest with over 1200+ plant species. According to Robert Mohlenbrock, an authority on the flora of Illinois, the Shawnee NF is more diverse than the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The area south of the Shawnee Hills also has some of the best southern swamps remaining in North America.
Shawnee National Forest, Illinois
Along the west coast of Iowa and NW Missouri is another unique landform. The Loess Hills made up of windblown dust (loess soil) from the last glaciation. These type of hills are found only in three locations in the world and this being the only one in North America. The plants and animals found here are similar to those found nearly 100 miles west in Kansas and Nebraska. This is another type of tallgrass prairie with disjunct populations of mixed grass prairie species.
Plymouth County, Iowa
Forest covers the southern one-third of Missouri and the Shawnee NF in Illinois. Spring and autumn bring many landscape opportunities especially along the rivers and other water features. Wildflowers abound here through the growing seasons in the forest and in the spring and on rocky glades (opening between the woodlands) throughout the growing season. These are some of the more diverse forests in the country, with several species restricted to the Ozark Plateau. This is also a world class birding area.
Shannon County, Missouri
Water features are abundant as stated prior. This is one feature that many areas in the country lack. Even in deep droughts, the larger springs still have plenty of output keeping many rivers flowing well deep into the autumn. Every 10 to 20 years there comes a drought where the biggest of rivers have levels that fall enough to be able to walk to some of the islands that are within them, allowing us to get images that might be harder to access without a boat.
Iron County, Missouri
I have spent many years studying and exploring these areas, through all four seasons. It is well worth the time to visit and explore.
Casey Galvin
May, 2023
An Early Rise from Brood XIX?
During my morning walk in our Chesterfield suburban neighborhood this morning, I found quite a fascinating thing! I ran across several groups of periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.) that had emerged during the night. I estimate that I found approximately 250 of these large hemipterans without leaving the sidewalk!
I am not quite certain about what exactly is going on here. Our next big emergence of these insects is supposed to occur next season in 2024 – the so-called “Brood XIX.” Brood XIX is composed of four species of periodical cicada (Magicicada tredecim, M. tredecassini, M. tredecula, and M. neotredecim) that all follow the 13 year emergence pattern.
Why are we seeing these emerge this year? A couple of possible explanations could account for this. These could be “stragglers,” the term used to describe individuals that emerge in years before or after the bulk of the particular brood. This makes evolutionary sense; if the entire brood emerged all on the same year (emergence of the entire brood within a given location occurs within a couple of weeks) and they are struck with a weather or some other disaster, then this would be a very bad day for the brood. With some individuals emerging a year or two before or after the primary year, then this would obviously be beneficial in hedging their bets.
Another possible explanation is that this could represent a sub-population of Brood XIX that is on a slightly different schedule and may routinely emerge early. This could be due to differences in climate patterns between this one and what the rest of the brood experiences. Brood XIX covers a large area of the southeastern U.S.
Or, could this be the result of some differentiation between emergence patterns between the four species that constitutes Brood XIX? I don’t know but I would love to hear any thoughts from those of you who are more educated and experienced in these things than I am. I will be keeping my ears open during the next several weeks with hope of hearing this rare song.
Thanks for stopping by!
Ozark Bill
A New Great-horned Owl Nest!
I finally had the opportunity to visit my buddy Jim’s property to check out the nest site of a Great-horned Owl nest. This pair has used this snag for about 5 years to raise their brood and I am disappointed in myself for not visiting sooner. I had no idea how perfect the views into this nest were. You couldn’t ask for a better setup. Unfortunately, I was a bit late this season as well. The chicks fledged within days of my first and only visit. Hopefully next year!
Here are a few from my visit. These were taken in early afternoon so the light was a bit harsh.
Markarian’s Chain – NGC 4406 (March, 2023)
Markarian’s Chain (NGC 4406)
Since I picked up astrophotography, I knew I wanted to shoot some galaxy clusters. The first that comes to mind is Markarian’s Chain, a nice curved line of galaxies that lies amidst a large cluster of galaxies known as the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. The Virgo Cluster contains up to 2,000 different galaxies and Markarian’s Chain is an asterism-like chain that provides an interesting order to the randomness of the surrounding cluster. Typically, Markarian’s Chain is considered to be comprised of seven galaxies, all of which are moving in the same relative speed and direction with one another. The distance from earth to the galaxies varies from between 50 -80 million light years! Of course this means we are seeing them where they were up to 80 million years ago.
The galaxies comprising NGC 4406 are mostly elliptical and lenticular in type, but there are some fascinating details that can be found by taking a closer look. I’ve left the image above a bit larger than normal and invite the viewer to search within to see some of the different shapes and go galaxy hunting if you would like. I have counted about 35 galaxies in this frame. Most are quite small. Remember, if it’s a little fuzzy, it’s a galaxy. The stars are typically sharp in contrast to the dark background void.
Let’s take a look at some of the galaxies making up this frame. First, the two larger appearing galaxies that anchor the chain are M84 and M86. Just to the left of these are two interacting galaxies, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, known collectively as ‘Markarian’s Eyes.’ I was happy to pick up enough detail to show how NGC 4438 is being distorted by the gravitational pull of it’s neighbor, sweeping out a lot of the gas, dust and likely stars from their normal placement.
Another prominent galaxy in this frame is found in the lower left corner. This is the supergiant elliptical galaxy, M87 (Virgo A, NGC 4486). M87 is one of the largest and most massive galaxies in our local universe, containing several trillion stars.
One last galaxy to bring your attention to is NGC 4440. This is an interesting barred spiral galaxy that I was not expecting to see in such detail. This galaxy is located at the intersection of two lines in this frame. Draw a line going directly downward from the eyes and another starting at Virgo A going to the right. Where these two lines intersect you will be close to NGC 4440.
See the accompanying partially-annotated image showing the names of the more prominent galaxies in this frame.
Collecting the data
I have made my bed as an astrophotographer that does not use “go-to” technology and I am frustratingly sleeping in it. This one should have been easier to find. It is literally between two mid-magnitude stars – Denebola, in the Leo constellation and Vindemiatrix in the constellation of Virgo. All I had to do is draw a line between the two and the target is in the dead center. Somehow, I did not take this literally enough and spent nearly an hour finding the target and composing the frame. I do have one excuse; this area is filled with galaxies, so every time I took a test shot, there were several galaxies in the frame and it took me some time to see if the pattern I was looking for was there or not. Other than this, the night went pretty easy. We had perfectly clear skies, cold temps and Miguel and I had extra company. We joined with an imaging party from the Astronomical Society of Eastern Missouri, who just happened to be at Danville C.A. the same night we were. It was fun watching the experienced imagers and viewers pulling out all sorts of big, pretty and expensive optics and mounts. Unfortunately, between trying to concentrate on what I was doing and the very cold temperature, I didn’t find the time to do much socializing.
Date and location
Imaged on the night of 19/20 March 2023 at Danville Conservation Area in Montgomery County, Missouri (Bortle 4).
Dark period: 20:45 – 05:42
Target period: 19:52 – 07:31; Zenith 01:42
Conditions
Clear skies over the course of the session. Temperature in the mid 20’s F. Winds below 5 mph.
Equipment
Astro-modified Canon 7D mkii camera, Canon 400mm do mkii lens, Skywatcher Star Adventurer tracker without guiding on a William Optics Vixen Wedge Mount. Gitzo CF tripod, Canon shutter release cable, laser pointer to help find Polaris and sky targets, lens warmer to prevent dew and frost on lens, dummy battery to power camera, lithium battery generator to provide power to camera and dew heater, right-angle viewfinder to aid in polar alignment.
Imaging details
Lights taken (ISO 6400, f/4.0, 20 second exposure): 1,076
Lights after cull due to tracker error, wind, bumps, etc.: 912
Used best 90% of remaining frames for stack for a total of 821 subs used for integration (4.56 hours)
Darks: 36 taken at same exposure time and ISO as lights
Processing
RAW files converted to TIF in Canon DPP, stacked in Astro Pixel Processor, GraXpert for gradient removal, Photoshop CS6 for stretching and other cosmetic adjustments.
Problems and learnings
Miguel had to save my bacon with this one. This was the “first light” for astrophotography for my Canon 400mm f/4 do mkii lens. I had been eagerly waiting to try this lens for this purpose and, as I feared, this longer focal length did not allow for the 30 second exposures I had gotten used to using the 300mm lens. Even though this combination was a bit lighter than the 300mm f/2.8 lens, the Star Adventurer tracker just wasn’t up to it. So, I was forced to go with 20 second exposures to limit star trailing and, consequentially, had to use ISO 6400 to keep the signal to noise ratio where I needed it. This ISO setting is really pushing it with the camera I use so I wasn’t at all sure that I would even have a final image worth sharing in the end.
Because I pushed the ISO, the noise was pretty awful. Following a very light stretch after stacking, huge bands of green and purple showed up against the dark sky. I was at a loss on what to do about this, having exhausted all of the tools I knew to use in my processing train. I knew Miguel was beginning to become quite proficient in PixInsight processing so I thought I would ask him to try and see what he could do with my stacked image. I was dumbfounded when he was able to fix my problem in about 10 minutes! The final image could still probably be stretched a little more to bring out further details, but considering the ISO I was using, I have to be satisfied with the end result. I can’t get myself to put down the purchase price for PixInsight anytime soon, but that is something I’ll be considering in the future.
Conclusion
Spring is known as galaxy season in the astronomy world. Most of the popular nebulas are not as available as they are in the winter and summer. Unfortunately, I really don’t have the equipment to take closeups of the far off and very small galaxies so I will have to settle for a few of the relatively larger ones as well as the clusters like Markarian’s Chain. I am pleased with what I was able to create here. As usual, it was with some considerable struggles and frustrations but I am coming to find that I kind of like overcoming those obstacles despite what I feel at the time.
The Rosette or Skull Nebula – Sh2-275/NGC 2246 (February 2023)
The Rosette or Skull Nebula (NGC 2237, Sh2-275)
My February target was the fantastic and grand Rosette Nebula, also known as the Skull Nebula for hopefully obvious reasons. This nebula is a gigantic cloud of predominantly ionized atomic hydrogen that lies in the Monoceros constellation, not too far from the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. This object has a number of different catalogue designations given to different regions of the nebula (NGC 2237, 2238, 2239, 2246) and associated star clusters. The primary star cluster being NGC 2244 – the most central cluster that provides most of the illumination and stellar winds and radiation that illuminate and disperse the gaseous clouds that form the nebula. X-ray imaging has identified approximately 2500 young stars in this star-forming complex.
Space is Big
This nebula lies approximately 5,000 light years from earth and is roughly 130 light years in diameter. To get an idea how immense this nebula is, compare this to the Great Orion Nebula (M42), which is only 40 light years in diameter. With all this talk about light years, I wanted to explore this to get a better idea of what we’re talking about and try and wrap our heads around the scale of an object like this. A light year is roughly 5.88 trillion miles – the distance light travels in a year. Since I’m an American, I’ll keep everything in miles so that I can better understand. The diameter of this nebula is roughly 764 trillion miles. The fastest spacecraft ever recorded is the Parker Solar Probe, which reached a top speed of 364,660 mph. This comes to 3,194,421,600 miles this probe can traverse in a single year. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, to cover the 764 trillion miles to reach one end of this nebula to the other, it would take the Parker Probe 239,167 years! We probably don’t need to get into the amount of time it would take the Parker Probe to get to the nebula in the first place.
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.” Douglas Adams – A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Collecting the data
I had anticipated this one being a little difficult to find. IT is found roughly on the line between two stars of the winter triangle – Betelgeuse, and Procyon. But, there are really no large magnitude stars in close proximity to help get it in the tight frame of my 300mm lens. I was please that it took me only about 10 minutes to get it in frame. However, because I was hoping to grab some of the much dimmer gases that can make up a sort of stem of this rose, I spent another 30 minutes trying to frame it just so. This turned out to be time wasted. In order to get this dim gas to show, much more integration time would be necessary than what I was able to collect on a single night.
Date and location
Imaged on the night of 17/18 February 2023 at Danville Conservation Area in Montgomery County, Missouri (Bortle 4).
Dark period: 19:10 – 05:19
Target period: 15:20 – 02:08; Zenith 20:44
Conditions
Clear skies over the course of the session. Temperature: 31° – 27° F. Winds forecasted to be 6-8 mph but seemed lower than this.
Equipment
Astro-modified Canon 7D mkii camera, Canon 300mm f/2.8 lens, Skywatcher Star Adventurer tracker without guiding on a William Optics Vixen Wedge Mount. Gitzo CF tripod, Canon shutter release cable, laser pointer to help find Polaris and sky targets, lens warmer to prevent dew and frost on lens, dummy battery to power camera, lithium battery generator to provide power to camera and dew heater, right-angle viewfinder to aid in polar alignment.
Imaging Details
Lights taken (ISO 3200, f/2.8, 25 second exposures) 779. 61 frames dropped due to poor focus, 217 frames dropped due to tracker error, 10% frames dropped in stacking instructions. A total of 450 frames used in integration for a total of 3.13 hours.
Darks: 39 taken at the exposure time listed above.
Bias and Flats: Not taken. Removed most vignetting and some chromatic aberration while converting RAW images to TIF.
Processing
RAW files converted to TIF in Canon DPP, stacked in Astro Pixel Processor, GraXpert for gradient removal, StarNet++ for separating stars from nebulosity, Photoshop CS6 for stretching, recombining stars and nebulosity and other cosmetic adjustments.
This one was a bit tougher than I expected, mainly due to the StarNet software not wanting to work the first several times I tried. I captured more of the hydrogen alpha in the surrounding regions than this image depicts but, because it was so faint, nasty artifacts appeared during the stretch. I was forced to leave much of this out of the final image due to this. I think in order to do this properly I would need much more total integration time.
Problems and learnings
This one went about how I had expected except for one thing. I was devastated to learn that I had not acquired critical focus for roughly the first 45 minutes of imaging. This was even more of a blow as this time coincided with the object being at or near its zenith, meaning I lost some of the best potential data gathering of the night.
I have also been collecting some data on how many subs I throw away due to errors in tracking. In this case, 35% of the subs I took were thrown away, which seems to be close to my average when using this lens at these exposure times. I dropped the exposure time to 25 seconds in order to help reduce this but I think this issue is mostly due to the tracker being at or above its limit in regards to payload and focal length. For this reason, I am investigating a new tracker that should meet my needs nicely for a 1-2 minute exposure with the above kit and a keeper rate of greater than 90%. Keeping my fingers crossed for that company bonus this year. 😉
Conclusion
This is another very popular and relatively easy object that most astrophotographers tackle early on. Overall I’m pleased with the outcome. I like the detail and the colors but I think that better processing might bring these out better even with the data I have here. Always learning. This object is better imaged in December or January, when more time with it can be had in a single night. I look forward to trying this one again someday.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 