Five days ago, a Limpkin was spotted at the Hendrix Creek Preserve. The next day, my daughter and I saw it. Possibly the easiest life bird ever. Today I went back to get pictures and there he still was not ten feet from where we saw him.
Saturday was clear and mild but with a just past first quarter Moon. I got there around 7:30 and left around 4AM. I tried for three objects, two were semi-successful though I’ve probably done better on both before. I blame the Moon.
It’s early in the season for the Lagoon Nebula. As far as stellar nurseries go, this is second only to the Orion Nebula for proximity and brightness. It is visible to the naked eye. I shot it through the Little Rock light dome but my dual narrowband filter undoubtedly helped with this. I’ve never noticed that it resembles a lioness head facing right until now.
This the “Witch’s Broom Nebula”, part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus. This is a remnant of a supernova that occurred about 30,000 years ago. My sleep deprived mind sees the east coast of the U.S. That’s “Maine” in the upper right and “Florida” at the bottom center. The “Appalachians” are obvious but too far west.
I shot this same scene last winter during my first visit. I think it looks a little magical with spring greenery.
Shot with my Canon EOS 800D, auto-bracketing and focus stacking to produce three sets of three images that combined for rich color and better focus from foreground to background.
