We had some excitement today as a pair of red-shouldered hawks paid repeated visits to our backyard! One of the birds is pictured here, puffed up against the cold. At one point the two raptors were perched side-by-side on a tree branch. Later, one of them — maybe this bird — bagged a small animal and devoured it on the ground. Are they mates? Will they / are they nesting nearby? We shall see (I hope).
With fascination and puzzlement we watched a number of Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) aka “buzzards” zooming low over the house and in and out of our bare-limbed, backyard trees. From the trees they dropped down into the gully behind our house. What drew their interest? I don’t know. During a pause in their activity, I went out to peek into the area they were visiting, I was expecting to find a dead deer or other animal they’d been scavenging. I saw nothing. Still, they returned and stayed at least into dusk. The big birds (six-foot average wingspan) returned today but seemed content to remain perched ominously in the tree; at one point there were *13*. Happy Halloween, I guess!
“Cleveland radio has had more than its share of characters. Take “Count” John Manolesco, for example, who hosted a show on news/talk WERE. Manolesco, who claimed to be a physic from Romania, went so far as to perform a live, on-air exorcism.” — Kabir Bhatia, Ideastream.org
I was assigned by a local magazine to shoot photos of Manolesco for a feature article on the Cleveland talk radio personality. I did make the usual photos of him but shot one or two using a low-angle flash — a proven technique to introduce a spooky mood to an image. This is my favorite shot from the job.
John Manolesco was born December 3, 1918 in Timisoaka, Romania, and died January 10, 1983 in Cleveland, Ohio at 65 years of age.
Well would you look at that! One of my pictures received an Honorable Mention in the 2023 Weatherwise Photo Contest! I found out about the honor when the September/October issue arrived today. Weatherwise is the respected meteorological journal featuring “The Power, The Beauty, The Excitement” of weather. You may know I don’t generally enter photo contests. To be selected for even honorable mention from among thousands of entries is, yes, an honor.
Taking advantage of what seem to be rare clear skies, last night (September 1, 2023) I ran first light trials on the Celestron C11 I was given, in combination with my ZWO ASI color astronomy camera. The results were largely disappointing with no good deep sky results, terrible results from Saturn, and not-so-good images of Jupiter. Even Earth’s Moon, usually an easy target, was barely in focus. I hope to try again this coming week when mild, clear nights are forecast.
On the positive side, polar alignment was excellent as was goto control alignment so telescope sky tracking was very good during my efforts — until something caused an unexpected reboot of the telescope controller. I don’t know if dew short circuited a connector or if something pulled loose from the hand control but it was disconcerting!
The images shown here are simply interesting to look at, though not the quality I’d normally want to show. The first is youngish Crater Tycho showing off its extensive web of ejecta rays. The second picture includes several lunar “seas” including the “C” shaped Sea of Crisis. Two craters are seen near the left edge of the circle; the lower of those craters is named Picard. No, Star Trekkers, not THAT Picard. Still, a fun fact.
Taking advantage of a string of “clear” rainless nights and days, I’ve been learning by doing. My first objective was to image the supernova that was discovered recently in Messier 101 — The “Pinwheel Galaxy”. The object has a low surface brightness and, in our light-polluted suburban skies (Bortle 6/7) made worse by Canadian forest fire smoke, it’s invisible to me by eye and a very challenging target for imaging. Add to that the steep learning curve I’m on using an astronomy camera instead of a DSLR and, well, let’s just say results were disappointing. So I turned to the waxing Gibbous Moon last night and got some experience and passable results. This same Moon, as its phase grows toward Full, is making the sky brighter nightly. At the same time the supernova is believed to be fading now.
After a long absence, we returned to Sandy Ridge Reservation, a notable area for birders in the Lorain Metro Parks System, and were richly rewarded. We spotted and watched a Sand Hill Crane family as they explored the waters’ edge for food: the impressive adults escorted their colt (that’s what the young are called) watching humans watching them from the nearby path. The colt was allowed to explore a bit on its own but the mated pair were never far away. It was thrilling to see the family and a first for me; a wonderful surprise.
As we watched the Sandhill Cranes, Great Egrets, and dragonflies, an American Bald Eagle soared overhead. We could not see the eagle’s nest but behavior told us it was on hunting flights, probably feeding its young in the hidden nest.
After a stormy night, it was a welcome surprise to look out the window and see the silhouette of a Great Blue Heron against a clear twilight sky! I watched the heron as it sat quietly for a long time at the top of a dead tree’s trunk, the lovely curvature of its long neck and smooth body evoking thoughts of Asian art. Finally the bird pulled back, lunged forward, and sprang into flight. A fine way to start the day and a new month.
It is unusual for our area to see discrete thunderstorms — individual storms visible against otherwise clear skies — so we miss out on some thrilling sights. The anvil or thunderhead of a strong storm usually happens above a lower cloud layer in our region, hidden from those of us who appreciate such things. On July 20, 2022 a severe thunderstorm rolled right overhead. I’ve rarely, if ever, heard so many cracks of thunder so close by. I was indoors, did not see the mammoth bolts directly above my roof, and was actually getting concerned the house, or my tall flagpole, would be hit. I was close to being afraid of the lightning, and that’s very unusual! The storm passed, as storms do, and I took a peek through a window. To the west the sky was clearing as the clean edge of the thunderstorm moved east but then the thrill: mammatus clouds! Technically, mammatus are not rare phenomena, often hanging from the anvils of thunderstorms, but we rarely see them here for the reasons given above — we rarely see the anvils. The sky was full of them! I grabbed my iPhone (nearest camera) and hurried outside. Though I feared it would end quickly, the display went on til after dark. Here are a few views…
PhotonStopper 