Astrophotography

Night sky over Great Basin National Park, 

courtesy of the NPS Night Sky Team

Over the weekend I met an astrophotographer who is touring the Desert Southwest taking pictures of the beautiful night skies. With clean air, little atmosphere, and lack of light pollution, many desert locations are wonderful places to get clear views of the night sky. 

I had never heard the term astrophotography before, but as it was explained to me, I felt my interest in astronomy reawakening. If I can look at a photo and ask about what I'm seeing, it's so much easier than asking about "the little white star-like thing that's just to the left of the bigger star-like thing and a little below the hazy whatchamacallit. What, you can't see it?" 

To increase interest in astronomy and show off their night skies, many locations hold star parties, where people interested in the night sky gather to learn more about what else is in the universe. Some people bring telescopes and help explain what might be out there. Like ET. Hopefully like ET, and not the alien in the movie Alien. 

Back to the (main) subject, Wikipedia has a list of organized Star Parties, and maybe one's in your neighborhood. You can also search nearby national parks and see if they might be having any special programs. While researching this post I found that Great Basin National Park is having astrophotography tips and night sky viewing July 4 and 5 at 7 p.m. If you know of another event coming up, let me know! I'd also like to hear about any extraterrestrial sightings.

Back Home

Desert Boy and I just returned from a lovely adventure, which will be featured in next Monday's Desert Destination. But to give you a teaser, it involved all the elements needed for a successful trip:

Getting Dirty

Playing in Water

Hiking until Utterly Exhausted

Desert Destination: A Snow Patch High in the Mountains

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.
In the heat of the summer, with the desert sun baking the valleys, it's time to take to the mountains. We went hiking with the cousins and were lucky to find this patch of snow. 

We couldn't resist playing in it...

And before long it became a contest to see who could slide the furthest. Riding double was the winner.

Too bad we couldn't bring the snow patch back down with us. At least we can look at the photos and imagine how cool snow feels, especially when you go a little too fast down that snow slope and get snow down your shirt.

Stay cool!

Desert Boy and Henry Test Their Teeth

I'm living with two boys, two baby boys, two baby boys who are teething. One is a human boy, and one is a puppy boy, but they sure have a lot in common. Every day they both are chewing on a lot of things.

Fortunately, living in a rural desert area means we can leave things scattered around the yard and they won't get stolen or rusted from rain. So they both have lots of things to chew on as they wander around. And they do.

But sometimes having inanimate objects to chew on isn't good enough. The other day Henry took a little nip at Desert Boy. This happens often, and usually Desert Boy is able to deflect him. This particular day, Desert Boy got mad, turned to Henry, and nipped him back. He just grabbed the puppy, sank his teeth in, but Henry's skin is so loose he just got a little bitsy bite. I scolded them both and then tried my best to keep from laughing out loud. It was such an unanticipated movement, but clearly Desert Boy was going to show Henry who was boss. 

Celebrate Pollinator Week

Bee in tufted evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa)

I recently learned from Bug Girl's Blog that the week of June 22-28 is Pollinator Week. Okay, so today is the last day of the week, but you weren't really planning on running out and celebrating it, were you?

Here are a few facts from www.pollinator.org that might make you decide to have a party after all. Pollinators are responsible for pollinating over 75 percent of flowering plants and 80 percent of the world's crops. They help produce $20 billion of crops each year, despite the fact that 3,000 acres of farmland are lost each day.

In honor of these awesome and often overlooked pollinators, I have some photos showing these pollinators in action. After taking a look here, go out and give the pollinators in your neighborhood a high-five. Well, you really shouldn't touch the wildlife, but give them a mental high-five. They'll appreciate it.

Small butterfly on unknown yellow flower

Swallowtail butterfly on Western columbine (Aquilegia formosa)

Small fly or bee in prickly pear cactus (Opuntia polyacantha) flower

And for those who think that there aren't many pollinators in the desert, in our valley alone we have over 200 species of bees, 150 species of butterflies and moths, 4 species of hummingbirds, and many species of bats, small mammals, beetles, ants, and wasps.