MikeOxon

[MikeOxon]

I happened to notice on a star chart that the planet Uranus was quite close to the Moon on Monday night (29th December). Having an obvious reference point, like the moon, helps to find faint targets when you're not too familiar with the night sky and don't have a calibrated telescope mount to motor to an exact spot. It was a very cold, clear night but there is a lot of light pollution where I live, so I was not at all sure of being able to spot such a faint target.

The moon itself is actually a pretty bright target for photography and I used it to set the focus as precisely as I could on my tele-lens. Spot metering indicated an exposure of 1/125s @ f/13, which is what I chose to use from my tripod although, by using a larger aperture, hand-held shots of the moon would be feasible.

Moon from Abingdon, Oxon - 29th December 2014
Nikon D300s with 300f4 lens + 1.4X TC - 1/125s@f/13 ISO800

I then opened up the aperture and set a shutter speed of 2 seconds in the hope of recording Uranus. I use a remote release for the camera and, since I could not see the faint stars though the viewfinder, simply took a number of shots in what I hoped was the right direction! After converting the RAW images, and using Photoshop to get the best contrast that I could between the stars and the dark background, I compared the results with the sky image displayed by my 'Starry Night' software. I could determine exactly where the camera was pointing, by comparing the star patterns in my images with the software image. I found that, although I had come very close, Uranus had managed to lie just outside the frame in all my photos!!! It was too cold for another go and I revived myself with a mug of mulled wine instead.

Not to be beaten, I had another go this evening (30th December) and chose to use my 90mm macro lens in order to obtain a wider sky field. The macro has a wide aperture (f/2.8 ), so is useful for finding faint stars. The moon had moved further to the east relative to Uranus but I knew that the planet was due South at about 18:30, so took that as my aiming point. I took a series of horizontally panned images and then overlaid them to produce the following composite - this time, success

(Click to enlarge photo)

Uranus from Abingdon, Oxon - 30th December 2014
Nikon D300s with 90mm macro lens - 1.5 sec @ f/2.8 ISO800

I've added a few star labels to the photo, mainly members of the constellation Pisces. As you can see, Uranus is just one faint dot amongst many.

Mike

[MikeOxon]

Far too cold for butterflies but clearing skies have led to a bright frosty night with beautiful things to see above!

Guy Padfield drew my attention to Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2), which is just about at its peak now and very easy to find, since it is close to the star cluster known as the 'Pleiades' (or, sometimes, the 'Jewel Box', which is an apt description when seen through binoculars) Tonight it was just over a binocular field width to the right of the 'Pleiades' and can be seen as a small fuzzy blob. A photograph is needed to bring out the green colour, which is apparently due to gases such as cyanogen evaporating as the comet approaches the Sun. It is moving Northward from night to night and is expected to start fading from now on.

My first photo was taken with my 90mm macro lens. It might seem strange but this lens is pretty good for night sky photography, as it has a good aperture (f/2.8 ) and includes a reasonable amount of sky in the frame, so that aiming is not too critical.

Abingdon, Oxon - 16th January 2015
Nikon D300s with Tamron 90mm macro lens - 1.5 secs@f/2.8 ISO 400

Once I had located the comet, I tried using my 300m f/4 lens, although it is quite tricky to get this aligned onto the target. There is too much light-pollution locally for the 'tail' of the comet to show - it should be streaming out to the left of the picture from the head of the comet.

Abingdon, Oxon - 16th January 2015
Nikon D300s with Nikon 300mm f/4 AFS lens - 1.5 secs@f/4 ISO 1000

Apart from the comet, the great Winter constellation of Orion is now at its best in the early to mid evening. My photo shows the Sword nebula, as seen with my 300mm lens. The red colour from the starlight shining through these vast hydrogen clouds shows up well.

Abingdon, Oxon - 16th January 2015
Nikon D300s with Nikon 300mm f/4 AFS lens - 1.5 secs@f/4 ISO 1000

Mike

Edited to correct exposure details with macro lens

[Padfield]

Amazing pictures, Mike. With a tenth of the exposure time that I use and obviously much more light-collecting ability you have produced really good images, rather than mere proofs of concept (which mine were). If the sky clears again I might try with a shorter exposure and higher ISO.

Guy

[Goldie M]

Fantastic shots Mike, I watched a program the other night about the Milky Way and they said the best time to see it was about the 24th of January, I'll look forward to that but I don't think I'll be taking photo's Goldie

[MikeOxon]

Yesterday (29th January) I visited the RHS garden at Wisley for my annual Winter 'fix' of tropical warmth and butterflies, at their 'Butterflies in the Glasshouse' event (17 January – 8 March).

Along the path leading to the glasshouse, there were several butterfly and caterpillar sculptures - yours for only £385.

It's the fifth time that I've visited this event; my first time was in 2010, when the butterflies were not looking very happy, but later visits have improved year on year. I was fortunate that it was a sunny morning yesterday, and the butterflies were all very active and enjoying the many flowers in bloom.

RHS Wisley - 29th January 2015
Lumix FZ200 (fl=37mm) - 1/160s@f/2.8 ISO200

There was a good diversity of species to be seen and they are re-stocked daily. I doubt whether I saw everything that was there and some species, such as this 'Indian Leafwing' (Kallima paralekta) were rather difficult to spot - until they showed their vivid blue and orange upper surfaces.

RHS Wisley - 29th January 2015
Lumix FZ200 (fl=56mm) - 1/200s@f/2.8 ISO200

The following 'composite' (click image to enlarge) shows some of the species I photographed. For identification, I recommend Guy Padfield's pdf guide at http://www.guypadfield.com/butterflyhouse.html:

In previous years, I took my Nikon DSLR camera but found it rather unwieldy and I was reluctant to change lenses in the very humid atmosphere. This time, I 'travelled light', with the Lumix FZ200 that I bought last year. It proved very versatile and made it easy to get shots over the shoulders of the other visitors and to take both 'macro' and 'tele' shots, where the f/2.8 aperture at full zoom proved extremely useful. Most of the time, I set 'aperture priority' at f/2.8 and only reduced the aperture when the light was very good. On the whole, I was very pleased with the results, though a few attempts at 'in flight' shots were unsuccessful.

In the display area, there were a few species that I did not recognise

Mike

Edited to re-name 'Indian Leafwing' after further reading

[Goldie M]

Lovely Photo's Mike, I bet the warmth of the place felt really good, it would to me after the weather we've just had Goldie

[MikeOxon]

Thank you Goldie. Yes, it is very nice to go to this tropical retreat at this time of year! It was sunny while we were there but very cold outside, with some snow lying on the Berkshire Downs as we drove past.

It is important to wear outer layers that can be easily shed, once inside the glasshouse - I wear a warm jacket that I can tie around my waist and then wander around in shirt-sleeves

Mike

[Padfield]

I'm glad you found my guide useful, Mike. It obviously doesn't have everything but should serve as a pointer at least. I'm glad too that the butterflies have been looking happier at Wisley these last years.

Guy

[Wurzel]

Lovely shots especially the Swallowtail/Cattleheart (?) Only a month or so and you'll be snapping wild species Mike

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[MikeOxon]

Thank you for commenting, Guy and Wurzel. I find that tropical species are difficult to identify because there are many similar species and females are often very different from males. I've changed my ID of the leafwing after reading more information from Stratford Butterflies(who supply the butterflies shown at Wisley)

One thing that surprised me was that several people seemed rather afraid of the butterflies coming near them, even though they had chosen to visit the event!

Mike

[Padfield]

Male Kallima inachus and paralekta don't seem to be reliably separable, Mike. But paralekta is sexually dimorphic, as I'm sure you've gleaned, and the female is readily identified. I have yet to see a female paralekta at the Papiliorama so the males I've tentatively identified as this, based on subtle wing characters, are a bit dodgy. Both species are found in butterfly houses generally. In real life, of course, paralekta is endemic to Java and Sumatra, where I don't believe inachus flies, so the similarity doesn't pose a problem! I've only recently learnt how to tell Papilio demoleus and demodocus apart - another tropical house pair that would be unlikely to meet in real life.

It's difficult to imagine being scared of a butterfly!

Guy

[MikeOxon]

Thanks again, Guy. I decided to go with the species that is claimed to be present at Wisley. The lists provided at the event have not been particularly accurate in previous years and your comment about both species being common in butterfly houses may be significant.

A web search indicated that 'Lepidopterophobia' is not uncommon! I know one person who won't even look at my photos of them.

Mike

[bugboy]

Nice pics Mike, I made a similar comment about people being scared of butterflies in my PD when I posted pics from London Zoos butterfly house. I find it's normally the Caligo's and Morpho's that puts the fear of God in people . I suspect a lot of these people don't realise they will be in with the butterflies before they enter, assuming they will be behind glass or something.

[MikeOxon]

Thanks for the comment, bugboy. I like to keep my hand in with the photos, so the RHS display provides good winter practice. The 'bridge' camera was very easy to use in the glasshouse and gave some good results.

Mike

[Goldie M]

Hi! Mike, just completed looking at your photos from the post you sent me and they are fantastic, the birds I was extremely taken with, some of the action shots were super, the one that landed in front of you for instance when you taking shots of wild flowers was great, hope I can get a shot like that some time, what luck that was. Goldie

[MikeOxon]

I visited Blenheim Palace gardens yesterday (17th Feb.), partly in the hope of seeing Hawfinches (no luck). On arrival, it was clear that it was a popular choice for an outing on a beautiful Spring-like day. There were several clumps of Snowdrops in flower and I have never before noticed these flowers receiving so much attention from bees - buzzing around in numbers.

BlenheimPalace - 17th February 2015
Lumix FZ200 - 1/400s@f/4 ISO160

I also looked into the butterfly house, located in the 'Pleasure garden'. There were species that I do not recall seeing at Wisley recently but, whereas the butterflies there were flying around and behaving 'normally', these were all looking very listless and I saw none feeding, although a dead one was sat in a bowl of rather tired-looking fruit. Most were clinging motionless to the netting over the windows, while a few were just sitting on the ground. Only one Tree Nymph was flying around. in addition.most individuals had extensive wing damage. So, overall, not a very good impression.

Mike

[Padfield]

That's very sad, Mike. I wonder if they were skimping on energy bills by keeping the temperature below optimal for these tropical species. If it's of any interest, for comparison, I have posted a video of inside the Papiliorama on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=945Aw8YGFhs - taken yesterday). There, the butterflies are always very active. I visited the Blenheim butterfly house a couple of times when I was a student and as I remember it was rather smaller and more linear.

Guy

[MikeOxon]

Today (6th March), I took my first walk on Otmoor in this year.

Otmoor is a strange place - a reedy wetland in the middle of rural Oxfordshire, surrounded by a fringe of ancient villages, including Islip, birthplace of Edward the Confessor, one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England. The central part of the moor is now an RSPB reserve and I set out on my walk with birds in mind rather than butterflies.

Herons over Otmoor - 6th March 2015

One of my first sightings was of a pair of Brown Hares, motionless in the grass not far from the bridleway. I was surprised that they did not flee at first sight of a human being!

Brown Hares - Otmoor - 6th March 2015

And then, even more of a surprise, when a Brimstone butterfly appeared fluttering rather weakly along the bridleway. It soon paused to bask in the sun, though I could see that it was continuously trembling, presumably trying to maintain an adequate body temperature in the chilly March air. I only had time for a few photos and then accidentally cast my shadow over the butterfly, which prompted him to seek shelter deep amongst the long grasses that border the path.

Otmoor, Oxon - 6th March 2015
Nikon D300s with 300/4 lens + 1.4x TC - 1/500s@f/11 ISO400

Mike

[Goldie M]

Hi! Mike nice shot of the Brimstone, that was a nice surprise for you
It's unusual to see two hares, normally there's only one and it's usually chasing across the fields or Sand Dunes,(that's where I've seen them) Southport Dunes.
I've not got my first shot of a Butterfly yet but I did see one today Small T so things are looking up Goldie

[MikeOxon]

Thank you for commenting, Goldie. thigs are certainly looking up, with longer days giving the sun a chance to warm things up.

Following my walk on Otmoor yesterday, I decided to look at my local reserve: Dry Sandford Pit today (7th March), especially as there was 'wall to wall' sunshine, unlike the forecast, which was for high cloud.

Dry Sandford Pit is quite a small BBOWT reserve that has, at its core, the rare habitat of a calcareous fen. This is host to many unusual plants, especially in Summer, when large numbers of the beautiful Marsh Helleborine are in flower. The fen is surrounded by old quarry workings and the sandstone faces are peppered with holes that are homes to many species of solitary wasps and bees.

Dry Sandford Pit - The Open Fen
7th March 2015

Although it was very sunny, there was a cool wind blowing from the South and this deterred any butterflies from basking on the quarry face.There were several Brimstones flying around but they preferred to pause on the South-facing slope at the North end of the reserve, which is sheltered by a belt of trees.

Dry Sandford Pit, Oxon - 7th March 2015
Nikon D300s with 300f4 lens + 1.4X TC - 1/750s@f/9.5 ISO400

In that area, there is an open patch of Primroses but these have only just started to come into flower and, though I waited patiently in the area for some time, no butterflies came to nectar.

Dry Sandford Pit, Oxon - 7th March 2015
Nikon D300s with 300f4 lens + 1.4X TC - 1/1000s@f/8 ISO400

There were also several clumps of Snowdrops and the first few Daffodils were in flower.

As well as the Brimstones, I also saw one Red Admiral and one Small Tortoiseshell but neither of these was prepared to pause for a photo.

Mike