March 20, 2017
A view of a different region of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. It was a warm night and I'm learning that my camera sensor really doesn't deal well with it at long exposures. The sensor gets hot and increases image noise. Anyway, on the right are the Siamese Twins, a pair of interacting galaxies. The big galaxy to the left is M58, then up and left is M89 and M90. Lots of smaller galaxies. It is difficult to grasp how big these things are. All the stars in this image are in our galaxy.
One of the mantids from last night. This is Litaneutria minor, or the agile ground mantis. These occur in dry habitats as far north as South Dakota, where I have seen them in the southern Black Hills. They are small, less than two inches length. The males can fly and are attracted to lights. I will try for some better photos.
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