Over The Hill Hikers - CA

03/29/2026

Photo Set 2 : We hiked the Hidden Valley Trail in Joshua Tree National Park. It is a one-mile loop through a scenic valley surrounded by large rock formations.

The hike is easy and offers exciting opportunities for rock scrambling.

Along the trail are educational signs about local plants and animals. Between the late 1800s and early 1900s, the valley was used by cattle rustlers looking to stay “hidden”.. hence its name "Hidden Valley". You enter the valley through a small and hidden entrance in the rocks.
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As you hike the trail, look for Cow Rock, a cow-shaped rock formation on a wall overlooking the valley.

The trail is easy but there are stairs and rock steps at the beginning and ending of the trail. This is a popular hike, and on busy days, the parking lot can fill up quickly so he sure to start by 9 am during busy weekends and holidays.

Hidden Valley Trail has very little shade and no cell service.

03/29/2026

Photo Set 1: We hiked the Hidden Valley Trail in Joshua Tree National Park. It is a one-mile loop through a scenic valley surrounded by large rock formations.

The hike is easy and offers exciting opportunities for rock scrambling.

Along the trail are educational signs about local plants and animals. Between the late 1800s and early 1900s, the valley was used by cattle rustlers looking to stay “hidden”.. hence its name "Hidden Valley". You enter the valley through a small and hidden entrance in the rocks.

As you hike the trail, look for Cow Rock, a cow-shaped rock formation on a wall overlooking the valley.

The trail is easy but there are stairs and rock steps at the beginning and ending of the trail. This is a popular hike, and on busy days, the parking lot can fill up quickly so he sure to start by 9 am during busy weekends and holidays.

Hidden Valley Trail has very little shade and no cell service.

03/29/2026

Sometimes life gives you lemons, so you have to make lemonade! Our hike at Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve was a no go so we did downtown Palm Springs instead!

We FAILED trying to hike at the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve near Palm Springs, California! So we visited downtown Palm Springs instead!

03/29/2026

The constellation Orion rising above the Alabama Hills Near Lone Pine, California!

03/29/2026

Mobius Arch at night in the Alabama Hills, with a full moon framed inside the arch. It looks like a Giant Turtle!

Mobius Arch with the full moon which appears to make an eye in a turtle head (do you see it?)

03/26/2026

Last night I captured NGC 4631, also known as the Whale Galaxy. It is an edge-on barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici, about 25-30 million light-years away. Its distinctive shape, resembling a whale, is due to its orientation from Earth and gravitational interactions with its companion galaxy, NGC 4627, which creates tidal tails and triggers intense star formation. Seestar S50, EQ Mode, 2.5 hours of integration, 30 second subs.

03/24/2026

The 2nd "triple galaxy" capture from last night was the Needle Galaxy along with two smaller galaxies!
Taken with my Seestar S50 in Equatorial mode, 2 hours and 30 minutes of 30 second exposures. Comments on each photo.

NGC 4565, also known as the Needle Galaxy, is a bright, edge-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, about 30-50 million light-years away. It's famous for its narrow, needle-like profile, similar to how we view our own Milky Way, making it a key object for studying galactic structure, including its prominent dust lanes and central bulge. It's a large galaxy, comparable in size to the Milky Way, and is a member of the Coma I cluster.

Key characteristics

Type: Barred spiral galaxy (Sab).

Location: Constellation Coma Berenices.

Distance: Approximately 30–50 million light-years.

Size: About 100,000 light-years in diameter, similar to our Milky Way.

Appearance: you are seeing the Galaxy edge-on, revealing a thin disk with a central bulge and dark dust lanes. With Central bulge appears to be round, but much higher powered telescopes actually discovered that the Bulge is box shaped.

The 2nd largest galaxy in the photo is the dwarf galaxy NGC 4562, located lower right. The interactions between Needle and 4562 are believed to have created a warped, extended disk on the edge-on spiral of the Needle.. perhaps explaining the box shaped central structure.

IC 3571 is another galaxy that cannot be seen in this image. It is a small satellite companion believed to be interacting with the disk Needle.

The third "fuzzy disc" galaxy in the image (PGC 2793674) is one of several distant, faint background galaxies that typically show up in images, although they are not gravitationally bound to the Needle.

03/24/2026

Here are the final images from this evenings first Astro target.. the Leo Triplets! SEESTAR s50, Equatorial Mode, 2 hours at 30 seconds per image!

03/24/2026

Tonight's image was one I hadn't attempted yet.. the Leo Triplets. Three galaxies in the same frame from the constellation of my birth... Leo!

The Leo Triplet is a group of three prominent spiral galaxies in the constellation Leo, consisting of M65, M66, and NGC 3628, which are visible together in a single telescopic view. They are about 35 million light-years away and are known for their gravitational interactions, which have distorted their shapes, with NGC 3628 appearing edge-on as the "Hamburger Galaxy" due to a prominent dust lane.

The Galaxies include:

M65 (NGC 3623): An intermediate spiral galaxy, tilted to our line of sight.

M66 (NGC 3627): An intermediate spiral galaxy with asymmetric spiral arms, likely distorted by its neighbors.

NGC 3628: An edge-on spiral galaxy, nicknamed the "Hamburger Galaxy" because of the dark dust lane cutting across its disk like a Hamburger patty between two buns!

Tonight's image will be one I haven't attempted yet. NGC 3628, the Leo Triplets. Three galaxies in the same frame from the constellation of my birth... L ...

03/24/2026

We arrived at Pinnacles National Park on Feb 20th, 2026 in the late afternoon. Setup camp, made dinner and got ready for our hikes the next day!