Sunday (31-July-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Going from sunspots to startrails. The view is from my back deck over the roof. A tree in my front yard just blocks the north star. The image is a composite of 326 30-second exposures combined using the Startrails program. There are at least four jet trails, and a couple of meteor trails. The meteor trails are too faint in the composite, so I included a crop from a single image showing a meteor trail. I’ve also added a version of the startrails in B&W, converted using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). Composite of 326 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). Composite of 326 images combined using the Startrails program.
Meteor Trail. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5 (David J Mathre)
Meteor Trail. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5
North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). Composite of 326 images combined using the Startrails program. Converted to B/W with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). Composite of 326 images combined using the Startrails program. Converted to B/W with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.