Ten-Years Ago (25-November-2006) — New Jersey

Backyard Vandalism in New Jersey: The Morning After.

A tree in my backyard decorated with toilet paper the previous night, the brand of toilet paper used, and an empty egg container. The police took a report, but never got back to me other than saying it was probably high school kids with nothing better to do the day after Thanksgiving. I guess I was lucky since I had cameras out in the backyard taking night sky images that were not tripped over or stolen.

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Ten-Years Ago (24-November-2006) — New Jersey

Backyard Vandalism in New Jersey.

I guess I didn’t give out enough candy at Halloween that year. The amazing thing is that they didn’t trip over or steal the tripod and camera that I had out in the backyard that night doing night sky/star trails.

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Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 18 mm, f/3.5, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

Six-Years Ago (25-November-2006) — New Jersey

Backyard Vandalism in New Jersey: The Morning After.

A tree in my backyard decorated with toilet paper the previous night, the brand of toilet paper used, and an empty egg container. The police took a report, but never got back to me other than saying it was probably high school kids with nothing better to do the day after Thanksgiving. I guess I was lucky since I had cameras out in the backyard taking night sky images that were not tripped over or stolen.

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Six-Years Ago (24-November-2006) — New Jersey

Backyard Vandalism in New Jersey. A Tree in my Backyard Decorated with Toilet Paper.

An interesting night six years ago. I set up my Nikon D200 camera with a 10.5 mm fisheye lens to take wide-angle night sky images from my backyard. I actually put the camera quite a way back from the house, because I wanted to have the camera looking north in my back yard so I could see Polaris (the north star) above the roof of my house. I was still early in a learning mode on how to do night skies and star trails (30 second images + 30 second long exposure noise reduction) once every 2 minutes. I started the exposures beginning about 18:30 H (6:30 PM). The EN-EL3e battery used in the D200 camera had about a 2 hour life, especially when it was cold outside. I had to go out to change the battery every ~ hour. A little after 20:00 H (8:00 PM) I realized that a tree in my back yard had been toilet papered. Going through the images taken by the camera, I could tell when it happened. I am just glad that they didn’t trip over and/or take the camera and tripod. This was reported to the local Montgomery Township police, but nothing ever came of the report.

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 18 mm, f/3.5, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 18 mm, f/3.5, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

Time lapsed video of night sky looking north. The images were taken with a Nikon D200 and 10.5 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, f/2.8, 30 sec).