Star Trails. Following Hurricane Irene, we had a couple of days and nights with very clear skies. You could even see the Milky Way (although a lot dimmer than in locations with less light pollution). I set up a Nikon D3s camera with a 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens to do star trails last night. The settings on the camera were manual (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, bulb). The exposure time was controlled with a MC-36 itervelometer (delay 5 sec, long 59 sec, interval 1 sec, N —). In camera long exposure noise reduction was turned off. The 1 second interval is required to allow the data to get transferred from the camera to the card, and effectively have one image taken every 60 seconds (1 minute). The MC-36 is required for exposures longer than 30 seconds. After the images were transferred to the computer, the RAW images were processed with Lightroom, and converted to JPG. The JPG images were then processed using Startrails.exe program to make composites. The following images show a single exposure, then startrail composites of 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes, and 300 minutes. Some high level clouds came in for the 300 minute (5 hour) image.
North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Single image before using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 2 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 5 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 15 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 30 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 120 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 300 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
I used the images taken overnight to create a time-lapse video of the night sky. Although faint, you can see the Milky Way in New Jersey. The time-lapse video was created using Adobe PhotoShop CS5 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.
Fawn Checking Out a Fallen Tree Branch Post Hurricane Irene.
Doe Checking out a Downed Limb After Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 200, 500 mm, f/4, 1/200 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Lambertville Station Inn with the Delaware River at Near Flood Stage, Post Hurricane Irene.
I took these images of the Lambertville Station Inn with the waters from the Delaware River up to the level of the parking lot. The Lambertville Station Inn is right next to the Lambertville — New Hope bridge, which I cross on my way to work in Pennsylvania. This bridge remained open. These images were taken just after the river peaked at about 12 feet above normal. The official NWS flood stage is 13 feet. The USGS has a website where you can see a graph of the river level at this location.
Lambertville Inn. Delaware River at Near Flood Stage after Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 36 mm, f/8, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Silver Efex 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Lambertville Inn. Delaware River at Near Flood Stage after Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 42 mm, f/8, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Lambertville Inn. Delaware River at Near Flood Stage after Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 28 mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Lambertville Inn. Delaware River at Near Flood Stage after Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 42 mm, f/8, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Lambertville Inn from the Lambertville New Hope Bridge. Delaware River at Near Flood Stage after Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 28 mm, f/8, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Lambertville Inn from the Lambertville New Hope Bridge. Delaware River at Near Flood Stage after Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 28 mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Dead Tree Floating Down the Delaware River after Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 180 mm, f/8, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Crow on the Lambertville New Hope Bridge. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/8, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Hurricane Irene. Central New Jersey Sunday Afternoon.
By mid-afternoon, I still was not able to report the downed power lines in my yard. I drove to the nearby High School where there I could get much better ATT wireless Internet reception. I logged onto the PSE&G site and reported that I didn’t have power and that I had downed wires in the yard. The automated response let me know that they would have power restored by 8 PM 04-September (next Sunday). I figured that I would be living in my RV for the week. By the time that I got back to the house, I was very surprised to see 3 PSE&G trucks pulling up. It took them some time to free the downed wire from the trees and vines. It was right around this time that the wind and a small amount of rain started up from the back side of the hurricane. I commend the PSE&G workers for their dedication to be out working before the storm had passed. After they completed here, they fixed some other local problems and were able to restore power before it got dark. I feel lucky this time that power was restored this quickly. I know that there are many others still without power and the PSE&G crews will be busy for the next several days. The following images were taken with a Leica X1 camera. Images taken with a Nikon D700 camera will be included in another post.
PSE&G Truck and Crew Getting Set Up oo Repair the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)PSE&G Workers Viewing the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)PSE&G Truck and Crew Working on the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)PSE&G Worker Working to Free the the Downed Power Line from Trees and Vines. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
