David Mathre - David Mathre Photography

29-June-2023 (Thursday) — New Jersey

Independence Day Fireworks

Montgomery Township typically celebrates Independence Day with fireworks several days before the 4th of July. Last year was the first fireworks display for a couple of years due to Covid-19. I live near a great location that overlooks the high school where the township holds the fireworks celebration. Actually, I have been using this spot for over 30 years to watch the fireworks. I got there just before sunset. The sky was hazy with smoke from the Canadian forest fires. A couple of cars arrived before me, but there was still plenty of space to park and to set up three cameras on tripods. The moon was visible but dimmed somewhat due to the haze. As it got dark a few fireflies were visible, but nowhere near as many as last year. I set the cameras up as follows: Base ISO (50 or 64), f/11, 8 second exposure. The fireworks started just before 21:30. I was a bit slow getting all of the cameras focused and starting the cameras interval timer to automatically take images until the show was over. Unfortunately, with one camera the focus wasn’t quite right. The other two were in focus. Images below.

Images taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm f/2.8-4 lens (ISO 50, 280 mm, f/11, 8 sec). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 64, 105 mm, f/11, 8 sec). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Has anyone other than the folks trying to log onto my WordPress account noticed that I haven’t posted anything since February? It seems there have been hundreds of daily brute force attempts to guess my username and password.

Friday (03-February-2023) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

As a really cold mass of air moved in the night sky was very clear. Lots of stars visible even though the moon was nearly full. I moved both the Stellina and Vespera telescope/cameras to the back patio and allowed them to equilibrate to the cold temperature (14°F/-10°C). Both systems needed to have their software/firmware upgraded before being initialized. They were then programmed to collect images of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). It appears that the boxier Stellina is more sensitive to wobbling in the wind. The system only accepted 33-50% of the images and even then there was some doubling/streaking of the stars. The Vespera with its curved surfaces is more aerodynamic and did not appear to be impacted by the wind. The software/firmware update improved the quality of the exported composite TIF images. Time-lapse videos were generated from the JPG images showing the movement of the comet relative to the stars. The battery for the Vespera gave up after about 5 hours, even though an external battery was attached due to the extreme cold. The Stellina does not have an internal battery. The external battery lasted a bit longer, allowing me to create a time-lapse video of the moon. You can definitely see when the wind was blowing resulting in some distorted moon images.

Stellina Deep Sky Observations. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). TIF images processed with Topaz AI. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Vespera Deep Sky Observations. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). TIF images processed with Topaz AI. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (100.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (38.5 kWh) from Sense. Sunny but cold. Deficit of 61.5 kWh.

Wednesday (01-February-2023) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

I just arrived back home from a short trip to Florida and the night sky was clear. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is now visible in the early evening sky. Both the Stellina and Vespera telescope/cameras were used to capture images. The telescopes automatically track the motion of the stars in the sky while taking 10 second images. During the time of the observations (15-63 minutes), the comet is moving, creating a tail in the image. This motion can be viewed in the time-lapse video.

Stellina and Vespera Deep Sky Observations. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). JPG images processed with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (79.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (34.6 kWh) from Sense. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 44.9 kWh.

Friday (20-January-2023) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

After two days of cloudy skies, the sky cleared just long enough before dawn to capture images of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). This time with both the Stellina and Vespera telescope/cameras. The comet is high enough above the horizon to the north-east before dawn to be viewed above my house from my patio. I use the Sky Live website to get the location of the comet, and then enter the numbers into the Singularity application. Within minutes, both the Stellina and Vespera had the comet centered and start taking images.

Daily Electric Energy Used (79.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (23.1 kWh) from Sense. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 56.8 kWh.

Wednesday (18-January-2022) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

The pre-dawn sky was clear with the green Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) high enough above the horizon to the northeast to be viewed from my patio using a Vespera telescope-camera.

Vespera Deep Sky Observations. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). JPG images processed with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

During the day, I used the Vespera telescope fitted with a solar filter to view the many sunspots currently visible. For solar observations, the Vespera takes individual JPEG images which I put together as a short time-lapse video. There were periods of time that clouds got in the way.

I set up two cameras to record star trails. One pointing north (Nikon Z9) using a CamRanger II controller for long (300 sec) exposures. The other camera (Hallelblad X2D) pointing south. You can see the clouds coming and going.

Star and Jet trails looking south. Images taken with a Hasselblad X2D camera and 30 mm f/3.5 lens (ISO 64, 30 mm, f/8, 323 s). Images processed with Phocus and the composites created using PhotoShop (scripts, statistics, maximum). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Star and Jet trails looking north. Images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera, FTZ adapter, and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 64, 19 mm, f/8, 300 s). CamRanger II intervalometer used to control the camera (bulb, 5 min exposure). Images processed with Capture One Pro and the composites created using PhotoShop (scripts, statistics, maximum). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

The sky was partially clear before midnight. The Stellina and Vespera telescope/cameras were set up to capture images of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000), Polaris (North Star), Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237), Satellite Cluster (NGC 2244), Cone Nebula/Christmas Tree Cluster (NGC 2264). The clouds interfered with several of the images. It appears that the observation stations automatically stop collecting and processing images at some point when the clouds become problematic.

For the following images, I processed the final JPG image with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. For the raw TIFF images, I needed to use Capture One Pro first, followed by Topaz AI. Follow the link to my PhotoShelter Gallery for larger views of the images.

Stellina and Vespera Deep Sky Observations. JPG images processed with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Stellina and Vespera Deep Sky Observations. TIF images processed with Capture One Pro followed by Topaz AI. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (80.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (23.9 kWh) from Sense. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 56.1 kWh.