David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Views of the sun, moon, and stars
While taking the trash out early in the morning, I noticed the Crescent Moon and Venus shining brightly in the eastern dawn sky.
Daily Electric Energy Used (40.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (36.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More Sun. Geothermal HVAC system off. A deficit of 3.5 kWh.
Although it was cloudy much of the day, the sky cleared early in the evening. Waxing Gibbous Moon, image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 200-500 mm f/5.6 lens (hand-held).
Daily Electric Energy Used (48.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (31.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy much of the day. A deficit of 17.6 kWh.
Fourth consecutive night with dark (relative — this is New Jersey) clear skies. This time Night Sky Star Trails with a Nikon D850 camera with a 10.5 mm f/2.8 DX fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). Note a full frame camera with a DX sensor lens, thus some of the sensor is not used. Star Trail composite image created with the jpg “out-of-the-camera” image files using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). A lot fewer jet trails than in previous years. Clouds started coming in during the early morning hours.
Night Sky Composite Images (first one 45 min, others 60 min). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Daily Electric Energy Used (36.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (50.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with a few clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 14.2 kWh.
Autumn is coming. Getting colder outside allowing me to open the windows and turn off the Geothermal HVAC system. Third consecutive night with dark (relative — this is New Jersey) clear skies. Repeat Night Sky Star Trails with a Leica SL2 camera with 16-35 mm lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/4, 60 sec). This time portrait mode. Same number of images (152) as last night before the batteries failed. Do wish there was a way to provide external power to the camera for longer overnight sessions. Star Trail composite image created with the jpg “out-of-the-camera” image files using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).
Daily Electric Energy Used (40.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (53.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with a few clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 13.2 kWh. Stove left on boiling water for tea… Or an expensive way to humidify the house.
Taking advantage of several nights with clear skies. For comparison to the Star Trail images yesterday, I set up two high-resolution full-frame cameras to capture the night sky from my patio. 1) Leica SL2 camera with 16-36 mm lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/4, 60 sec). 2) Nikon D810a with 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 200, 11 mm, f/4, 120 sec). The Leica (2 batteries) captured 152 images before running out of power. The outdoor temperature dropped to 36° F. Then Nikon camera (2 batteries) captured 174 images before taking the camera back inside (could have gone on longer). The first two Star Trail composite images were created with the jpg “out-of-the-camera” image files using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). The second two Star Trail composite images were created with the DNG or RAW image files processed with Capture One Pro and then using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).
Daily Electric Energy Used (35.8 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (53.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with a few clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 17.8 kWh. Notice the hump in the afternoon solar — has to do with the Sycamore tree shading the roof mid-afternoon
Weekly Electric Energy Used (273 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (337 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More sun this week, and the house open with the Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 64 kWh.
