Category: Astronomy

Views of the sun, moon, and stars

One-Year Ago (04-November-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey: Red Leaves, Moon, and Star Trails.

Bright red autumn colors with some bokeh at sunrise. Japanese Maple leaves before they drop. Tree was almost killed by wild grape and poison ivy vines a few years ago, but since they were removed the tree has recovered. Image taken with a Nikon DF camera and 300 mm f/4 lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/4, 1/400 sec).

This was one of the first shots with my repaired Nikon DF camera. The shutter buckled when I was in Antarctica with less than 100K images. Unfortunately, the camera was out of warranty so I didn’t send it in for repair for a long time.

Bright red Japanese Maple leaves. Autumn backyard nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon DF camera and 300 mm f/4 lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/4, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Bright red Japanese Maple leaves. Autumn backyard nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon DF camera and 300 mm f/4 lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/4, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)

Composite of the waxing crescent moon (~20%). Images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 400, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC.


Night sky with jet and star trails. Composite of 120 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC (scripts/statistics/maximum).

Night sky and star trails looking south. Composite of 120 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night sky and star trails looking south. Composite of 120 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec) (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (04-November-2015) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Star Trails.

View looking south. Night and early morning star and jet trails. Two Very Faint Meteor Trails. Composite of 193 images taken with a Nikon D810A camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). Raw images processed with Lightroom (to convert the RAW image to TIF) and Photoshop CC.

Star and jet trails. Southern view from my backyard. Composite of 193 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). (David J Mathre)
Star and jet trails. Southern view from my backyard. Composite of 193 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (03-November-2015) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Star and Jet Trails.

Autumn early morning star and jet trails (and six meteor trails if you look closely) . Composite of 96 images taken with a Nikon D810A camera and a 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). Raw images processed with Lightroom (to convert to TIF format), Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC. The images were combined using Photoshop CC Scirpts/Statistics/Maximum. In the past I would have done this with startrails.exe, but now can do it directly within Photoshop CC with the RAW or TIF images, and not have to convert to a JPG image first. I kept the camera pointed low enough so the moon did not get into the image. The temperature got down to freezing, but the lens did not cloud over with dew or frost.

Star and jet trails. Southern view from my backyard. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). (David J Mathre)
Star and jet trails. Southern view from my backyard. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (02-November-2015) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky over New Jersey.

Time-lapse Video. The night sky looking south. Stars, clouds, and jet trails. Images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec).

One-Year Ago (19-October-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey

Stacked Waining Gibbous Moon (92%). Image 1: Composite of 10 images image taken with a Nikon D810a camera, 400 mm f/2.8 lens, and TC-E III 2x teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm, f/8, 1/125 sec). Image 2: Stacked Waining Gibbous Moon (92%). Composite of 14 images image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated in Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).

Composite stack of ten images of the waining Gibbous Moon (92%). Autumn Nights in New Jersey. Images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 400 mm f/2.8 lens with TC-E III 2x teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm, f/8, 1/200 sec) (David J Mathre)
Composite stack of ten images of the waining Gibbous Moon (92%). Autumn Nights in New Jersey. Images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 400 mm f/2.8 lens with TC-E III 2x teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm, f/8, 1/200 sec) (David J Mathre)
Composite stack of fourteen images of the waining Gibbous Moon (92%). Autumn Nights in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 50-140 mm f2.8 lens or 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/8, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)
Composite stack of fourteen images of the waining Gibbous Moon (92%). Autumn Nights in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 50-140 mm f2.8 lens or 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/8, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)