Astronomy - David Mathre Photography

One-Year Ago (11-October-2016) — New Jersey

Indoor Abstract Art

While hand washing the dishes, I noticed a large number of bubbles in one pot. As I moved the colors kept changing. I assumed it was due to diffraction of a mono-molecular layer of soap. but wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to take an image that would capture the beauty of the colors, and the symmetry of the bubble packing. After a lot of trial and error, I was able to obtain some interesting images.

Soap bubbles and light diffraction. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 400, 60 mm, f/4, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey — Star Trails

View looking south from my backyard. Night sky star and jet trails. Composite of 173 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/8, 120 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro (including conversion to B&W), then the composite generated using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). If you look closely, there is at least one meteor trail.

Night Sky Star and Jet trails After Midnight. Composite of 173 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/8, 120 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (11-October-2015) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky — Star and Jet Trails

View looking south from my backyard. Composite of 120 images taken from 20:00 to 23:59 with a Nikon D4 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro. Star trails composite processed using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).

Autumn Night Sky and Star and Jet Trails. View looking south from my backyard. Composite of 120 images taken from 20:00 to 23:59 with a Nikon D4 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). (David J Mathre)

One-Year Ago (07-October-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey

Star and jet trails looking south from my backyard. Composite of 40 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/4, 120 sec) and processed using Capture One Pro and Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum).

Star and jet trails, southern view. Composite of 40 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/4, 120 sec). (David J Mathre)

Monday (21-August-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Astronomy in New Jersey. Partial Solar Eclipse.

Happy Eclipse Day! Some home renovation issues kept me in New Jersey for the eclipse. I set up a Nikon D810a camera with 45 mm f/2.8 lens and a 20 stop neutral density filter to take images every 4 minutes from just before the eclipse started. Unfortunately, clouds moved in just before the maximum (~78% coverage). The sun and moon reappeared shortly thereafter. The following image is a composite over the 160 minute period of the eclipse. The eclipse also reduced the amount of electricity produced by my solar panels. The two graphs show the hourly production of electricity for the day before the eclipse and during the eclipse. You can see a significant drop when the moon was blocking the sun. My brother Hans was in Tennessee with his family to observe the total eclipse. He sent me an image that he took with a Nikon D3 camera and a 200-400 mm f/4 lens and TC-E II 2.0 teleconverter at totality.

Partial Solar Eclipse in New Jersey. Composite of forty images taken with a Nikon D810A camera and 45 mm f/2.8 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 45 mm, f/16, 1/250 sec) and a 20-stop neutral density filter. (David J Mathre)

Total Solar Eclipse in Tennessee. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 200-400 f/4 telephoto zoom lens with a TC-E II 2.0 teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm, f/8, 1/100 sec). (Hans K. Mathre, Hans K. Mathre) — Total Solar Eclipse in Tennessee. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 200-400 f/4 telephoto zoom lens with a TC-E II 2.0 teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm, f/8, 1/100 sec). (Hans K. Mathre)

Four-Years Ago (10-June-2013) — At Sea

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 45: At Sea between Stockholm and Copenhagen.

Late night or early in the morning (hard to tell this far north when there isn’t much darkness at night) I looked out my cabin window on the MV Explorer and saw the electric blue Noctilucent clouds. I read about them before (http://www.spaceweather.com/), but had never seen them. The clouds are ice crystals that are very high that you can only see for a short time when the sun is below the horizon. One theory is the crystals are nucleated when micro-meteors pass through the upper atmosphere. We were in the Baltic Sea traveling from Stockholm to Copenhagen and the sun doesn’t set until very late I set up a camera in my cabin and and started taking pictures.(Nikon D4 camera, 28 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 200 or 800, 28 mm, f/1.8, 1 sec)).

Noctilucent Clouds Over the Baltic Sea. From my cabin on the MV Explorer while traveling from Stockholm to Copenhagen. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 28 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 200, 28 mm, f/1.8, 1 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)