Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
While taking the recycling out last night I noticed a moon ring (22° halo) in the sky.
Moon Ring (22° halo). Image taken with a Lieca Q2 monochrome camera with a 28 mm f/1.7 lens (ISO 1600, 28 mm, f/1.7, 1/8 sec). (David J Mathre)
Daily Electric Energy Used (69.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.4 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 41.0 kWh.
Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Northern Flicker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, European Starling, American Robin, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Night sky and star trails using a Leica Q2 Monochrome camera. One limitation is the camera takes a 2nd blank (shutter closed) exposure to subtract out sensor noise anytime the exposure is > 4 seconds or the ISO is > 100. With other cameras from Nikon and Fuji, I am able to turn the long exposure noise reduction off, Also, when taking an interval collecting both DNG and JPG the camera stops collecting images after 5 minutes (60 exposures). When recording DNG images, the camera collects 50 minutes (600 exposures). Images were processed with Capture One Pro, and the star trails created using PhotoShop (statistics, maximum).
Moon and Star Trails. Composite of 60 images taken with a Leica Q2 Monochrome camera and 28 mm f/1.7 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/2, 4 seconds). (David J Mathre)Moon, Star, and Jet Trails. Composite of 600 images taken with a Leica Q2 Monochrome camera and 28 mm f/1.7 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/2, 4 seconds). (David J Mathre)
Daily Electric Energy Used (53.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (30.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 23.1 kWh.
Weekly Electric Energy Used (400 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (128 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 272 kWh.
Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
The Opossum is back.
My main 360 camera a Garmin VIRB-360 is getting old and has been discontinued by the manufacturer. The one lens has a scratch, and a battery failed. I’ve started looking at alternatives. I did this once before, trying out the Nikon Mission 360 (discontinued), Ricoh Theta, Insta360 One 4K. Each had issues. Later, I found the Ricoh Theta Z1 16-GB model then 64-GB model to be useful. But with idiosyncrasies. They have an interval mode, but with a minimum interval of 6 seconds (jpg) or 10 seconds (DNG). I decided to look at some of the newer 360 cameras. Insta360 One X2 and Labpano Lab Pilot ERA.
The following night time-lapse video was taken with the Insta360 One X2. I set the camera up outdoors connected to an external USB-C power supply to take raw (DNG) images every 30 seconds. With the external battery, the camera continued taking images all night, even though the temperature dropped below freezing. Processing the raw images was a bit of a problem since the raw image is not the standard equirectangular format. You need to convert the images via the Insta360 Studio 2021 program (batch mode) to generate a standard equirectangular image. Adobe Photoshop doesn’t appear to make time-lapse videos with DNG files, so I also had to convert the images from DNG to TIFF (using Capture One Pro) before making the time-lapse videos. With this camera I will need a better workflow.
Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Insta360 One X2 camera. ISO 504, f/2, 2 sec. Insta360 Raw (DNG) format. (David J Mathre)Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Insta360 One X2 camera. ISO 504, f/2, 2 sec. Equirectangular DNG (Raw) format after conversion via Insta360 Studio 2021. (David J Mathre)
Time-lapse Video (Little Planet View).
Time-lapse Video (Tunnel View).
Daily Electric Energy Used (67.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny but cold. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 38.6 kWh.
Autumn Day Nature and Working Outside and in the Garage in New Jersey.
Full moon before the lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, a rain storm came through while the eclipse took place.
Full Moon, before the lunar eclipse. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)
Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch, Common Grackle.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
My Little Planet time-lapse videos for the day. 1) Red Rover. Moving items, switching from the front loader to forks, adding additional support to the pallets being used to support the tractor implements. 2) Tent Box. Starting to install the inner cold weather lining in the tent box. It got dark before I could finish.
Daily Electric Energy Used (41.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.7 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Deficit of 16.0 kWh.
Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Turkey Vulture, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Black-capped Chickadee, European Starling, American Robin, House Finch.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Flowers (and plants) of the day: Chinese Forget-me-not, Cosmos, Marigold, Plains Coreopsis, Teasel.
Flowers and Plants of the Day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Time-lapse video of a day in the wildflower meadow. This section was plated late in summer with Cosmos and Plains Coreopsis. The earlier planting in this section failed, mainly coming up with tall grass instead of the spring to summer wildflowers. I mowed the grass down, rototilled, and covered with a black-agricultural fabric to kill off the weeds for several weeks before replanting. I am now starting to get some flowers even though the plants are not very tall. Another section was planted with Marigold and Zinnia. They are not growing very fast, and have not bloomed. It also doesn’t help that the Deer and Ground Hog continue to nibble on the small plants. [Click on the full screen button, bottom right corner to view a larger image.]
I haven’t seen any Monarch butterflies until today since August. Usually there are some of the group that migrates south to hibernate around in October. One of the places that I usually see them in October is at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. This year the brush along the high-pressure underground gas line was mowed, and there are no flowers to attract the Monarch butterflies. Today, while rototilling one of my wildflower meadows to prepare for next spring I noticed the shadow of a butterfly flying. When I turned around, I saw a Monarch. It landed on a Zinnia flower. I dropped everything and ran inside to get a camera. When I got back outside, I found the Monarch feeding on a Marigold flower.
Monarch butterfly feeding on a Marigold flower. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Deer in the backyard. They keep trying to get into the fenced off areas. Some look pretty scrawny.
Critters of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Waxing Gibbous moon with my new Sigma 150-600 mm sport (L-mount) lens on a Leica SL2 camera.
Waxing Gibbous Moon. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and Sigma 150-600 mm OIS lens (handheld). (David J Mathre)
Daily Electric Energy Used (53.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (33.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny. Deficit of 20.1 kWh.
