Category: Astronomy

Views of the sun, moon, and stars

Friday (12-November-2010) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nighttime Sky over New Jersey.

  1. Star trail composite of ~180 images (3 hours) taken last night looking south from my home in New Jersey. Each image was acquired with a Nikon D3x camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 100, f/8, 59 sec). Images converted to jpg with Capture NX2, then combined using the startrails.exe program.
  2.  Star trail composite of ~300 images 5 hours) taken last night looking south from my home in New Jersey. Each image was acquired with a Nikon D3x camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 100, f/8, 59 sec). Images converted to jpg with Capture NX2, then combined using the Startrails program. Since this was later, fewer jet trails.
  3. Waxing Crescent Moon image acquired with a Nikon D3s camera and Questar 7″ telescope (ISO 200, ~ 1600 mm, f/16, 1/50 sec).
Star Trails and Jet Traffic over New Jersey (David J Mathre)
Star Trails and Jet Traffic over New Jersey (David J Mathre)
Star Trails over New Jersey (David J Mathre)
Star Trails over New Jersey (David J Mathre)
Waxing Crescent Moon. Image taken with Nikon D3s and 400 mm f/2.8 lens with TC-E 2.0 teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm f/8, 1/100 sec) (David J Mathre)
Waxing Crescent Moon. Image taken with Nikon D3s camera and 400 mm f/2.8 lens with TC-E 2.0 teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm f/8, 1/100 sec) (David J Mathre)

Thursday (11-November-2010) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

Waxing crescent moon on Veteran’s Day. Image taken with Nikon D3s camera and 400 mm f/2.8 lens with TC-E 2.0 teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm f/8, 1/100 sec).

Waxing Crescent Moon. Image taken with Nikon D3s and 400 mm f/2.8 lens with TC-E 2.0 teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm f/8, 1/100 sec) (David J Mathre)
Waxing Crescent Moon. Image taken with Nikon D3s camera and 400 mm f/2.8 lens with TC-E 2.0 teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm f/8, 1/100 sec) (David J Mathre)

Sunday (07-November-2010) — New Jersey

Backyard Solar Astronomy in New Jersey.

Solar image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and Questar 3.5″ telescope fitted with a sun filter (ISO 400, f/16, 1/1000 sec). I didn’t see any sunspots. A good source for solar activity is SpaceWeather.com.

Image of the Sun using a Questar Telescope (David J Mathre)
Image of the Sun using a Questar Telescope (David J Mathre)

19-October-2010

 

I didn’t have anything from previous years for this day so I went out and took an image of the moon tonight. The image was taken with a D3x and 400 mm AF-S f/2.8 D II with a AF-S TC20EIII teleconverter. ISO 100, 800 mm, 1/200 sec, f/8. Processed using Capture NX2, Photoshop CS5, Focus Magic, converted for web and sRGB using Photoshop CS5. The white balance in the camera was 3030 °K. This probably could be made a bit warmer.