David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Views of art from around the world
Today, I captured images of an airplane, two jets, and a Turkey Vulture transiting the sun while looking at the sunspots (we are at or near the solar maximum). I was viewing the sun with a Vespera Classic and Vespera Pro automated telescope using solar filters.
Montgomery Township typically celebrates Independence Day with fireworks several days before the 4th of July. Last year was the first fireworks display for a couple of years due to Covid-19. I live near a great location that overlooks the high school where the township holds the fireworks celebration. Actually, I have been using this spot for over 30 years to watch the fireworks. I got there just before sunset. The sky was hazy with smoke from the Canadian forest fires. A couple of cars arrived before me, but there was still plenty of space to park and to set up three cameras on tripods. The moon was visible but dimmed somewhat due to the haze. As it got dark a few fireflies were visible, but nowhere near as many as last year. I set the cameras up as follows: Base ISO (50 or 64), f/11, 8 second exposure. The fireworks started just before 21:30. I was a bit slow getting all of the cameras focused and starting the cameras interval timer to automatically take images until the show was over. Unfortunately, with one camera the focus wasn’t quite right. The other two were in focus. Images below.
Images taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm f/2.8-4 lens (ISO 50, 280 mm, f/11, 8 sec). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 64, 105 mm, f/11, 8 sec). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Has anyone other than the folks trying to log onto my WordPress account noticed that I haven’t posted anything since February? It seems there have been hundreds of daily brute force attempts to guess my username and password.
Yesterday it rained most of the day. Then during the night, the temperature rose with more wind and rain. By noon the temperature was dropping rapidly, and for a short period there was heavy wind and blowing snow. That is when I got a picture of the Santa Nisse meditating before Christmas.
Just after astronomical twilight the sky was clear long enough to capture enough images of the Orion Galaxy (M42) using the Vespera astro-camera. After that the clouds came back with cold wind and blowing snow. The Vespera seems to handle 7°F (-14°C). I do leave the Vespera outside for 15 minutes to equilibrate before running the automatic initialization and autofocus. Then when done for the night, put a plastic bag around the Vespera before bringing it inside to minimize condensation.
Daily Electric Energy Used (92.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (2.9 kWh) from Sense. Rain and clouds. Deficit of 90.0 kWh. Once the outside temperatures drop below 10°F, the GeoThermal HVAC system requires additional resistance heating to maintain the inside temperature at 66°F.
powered by Ambient Weather
I spent my first night with the Vespera (automated deep sky camera) capturing images of several objects. I set the Vespera up on a tripod in my back patio which has a view of the sky southeast to southwest, and to the north elevations above the house. Both east and west are blocked by trees. The Vespera is controlled via WiFi by the Singularity app running on an android (or iOS) device. Unfortunately, there is not a Window or web-based app. Also, the WiFi uses an open (not secured) connection between the notepad and Vespera. Once the WiFi connection is established the Singularity app controls the instrument. It takes 10-15 minutes to initialize the Vespera. During this time the camera points to the sky, determines its position and focuses the camera. After that it is just a matter of selecting the objects to view. The Singularity app has the location of several hundred objects (stars, clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and planets) pre-programed in its database along with recommendations for the length of image/data collection.
During the night I captured images of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), Pleiades Cluster (M45), Orion Nebula (M42), an open cluster (NGC 1502), Bode’s Galaxy (M81), Cigar Galaxy (M82), Polaris (North Star), Andromeda Galaxy (M31), a double cluster (NGC 884, NGC 869), Caroline’s Rose Cluster (NGC 7789), Rosette Nebula (NGC 2244), and the Seagull Nebula (IC 2177). I also had it view Jupiter; however, the disk is small, and I was not able to see Jupiter’s moons.
For most of the objects I did short 5-to-10-minute data collections just to get an idea of how the Vespera worked. This was shorter than the times recommended, but still provided decent images. The Vespera camera has a 200 mm focal length, f/4 aperture, and takes 10 second exposures. The camera uses a Sony IMX462 back-illuminated CMOS sensor (1920×1080) optimized for low light capture. The Vespera automatically processes (aligning and stacking) the images. Over time, the signal/noise ratio increases providing improved image quality. The default output from the Vespera is a JPG image every ~10 seconds (integrated stacked composite) displayed on the notepad screen. At the end of the observation the composite raw image can be saved as a TIFF file. The camera also has the ability to store individual raw images (FITS) that can be processed offline using more sophisticated software. The Vespera does not have a port (USB, ethernet) or memory card slot (SD, CF) to download the data collected by the onboard computer. The data needs to be downloaded by FTP via WiFi. The Vespera has 10 GB of onboard memory for storing images. You need to remember to remove/delete images after downloading to free up space for the next night of observations.
For the following images, I processed the final JPG image of the object with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. For the raw TIFF images, I needed to use Capture One Pro first, followed by Topaz AI.
Vespera Deep Sky Observations. JPG images processed with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Vespera Deep Sky Observations. TIF images processed with Capture One Pro followed by Topaz AI. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Daily Electric Energy Used (95.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (19.5 kWh) from Sense. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 76.2 kWh.
powered by Ambient Weather
Birds of the day viewed in the backyard: House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Indoor hydroponic flowers of the day. So far ten different types of poppy flowers. Yellow white, and orange Iceland Poppy (Papaver nudicaule). Double White Poppy (Papaver paeoniflorum). Red (white spots, yellow pollen), Red (black spots, green pollen), and Pink (white spots, yellow pollen) Common/Corn/Flanders/Red Poppy (Papaver rhoeas). Red (white trim), White (pink trim), and Purple Shirley Poppy (Papaver rhoeas).
Iceland Poppies (Papaver nudicaule). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Double White Poppy (Papaver paeoniflorum) Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Red Poppy with white spots and yellow pollen (Papaver Rhoeas). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Red Poppy with black spots and green pollen (Papaver Rhoeas). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Pink Poppy with white spots and yellow pollen (Papaver Rhoeas). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Red Shirley Poppy with white trim and yellow pollen (Papaver Rhoeas). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
White Shirley Poppy with pink trim and yellow pollen (Papaver Rhoeas). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Purple Shirley Poppy with green pollen (Papaver Rhoeas). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Daily Electric Energy Used (63.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (58.7 kWh) from Sense. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 20.2 kWh.
powered by Ambient Weather