Night three trying to capture some of the Perseid Meteor Shower. Again with two cameras out 1) Nikon D810a camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 8 mm, f/4, 8 sec) and 2) Nikon D850 with a 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 19 mm, f/4, 8 sec). The sky was mostly clear, but the moon was bright. After reviewing the images, I did see a few meteor trails. Mainly in the fisheye images where more of the sky was covered.
Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow
Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow
Daily Electric Energy Used (56.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (75.2 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Electrical Energy surplus for the day was 19.1 kWh.
Night two trying to capture some of the Perseid Meteor Shower. This time with two cameras out 1) Nikon D810a camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 8 mm, f/4, 8 sec) and 2) Nikon D850 with a 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 19 mm, f/4, 8 sec). After reviewing the images, not must luck. In order to process this many images I have four Surface computers running full time and at full power. By full power, I mean all four cores on the Microsoft Surface Studio 2 (with a dedicated video processor) are running hot — close to 100 °C (45 watts). The computer automatically shuts down if these temperatures are exceeded. The Microsoft Surface Book 2 (with a dedicated video processor) has this bad habit when being stressed to run only on the battery until the battery runs out even though it is plugged into an external power supply. So I had to go back and forth between the four computers to monitor how they were doing. My power usage for the day was nearly 4 kWh larger just because of the extra processing work being done by the computers and servers. Just glad it was a bit cooler outside and the sun was out most of the day to charge the solar panels.
Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.
Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.
Daily Electric Energy Used (51.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (77.1 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Just glad that it was cooler outside, even though the sun was out most of the day. Electrical Energy surplus for the day was 25.6 kWh. The weekly stats 384 kWh used, 440 kWh generated for a surplus of 56 kWh.
The weather forecast indicated the night sky would be relatively clear for a couple of nights. I hope to capture some of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The moon would be out for part of each night, so not ideal conditions. But I figured I would try. I set up a Nikon D810a camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 12 mm, f/4, 8 sec) to capture images all night (2550 images in total). It takes a lot of time to process all of the images for a Time-lapse video, and several Star Trail images. Lots of Jet Trails. How many Meteor Trails do you see? The Time-lapse Video is best viewed in a dark room.
Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slide show.
Daily Electric Energy Used (61.8 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (73.43 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. I needed to clean the oven, and cooked dinner in the oven adding 3.7 kWh to the total used. Daily net surplus 11.6 kWh.
Road Scholar “Photography in the Southwest” Workshop Day 1. Kelly Place & Canyon of the Ancients National Monument.
The first full day of an Road Scholar/Elderhostel photography workshop at Kelly Place — a Bed & Breakfast near Cortez, Colorado. This is a great location in McElmo Canyon, quiet and remote. It borders Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. I was attending the workshop with my Father and Brother. I went out on my own in the morning to take some pictures of Sleeping Ute mountain. After lunch walked around the site to look at some of the historical buildings and then went for a short hike into Canyon of the Ancients National Monument which is right next to Kelly’s Place. After it got dark, I set up a camera to take some star trail images.
Sleeping Ute Mountain and moon panorama on an early winter morning at Kelley’s Place near Cortez, Colorado. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 20 mm, f/16, 1/1.7 sec). (David J Mathre)Window looking out at Sleeping Ute Mountain and wood ladder to the Kiva at Kelley’s Place near Cortez, Colorado. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens and interior fill flash (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/11, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)Wood ladder to the underground Kiva at Kelley’s Place near Cortez, Colorado. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/11, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)Sleeping Ute Mountain and red back-hoe on an early winter morning at Kelley’s Place near Cortez, Colorado. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 22 mm, f/16, 1/10 sec). (David J Mathre)Weeds with morning dew on at Kelley’s Place near Cortez, Colorado. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 130 mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)Old tree on a hill at Kelley’s Place near Cortez, Colorado. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 70 mm, f/16, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)Juniper berries at Kelley’s Place near Cortez, Colorado. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 200, 70 mm, f/11, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)
Larger size images from the slideshow can be viewed and purchased here.
Gone to See Norway 2013. Chasing the Northern Lights. Day 14: Tromsø.
As the wormhole began to open clouds appeared, reducing the intensity of the burning green rays. This provided some cover and protection for earthlings below….
Northern Lights in Tromvik, Norway. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 1000, 16 mm, f/2.8, 15 sec). (David J Mathre)
After leaving the two French Photographers at the Ferry to take them to Finnsnes, I decided to spend the next three nights outside of Tromsø to maximize my chance of viewing and photographing the Northern Lights. There were at least 20 vendors offering trips in Tromsø specifically to view Northern Lights. The most famous one is booked a year in advance (after being featured on a BBC TV program for finding a place to view the Northern Lights when the BBC film crew all but struck out). I eliminated the big tour bus, dinner boat, and dog sled northern light tours, and selected 3 based on recommendations at the Tromsø tourist information center. I am glad that I stopped at the tourist information center when the northbound Hurtigruten voyage stopped in Tromsø as the tours do get booked and fill up in advance. They all claim to find somewhere that is clear with a good chance of seeing northern lights – whether it is along the coast, up a mountain, or all the way to Sweden or Finland. One even tells you to bring your passport along if they do cross the border.
The first trip was “Aurora Photo Tour with Professional Photographer” from Creative Vacations, led by Vidar Dons Lindrupsen. He picked a group of seven up in front of the Blu Radisson Hotel and brought us to his house. There we had a workshop on the basics for successfully capturing Aurora images with a digital camera. Vidar is fluent in several languages. Our group included folks from France, Germany, Brazil, Spain plus myself from the United States. For those that needed, he provided tripods and warm arctic outerwear as we were about to spend the next several hours outdoors photographing the Northern Lights. We stopped at several locations and I got some great images These were some of the best northern light displays that I had ever seen, but probably average for folks that live in this region. When the clouds started to come in and we only were getting diffuse images through the clouds, Vidar served some hot lentil soup — very welcome after standing for several hours in the cold.
First stop was to Ersfjord, Kvaløya (Whale Island). I used a Nikon D800 camera and 24 mm f/1.4 lens. Other than some yellow (sodium) lights from a small village, the sky was very dark. Slide show, star trails, and a time-lapse video. We moved a bit and the band of green crossed the sky. I needed to switch to a wider angle lens — 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye. From the same location I also tried using the Nikon 1 V2 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens to see how Northern Lights would be captured with a smaller digital sensor. The images were rather noisy and needed extra processing with Topaz Define 2. Switched back to the Nikon D800 camera with the 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens in portrait mode
Star Trails and Northern Lights. Chasing the Northern Lights. Ersfjord, Kvaløya (Whale Island). Composite of 148 images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 24 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/1.4, 8 sec). (David J Mathre)
Star Trails. Chasing the Northern Lights. Ersfjord, Kvaløya (Whale Island). Composite of 23 images taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 1600, 16 mm, f/2.8, 15 sec). (David J Mathre)
