Landscape - David Mathre Photography

Monday (13-January-2025) — New Jersey

Nine-Years Ago Today. Visible sunspots as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean from the Deck of the MV Odyssey. (13-Jan-2016, Semester at Sea).

Mars Occultation and Wolf Full Moon

The sky was clear, and the Wolf Full Moon rose above the trees to the east in time for the Vespera automated telescopes to be able to view Mars going behind the moon. First a time-lapse video of the Vespera telescopes observing the night sky. It stayed mostly cloud free the entire night observation session. For some of the telescopes I programed the “Plan My Night” script to observe Mars and the others to observe the Moon during the occultation event. This is because the Moon is so much brighter than Mars different image acquisition times are needed in order to see the object without it being overexposed.

Time-lapse Video. Vespera Overnight Observation Session. Mars Occultation and Wolf Full Moon. Best viewed full screen and in a dark room.

The first slideshow is sequence showing the start of the Mars occultation using a Vespera Pro telescope programed to observe and track the Moon. Mars is the tiny disk on the lower left side of the moon. You can see Mars approach and then disappear behind the Moon. The Vespera telescope only records monochrome images when observing the Moon, so Mars is not red.

Slideshow of Mars going behind the Moon. Individual images can be found in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

The second slideshow is sequence showing the Mars occultation using a Vespera Pro telescope programed to observe and track Mars. Mars is the small red disk below the Moon. You can see Mars approach and then disappear behind the Moon. For the other planets Vespera telescope records a color (RGB) images so Mars is red. The image of the moon is overblown, so I reduced the saturation levels.

Slideshow of Mars going behind the Moon. Individual images can be found in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

The third slideshow is sequence showing the end of the Mars occultation using a Vespera Pro telescope programed to observe and track the Moon. Mars is the tiny disk on the lower left side of the moon. You can see Mars approach and then disappear behind the Moon. The Vespera telescope only records monochrome images when observing the Moon, so Mars is not red.

Slideshow of Mars returning from behind the Moon. Individual images can be found in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Tuesday (07-January-2025) — New Jersey

Nine-Years Ago Today. Sunset from the deck of the MV World Odyssey. Semester at Sea. (07-Jan-2016, Pacific Ocean)

Animal Tracks in the Snow

We had a couple of inches of snow yesterday. This morning, I went on a walkabout looking for animal tracks in the snow. I found bird, cat, fox, and rabbit tracks. I was especially interested in finding where the gaps in the deer fence were. In the past some of the larger critters (raccoons and possums) have enlarged these holes to the point where the deer finally got through. In those spots I needed to install a bottom section of plastic-coated wire fence to close the gaps. First a video of where a neighborhood cat gets under the front gate. She has used this as a way to escape being chased by a fox.

Cat tracks in the snow where it gets under the front gate. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Cat tracks in the snow. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Rabbit tracks in the snow. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Fox tracks in the snow attempting to cross the pond.. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens — Fox tracks in the snow attempting to cross the pond. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Field mouse tunnel/tracks in the snow. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Animal Tracks in the Snow. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Animal tracks in the snow used to identify holes in the fence. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Night Sky, Moon, Star Trails, Jet Trails, and Meteor Trails over New Jersey

The night sky started cloud free. I wanted to have the telescopes out but wasn’t really sure how long the sky would remain clear. I set up a Nikon Z9 camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens pointed SSE to monitor the sky. Settings for the camera were 15 mm, ISO 800, f/11, and 120 second exposures using the intervalometer with a 4 second delay between exposures. Composites were created using PhotoShop (scripts, statistics, maximum). First image, the sky was relatively clear for the Vespera Pro telescopes to observe the moon. Second image, an 8-minute segment with a meteor trail. Third image, the sky was relatively clear for the Vespera Pro telescopes to observe M42, the Orion nebula. Fourth image, the full night showing lots of clouds passing. I’ve also included a slideshow with 28-minute star trail segments for the night. At the end there is time-lapse video of the night sky.

Winter Night Sky Star Trails Over New Jersey. Composite of images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens.

Winter Night Sky Star Trails (with a meteor trail) Over New Jersey. Composite of images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens.

Star trails slideshow. Individual images are available in my PhotoShelter gallery.

Wednesday (01-January-2025) — New Jersey

Fourteen-Years Ago Today. Early Morning View of Fitzroy from El Pilaf Hosteria in El Chalten. (01-Jan-2011, Argentina)

Winter Night Sky Over New Jersey.

During the day I got several alerts from the Space Weather Prediction Center indicating that there might be chance for an aurora. There are many sunspots visible during the current Solar Maximum that I have been showing over the last month. I set up several cameras just in case we get a display like we did on 11-October-2024. Unfortunately, I didn’t see evidence of an aurora. In the star trail composite images, I did see lots of jet trails, and a few of the Quadrantids meteors.

Full 360° Night Sky View

For the full sky (360°) view, I used a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens pointed straight up (8 mm, ISO 1600, f/8, 30 sec). The first three images are long composites 19:00-22:35 (some clouds before 20:00), 20:00-22:35 (clouds gone), and 22:38-00:30. There are a set of 30-minute composites in the slide show. And finally, a time-lapse video created using the individual 30 second exposure images. The sky is initially clear, then some passing clouds, and then clear until the camera intervalometer stopped (I must have missed a setting).

Winter Night Sky Star Trails Over New Jersey. Composite 30-minute images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (8 mm, ISO 1600, f/8, 30 sec). The individual images are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Time-lapse video of the 30 second exposures (2K video, 10 images/second)

Night Sky View Looking North

For the view looking north, I used a Hasselblad 907x camera with a 21 mm f/4 lens (ISO 1600, f/8, 32 sec). The star trail images were created using Photoshop (scripts, statistics, maximum). The first three images are long composites 17:45-06:22 (some clouds), the second 19:00-01:59 (no clouds), and the third a high resolution (11656 x 8742) version (no clouds). Next there is a slide show with 30-minute composites for the full night. And finally, a time-lapse video created using the individual 30 second exposure images. The sky is initially clear, then some passing clouds, clear for several hours, more clouds, then clear going into the next morning. View the high resolution (2K) video expanded to full screen in a dark room. Lots of jet trails (no drones) and a few Quadrantids meteors.

Winter Star Trails Looking North Over New Jersey. Composite of images taken with a Hasselblad 907x camera and 21 mm f/4 lens. [17:45-06:22 (some clouds)].

Winter Night Sky Star Trails Looking North. Composite 30-minute images taken with a Hasselblad 907x camera with a 21 mm f/4 lens (ISO 1600, f/8, 32 sec). The individual images are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Time-lapse video of the 30 second exposures (2K video, 10 images/second)

Wednesday (25-December-2024) — New Jersey

Eleven-Years Ago Today. White Christmas – Santa captured bringing in some firewood on a snowy night by a camera with a motion detector. (25-Dec-2013, New Jersey).

Gone to See Antarctica 2014-2015: Day 10: Christmas Day on South Georgia Island

The Hurtigruten MS Fram arrived at South Georgia early in the morning. We were ferried from the ship to the island on Polarcirkel boats (a more comfortable version of the Zodiac boats). We then hiked across the island to Grytviken — an abandoned whaling village to attend Christmas Service at the Whalers Church. This is reported to be the southernmost church. It was prefabricated in Norway and dedicated 104 years ago on Christmas Day. The Christmas service was performed in Norwegian, German, and English. The church has a foot-pumped organ that the ship’s musician used to play Christmas music (as well as “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum). We then spent the remainder of our time on shore investigating the remaining whaling buildings in Grytviken and visiting a King Penguin rookery just outside of the village.

Hikers from the Hurtigruten MS Fram going to attend Christmas Service at the Whalers Church at Grytviken in South Georgia. Image taken with a Leica T camera and 18-56 mm lens (ISO 100, 30 mm, f/16, 1/160 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 8, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC 2014. (David J Mathre)

King Penguins. Individual images are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Seals. Individual images are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Saturday (21-December-2024) — New Jersey

Ten-Years Ago Today. Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) on New Island. (21-Dec-2014, Falkland Islands)

Winter Solstice Walkabout after the Snowstorm.

The snow ended and the sky cleared soon after sunrise. I set up the telescopes to observe the sun then went for a walkabout around the yard. The snow was a light powder that I was able to easily clear the driveway with a leaf blower. The tractor and the snow blower are ready but weren’t needed this time.

Images taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)

The comet is getting fainter and the tail much shorter. You may need to look closely; the comet is in the center of the frame. The magnitude is now 10.9. The slideshow displays the 32nd, 64th, 128th, and 256th stacked composite image (5 min 20 sec, 10 min 40 sec, 21 min 20 sec, 42 min 40 sec). In the last two images there is some movement of the comet head.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Images taken with a Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, composites of 10 sec exposures). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery