Monday (02-December-2024) — New Jersey
Seventeen Years-Ago Today. Big Thompson River, Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. (02-Dec-2007)
Category: Landscape
Views of the land around the world
Friday (11-October-2024) — New Jersey
Northern Lights Display Visible in New Jersey
On Wednesday, Sunspot AR3848 sent a powerful solar flare directly toward earth. Based on the intensity and length of the coronal mass ejections (CME), NOAA and NASA forecasted that it could cause a severe G-4 class geomagnetic storm, with the possibility of auroras being visible further south than usual. The CME arrived on Thursday generating multiple alerts.
I went outside a little after 7 PM to possibly set up a camera to capture the Northern Lights. I don’t have a good view of the horizon to the north and hoped to see something above the trees. I wasn’t expecting anything this early as it was just dark out. To my amazement the sky looking north was bright red, and when I looked to the east and then south saw the typical aurora green. The display was everywhere, even straight up. It was much brighter than I expected, easily visible to the eye, not just with a digital camera. I wasn’t sure which direction to point the camera. I ended up setting up several cameras with wide angle lenses pointing different directions, including one with a fisheye lens with a 180° view pointing straight up. Each camera was set to take images every 30 seconds (30 second exposure, f/8, ISO 1600). Even though I missed some of the initial brightest display, I left the cameras out for several more hours. They did come back several times. I used the images to create the following time lapse videos.
View Looking North
View Looking East
View Looking Up
View Looking NorthWest
View Looking North
View Looking North
View Looking NorthEast
Individual Images
Thursday (27-June-2024) — New Jersey
Independence Day Fireworks
Montgomery Township typically celebrates Independence Day with fireworks several days before the 4th of July. There was some grumbling that the fireworks overlapped the debate. The fireworks were scheduled a long time before the debate. I live near a great location that overlooks the high school where the township holds the Independence Day celebration. It is away from the crowds. I got there just before sunset. One car arrived before me but there was still plenty of space to set up the tripods and cameras. Last year, one camera wasn’t in focus so I spent more time get all of the cameras set up, framed and focused. Confirmed that they all memory cards and full batteries. Also, since the cameras were all on tripods, I made sure that the “vibration reduction/stabilization” was turned off. As it got dark a few fireflies were visible. I set the cameras up as follows: Base ISO (50, 64, or 160), f/11, 8 second exposure. The fireworks started just before 21:25. It took a little bit of time to confirm the framing, focus, and to start the interval timers.
Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Solar Energy Monitor
I use a Sense Home Energy Monitor to record my daily electric energy used (78.7 kWh) and daily solar electric energy produced (71.1 kWh). Mostly sunny and hot with a Water Furnace geothermal system cooling the house. Deficit of 7.6 kWh for the day.
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29-June-2023 (Thursday) — New Jersey
Independence Day Fireworks
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.
Wednesday (21-September-2022) — New Jersey
Summertime Nature in New Jersey.
Flowers of the day viewed in my backyard: Mexican Sunflower.
Flowers of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Now that the “back 40” has been cleared, the pond that has been hidden behind tall brush and weeds is visible. Kermit and his many relatives survived the hot and dry summer.
Kermit the American Bullfrog and his relatives in the back pond. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Daily Electric Energy Used (66.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (46.6 kWh) from Sense. Sunny. Deficit of 20.0 kWh.
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