Category: Skyscape

Views of the sky. Sunrise, sunset, clouds, and weather

Sunday (10-July-2011) — New Jersey

Summer Backyard Nighttime Sky in New Jersey. Star, Moon, Jet, and Firefly Trails.

A composite of 980 images looking south taken before midnight. I used the Startrails program for creating the  composite.

I had actually gone out to see what type of video I could take of the moon using the D3s camera and a telephoto lens. The moon phase (according to the US Naval Observatory site) is waxing gibbous (76% illuminated). I started by shooting some single images and found that ISO 200, 500 mm, f/8, 1/50 second should be about right. Even though I had the camera set to shoot in manual mode, all of the images of the moon were way over exposed. It didn’t appear that I had manual control while taking the video. I made sure that the ISO setting was fixed (not Auto), that Active D-Lighting was off, and that the white balance was fixed (4000 K). I need to try this again!

Star, Moon, Jet, and Firefly Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14 mm f/2.8D lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/4, 8 sec). Composite of 980 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
Star, Moon, Jet, and Firefly Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14 mm f/2.8D lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/4, 8 sec). Composite of 980 images combined using the Startrails program.

Four-Years Ago (04-July-2007) — Colorado

Summer in Colorado. Railroad to Pikes Peak.

Four years ago on a lark I drove from Boulder to Colorado Springs and then to Manitou Springs to take the Cog Wheeled Railroad to the summit of Pikes Peak. Little did I know that you needed reservations for the cog rail trip to Pikes Peak, and that all trips were sold out for the day. I was very lucky that someone in line before me was unhappy that their party was not all sitting together and turned in their tickets. Once I got on board the train, I realized that I won the lottery since my ticket was for the front seat. This allowed me to set up a tripod and camera to capture images for a time-lapse video for the train ride. So as not to annoy the other passengers on the train I used a small Gitzo travel tripod, my smallest camera body, and a small lens. Going up the mountain I used a 18-200 mm lens at 18 mm. Going down the mountain my seat was now in the rear of the train looking back. For this I used a 10.5 mm fisheye lens. This was a case of being in the right place at the right time!!!

Steam Engine at Pikes Peak Cog Railroad. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 10.5 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Topaz Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Steam Engine at Pikes Peak Cog Railroad. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 10.5 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Topaz Define, and Photoshop CS5.

Four Years Ago (30-June-2007) — Colorado

Summer in Colorado: Rocky Mountain National Park.

Four years ago I drove the recently opened Trail Ridge Road to the pass. At that time I took 5 vertical images with a Nikon D200 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens to be combined into a panorama. At that time the software to combine images for a composite panorama image were just starting to be available (including manually moving layers in Photoshop CS3), and don’t have the capabilities of the programs available today. The first panorama is the composite of 5 raw images using Auto Pano Giga 2.5. The second panorama used Auto Pano Giga with the Neutralhazer plugin (to reduce the effect of long distance haze). The folks from Kolor that created the dehazer claim that the program reduces the effect of light traveling through long distances of air. The third panorama adds the Topaz Detail (Color Jump) filter to the above. Let me know what you think about the three versions.

Rocky Mountain National Park Panorama on Trail Ridge Road. Images taken with a Nikon D200 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/11, 1/160 sec). Composite of five images using Auto Pano Giga 2.5. Additional processing with Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Rocky Mountain National Park Panorama on Trail Ridge Road. Images taken with a Nikon D200 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/11, 1/160 sec). Composite of five images using Auto Pano Giga 2.5. Additional processing with Photoshop CS5.
Rocky Mountain National Park Panorama on Trail Ridge Road. Images taken with a Nikon D200 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/11, 1/160 sec). Composite of five images using Auto Pano Giga 2.5 and the DeHaze Plugin. Additional processing with Focus Magic, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Rocky Mountain National Park Panorama on Trail Ridge Road. Images taken with a Nikon D200 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/11, 1/160 sec). Composite of five images using Auto Pano Giga 2.5 and the DeHaze Plugin. Additional processing with Focus Magic, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5.
Rocky Mountain National Park Panorama on Trail Ridge Road. Images taken with a Nikon D200 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/11, 1/160 sec). Composite of five images using Auto Pano Giga 2.5 and the DeHaze Plugin. Additional processing with Focus Magic, Nik Define, Topaz Detail (Color Jump), and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Rocky Mountain National Park Panorama on Trail Ridge Road. Images taken with a Nikon D200 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/11, 1/160 sec). Composite of five images using Auto Pano Giga 2.5 and the DeHaze Plugin. Additional processing with Focus Magic, Nik Define, Topaz Detail (Color Jump), and Photoshop CS5.

Thursday (30-June-2011) — New Jersey

Summer in New Jersey. Independence Day Fireworks Video.

I finally had a chance to process the DSLR video of the 30-June-2011 Montgomery Township Fireworks display. The Nikon D3s camera is limited to 5 minute HD (720P) video segments. I ended up with three 5 minute segments. I left the in-camera sound recording on to get the sound effects of the fireworks. I also got commentary about the fireworks from a family sitting in front of my tripod. At one point you can hear a train whistle. The other clicking sound is the shutter of my other cameras. I used Adobe Premiere Pro to combine the first and third segments, zoomed in a bit so the firework display takes up more of the image, and increased the volume. I also used Premiere Pro to add a title page to the video.

 

Saturday (18-June-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Night Sky over New Jersey.

I think that this image of the waining gibbous moon with the D3x and 500 mm telephoto lens is sharper that the one I took with the D3x and 600 mm lens of the full moon 15-June-2001. Both were on a Gitzo tripod and Wimberley head, remote shutter, mirror up with 30 sec delay.

Waining Gibbous Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 500 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/4, 1/160 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Waining Gibbous Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 500 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/4, 1/160 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5.