Skyscape - David Mathre Photography

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)

Friday (20-December-2024) — New Jersey

Fifteen-Years Ago Today. Rainbow over Maui. (20-Dec-2009, Hawaii).

Trolls Out Celebrating the Winter Solstice.

I set up a camera looking out the backdoor window to take images for a time-lapse video of the snow accumulating on a set of Trolls. The prediction was for 2 inches. By morning there was between 4 and 6 inches of accumulation. The snow was light and fluffy. I didn’t need to start up the snow blower to clear a path to the driveway. I just used a battery powered leaf blower.

Trolls Out Celebrating the Winter Solstice. Images taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 55 mm f/2.5 lens (ISO 1600, f/16, 64 sec exposure). One image every 10 minutes.

Apple-Cranberry Crisp

I had some Cranberries and Apples remaining from the last Fairgrown Farm CSA delivery. I used them to make a Crisp using a recipe modified from making an Apple-Pomegranate Crisp.

Sunday (15-December-2024) — New Jersey

Five-Years Ago Today. Indoor Hydroponic Snapdragon Flower. (15-December-2019, New Jersey).

Lights at Night Over New Jersey.

The trolls were keeping watch for drones overnight. The sky was partly cloudy, and it was cold out. Conditions were not good for the telescopes being out for the night. The composite image was taken through a back door window looking south. If you click on the image, you can access a larger (11656 x 6556 pixel) view. Over a four-hour period, there were lots of jet trails, maybe three Geminid meteor trails, and some car lights. No drones were observed.

Trolls Searching for Drones. Composite of 838 images taken with a Hasselblad 907x camera and 21 mm f/4 lens (ISO 400, f/11, 16 sec exposures). Images processed with Photoshop (scripts, statistics, maximum) and Capture One.

Saturday (14-December-2024) — New Jersey

Twelve Years Ago. Late Fall 02:00 to 03:00 AM Sky Star Trail (with stationary anomaly) in New Jersey. (14-Dec-2012)

Silhouettes of Objects Passing in Front of the Sun.

Today, I captured images of a jet with a condensation trail and a bird 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 telescope fitted with a solar filter. The exposure time for solar observations with the Vespera Classic telescope is 250 microseconds (1/4000 sec). The Vespera Classic takes ~51 solar images per minute. Over an hour that amounts to 0.765 seconds (or 0.02% of the time).

Silhouette of a jet with a condensation trail transiting the sun with sunspots. Image taken with a Vaonis Vespera Classic Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.

Silhouette of a bird passing in front of the sun. Image taken with a Vaonis Vespera Classic Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.

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 10.5. The first image is a composite of 32 images (5 min 20 sec) and the second one is a composite of 128 images (21 min 20 sec). In the second image there is some movement of the comet head.