Category: Skyscape

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

Two-Years Ago (15-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 11: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

There were lots of storm clouds in the morning. The sun rose under the clouds producing some interesting electric orange colors. Later in the morning we had some rain squalls, but when the sun reappeared the conditions were right for some rainbows. Later that evening a Masked Booby decided to spend the night on the forward deck. Actually, I think after the bird landed, it found out that there was not enough room to take-off again. It is actually a pretty big bird. Before the students could harass it, or try to feed it bread some members of the crew came out with a blanket to cover the bird. They then took it to an aft deck where there was room for it take-off and fly away.



Individual images in the slide-show can be viewed here.



Individual images in the slide-show can be viewed here.



Individual images in the slide-show can be viewed here.

Three-Years Ago (15-January-2015) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Night Sky Over New Jersey — Comet Lovejoy.

It was cold, but very clear out on the night I got some images of Comet Lovejoy. I set up a Nikon D4 camera with a 58 mm f/1.8 lens to take 5 second exposures. Normally, when shooting star trails I go for longer exposures. The comet was visible as a faint, fuzzy blue-green ball. Three different views — still images (with different crops), as star trails, and a time-lapse video


Star Trails and Comet Lovejoy on a cold but clear winter night. The comet is the blue-green fuzzy streek moving from the center to the right of the photograph. Composite of 379 images taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 58 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 800, 58 mm, f/2, 5 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC. (David J Mathre)
Star Trails and Comet Lovejoy on a cold but clear winter night. The comet is the blue-green fuzzy streek moving from the center to the right of the photograph. Composite of 379 images taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 58 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 800, 58 mm, f/2, 5 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC. (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (13-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 9: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

Images from dawn to sunset from the deck of the MV World Odyssey. One thing that I noted on this voyage was the very red color of the sun at sunrise and sunset as we crossed the Pacific ocean. I wasn’t expecting smog in the middle of the ocean. The closer we got to Asia, it became even more pronounced. I normally do not try to take pictures of the sun without a very dark filter, especially through a telephoto lens. However, on this voyage the atmosphere near the horizon became that filter. For the two panorama images there are a few artifacts where the images were stitched together. The image was dark and the ship was moving, and rocking due to the waves and wind.

Orange colored sky and clouds over the Pacific Ocean just after sunrise. Composite of 10 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 35 mm, f/16, 1/250 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and stitched together with AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)
Orange colored sky and clouds over the Pacific Ocean just after sunrise. Composite of 10 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 35 mm, f/16, 1/250 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and stitched together with AutoPano Giga Pro. Click on the image for a wider view. (David J Mathre)



Individual images in the slide-show can be viewed here.



Individual images in the slide-show can be viewed here.



Individual images in the slide-show can be viewed here.