Thursday (26-June-2025) — New Jersey

Montgomery Township New Jersey. Independence Day Fireworks.

I am in the process of transitioning to a new set of photoblog websites. Each with a different subject focus. The Montgomery Township Independence Day fireworks from this year can be viewed here: 26-June-2025.

Montgomery Township Independence Day Fireworks. Images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 100-400 mm VR lens (110 mm, ISO 64, f/11, 8 sec).











Sunday (12-January-2025) — New Jersey

Nine-Years Ago Today. Feral Rooster at Kualoa Regional Park on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. (12-Jan-2016, Semester at Sea)

Silhouettes of Jets and Birds Passing in Front of the Sun.

Today while viewing the sunspots (currently at or near the solar maximum) with a Stellina and Vespera Classic automated telescope, I captured images of jets and birds passing in front of the sun.

Individual images in the slideshow are available in my Photoshelter Gallery.

What I Hope to See Tomorrow — Mars Occultation.

A simulation view created by the Stellarium application of the Mars Occultation by the full Moon tomorrow evening. The difficulty will be the significant difference in the light levels between the full Moon and the planet Mars. The forecast for tomorrow night at the time of the occultation is for a Clear Sky.

Wednesday (08-January-2025) — New Jersey

Nine-Years Ago Today. Crepuscular rays from the deck of the MV World Odyssey. Semester at Sea. (08-Jan-2016, Pacific Ocean)

Silhouette of a Jet Transiting the Sun.

Today, while looking at the sunspots (we are at or near the solar maximum) I captured an image of a jet transiting the sun. This was with a Stellina automated telescope fitted with a solar filter.

Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet.. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5) with a solar filter
Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet. Image taken with a Vaonis Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5) with a solar filter.

Time-lapse video of tree getting in the way of the sun. Images taken with a Stellina automated telescope fitted with a solar filter.

Cold Winter Night Sky.

The forecast for the night was mostly clear. The waxing gibbous moon is getting brighter (69% illuminated). For the first of the night, I programed the “Plan my Night” sequence on the Vespera telescopes to first observe the moon, then later as the moon moves to the west picked some deep sky observation targets in parts of the sky away from the moon. I also set up a Nikon D9 camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens to take a sequence of images of the night sky with the full Vespera family of telescopes in the foreground. These images were then used to create the following time-lapse video. The moon is the bright object. You can watch the Orion constellation travel across the sky. Lots of jet trails, a few passing clouds, and a couple of meteors. Best viewed in the dark and expanded to full scale. Images captured by the telescopes to follow.

Time-lapse video of the Vespera family of telescopes viewing the winter night sky over New Jersey.

Monday (16-December-2024) — New Jersey

Fifteen-Years Ago Today. Surfer Girl at Hookipa Beach Park. (16-Dec-2009, Maui)

Image of the Day.

For the image of the day, I select an image from the past taken on this day of the year. I now have over a million digital images going back to 2006 when I got my first DSLR camera, a Nikon D200 for a cross-country road trip. I have a few other digital images from a Polaroid PDC 700 point and shoot from before 2006.

The “Surfer Girl” image was taken while in Hawaii for a Pacific Chemistry scientific meeting. I had the morning off and went for a drive along the coast. I stopped at Ho’okipa Beach Park and went to a section overlooking the beach. It was windy and there were some big waves. I could see some folks surfing the waves at a distance of 300-400 feet. For the trip, my travel camera was a Nikon D3x with a 70-300 mm zoom lens. At that time the 24-megapixel sensor was state of the art — great for landscapes or portraits with a steady tripod. But it was slow, not really suited for fast moving sports. Maybe 2 shots/second burst rate that quickly filled the buffer. I took a number of shots of the surfers out on the big waves.

It wasn’t till I downloaded the images later that evening that I realized I captured this great shot out of a 15-shot sequence taken over 8 seconds. Having a 24-megapixel image allowed me crop and zoom in on the surfer. I posted a cropped image on my photoblog and on Google+. A print of the image won an award at a Photography Show in Florida. I posted it on my photoblog and on Google+. Later, I found out it ended up in some surfer sites and it had been used in time-share and condo rental advertisements. Probably, my most stolen image.

Below, I show the original image sequence along with reprocessed versions of the sequence with currently available tools. DxO Pure Raw (Camera/Lens correction), Capture One Pro (Levels and High-Dynamic Range), and Topaz AI (sharpening).

Original RAW Image Sequence (2009, NEF)
Image Sequence Processed with Capture One (2024, TIF)
Image Sequence Processed with DxO Pure Raw (2024, TIF)
Image Sequence Processed with DxO Pure Raw and Capture One (2024, TIF)
Image Sequence Processed with DxO Pure Raw, Capture One, and Topaz AI (2o24, TIFF)
Image Sequence Processed with DxO Pure Raw, Capture One, and Topaz AI (2o24, JPEG)

Friday (13-December-2024) — New Jersey

Digital Art. Silhouette of an AI Drone Hovering in front of the Moon. (13-Dec-2024)

Silhouettes of an Airplane, Jets, and a Turkey Vulture Transiting the Sun.

Today, I captured images of an airplane, two jets, and a Turkey Vulture 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 and Vespera Pro automated telescope using solar filters.

Silhouette of a Turkey Vulture 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.
Silhouette of a Turkey Vulture passing in front of the sun. Note I am guessing it is a Turkey Vulture. It could also be a Black Vulture. Image taken with a Vaonis Vespera Classic Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.
Silhouette of an airplane 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.
Silhouette of an airplane 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.
Silhouette of a jet 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 jet transiting the sun with sunspots. Image taken with a Vaonis Vespera Classic Telescope (200 mm, f/4, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.
Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet. Image taken with a Vaonis Vespera Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 1/4000 sec) with a solar filter.
Sun with sunspots and the silhouette of a jet. Image taken with a Vaonis Vespera Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 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 10.4. 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. 

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 32 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 320 sec).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 32 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 320 sec).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 32 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 320 sec).
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). Composite of 32 10 sec images taken with a Vaonis Vespera-Pro Telescope (250 mm, f/5, 320 sec).