Travel - David Mathre Photography

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 of images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens. 19:00-22:35

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)

Saturday (28-December-2024) — New Jersey

Fourteen-Years Ago Today. Yellow Flower in front of a Locked Vault. Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. (28-Dec-2010, Argentina)

Gone to See Antarctica 2014/2015: Day 13 – At Sea on the Hurtigruten MS Fram in the South Atlantic Ocean

The wind and waves were not as bad as the Hurtigruten MS Fram continued traveling south and west from South Georgia to Antarctica. Still not many folks were up and around either in the observation deck or in the dining rooms. I didn’t take any sea-sick medication and was doing fine as long as I kept eating the meals and could view the horizon. The ship’s musician was playing Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” on the piano in observation deck in the background during this short video clip recorded on a Leica T camera.

Friday (27-December-2024) — New Jersey

Thirteen-Years Ago Today. Alligator with its Jaw Wide Open. Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. (27-Dec-2011, Florida)

Gone to See Antarctica 2014/2015: Day 12 – At Sea on the Hurtigruten MS Fram in the South Atlantic Ocean

Short videos from the observation deck of the Hurtigruten MS Fram of the sea conditions while traveling between South Georgia and Antarctica. I didn’t get seasick but remember that there were not many folks in the dining room. I did notice that my GPS track for the day had about six times as many data points from all of the rocking and rolling. We were going into some really heavy head winds, which reduced the speed of the ship from about 15 knots to 7 knots.

Wednesday (25-December-2024) — New Jersey

Eleven-Years Ago Today. White Christmas – Santa captured bringing in some firewood on a snowy night by a camera with a motion detector. (25-Dec-2013, New Jersey).

Gone to See Antarctica 2014-2015: Day 10: Christmas Day on South Georgia Island

The Hurtigruten MS Fram arrived at South Georgia early in the morning. We were ferried from the ship to the island on Polarcirkel boats (a more comfortable version of the Zodiac boats). We then hiked across the island to Grytviken — an abandoned whaling village to attend Christmas Service at the Whalers Church. This is reported to be the southernmost church. It was prefabricated in Norway and dedicated 104 years ago on Christmas Day. The Christmas service was performed in Norwegian, German, and English. The church has a foot-pumped organ that the ship’s musician used to play Christmas music (as well as “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum). We then spent the remainder of our time on shore investigating the remaining whaling buildings in Grytviken and visiting a King Penguin rookery just outside of the village.

Hikers from the Hurtigruten MS Fram going to attend Christmas Service at the Whalers Church at Grytviken in South Georgia. Image taken with a Leica T camera and 18-56 mm lens (ISO 100, 30 mm, f/16, 1/160 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 8, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC 2014. (David J Mathre)

King Penguins. Individual images are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Seals. Individual images are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Monday (23-December-2024) — New Jersey

Sixteen-Years Ago Today. Osprey in flight with a fish. Fort DeSoto Park. (23-Dec-2008, Florida).

Stellina has Returned from a round trip to France.

The Vaonis Stellina automated telescope arrived back today after a trip to France to repair the camera sensor. The instrument was still under warranty so the only cost was a getting shipping fly case so the telescope would be protected while in transit. I dropped the package off at a local UPS store on the 11th and it arrived back today. The sun was shining so I set it up on a tripod and tested it with a solar observation. Clouds are forecasted for tonight, so I will need to wait to check it out at night. Hopefully, the comet will still be visible.

Sun with sunspots. Image taken with a Stellina Telescope (400 mm, f/5)

Silhouettes of Jets and Geese Transiting the Sun.

Today, I captured images of a flock of geese and several jets 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. One of the jets had a trailing condensation trail that continued in front of the sun for 12 additional images (~15 seconds)

Flock of geese 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, 1/714 sec) with a solar filter.

Jet with condensation trail passing in front of the sun. Images captured with a Vespera Classic telescope fitted with a solar filter. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery