Tag: Autumn

Friday (11-October-2024) — New Jersey

Northern Lights Display Visible in New Jersey

On Wednesday, Sunspot AR3848 sent a powerful solar flare directly toward earth. Based on the intensity and length of the coronal mass ejections (CME), NOAA and NASA forecasted that it could cause a severe G-4 class geomagnetic storm, with the possibility of auroras being visible further south than usual. The CME arrived on Thursday generating multiple alerts.

I went outside a little after 7 PM to possibly set up a camera to capture the Northern Lights. I don’t have a good view of the horizon to the north and hoped to see something above the trees. I wasn’t expecting anything this early as it was just dark out. To my amazement the sky looking north was bright red, and when I looked to the east and then south saw the typical aurora green. The display was everywhere, even straight up. It was much brighter than I expected, easily visible to the eye, not just with a digital camera. I wasn’t sure which direction to point the camera. I ended up setting up several cameras with wide angle lenses pointing different directions, including one with a fisheye lens with a 180° view pointing straight up. Each camera was set to take images every 30 seconds (30 second exposure, f/8, ISO 1600). Even though I missed some of the initial brightest display, I left the cameras out for several more hours. They did come back several times. I used the images to create the following time lapse videos.

View Looking North

Camera 1: Northeast (82° Field of View). 19:19-20:21

View Looking East

Camera 2: East (92° Field of View). 19:30-03:00

 

View Looking Up

Camera 3: Up (180° Field of View). 19:48-22:36

View Looking NorthWest

Camera 4: Northwest (104° Field of View). 20:00-01:36

View Looking North

Camera 1: Northeast (75° Field of View). 20:24-03:00

View Looking North

Camera 5: North (114° Field of View). 22:05-04:49

View Looking NorthEast

Camera 6: Northeast (84° Field of View). 22:17-01:09

Individual Images

Star Trails and Northern Lights Over New Jersey. Composite of 304 images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 1600, 8 mm, f/8, 30 sec).

Tuesday (20-December-2022) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

It was clear again overnight. I did three longer observations using the Vespera Observation Station. Crab Nebula (M1, 363 images), Orion Nebula (M42, 907 images). Pinwheel Galaxy (M101, 661 images). For the Orion Nebula observation, I tried the beta Mosaic mode to get a wider image. The sensor size for the Vespera captures a 1.6° x 0.9° field of view. With the Mosaic mode the field of view is up to 4x greater (3.2° x 1.8° = 8.2 Mpx). The longer observation times do provide sharper images with more detail and less noise.

For the following images, I processed the final JPG image with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. For the raw TIFF images, I needed to use Capture One Pro first, followed by Topaz AI.


Vespera Deep Sky Observations. JPG images processed with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Vespera Deep Sky Observations. TIF images processed with Capture One Pro followed by Topaz AI. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (95.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (19.5 kWh) from Sense. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 76.2 kWh.

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Sunday (18-December-2022) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

It was a cold but clear night to try out a Vaonis Vespera Observation Station. This is a digital telescope, without an eyepiece for taking images of objects in the sky. The Vespera is controlled via Wi-Fi by the Singularity app. This allowed control the Vespera from inside a warm house. The Vespera automatically focuses the camera, and automatically tracks the selected object while taking a series of images (10 second exposures). The following image is of the Rosette Nebula (NGC2237-44). This is a composite of 309 images. The composite image was post-processed with Capture One Pro and Topaz Photo AI. I have also included a time-lapse video showing the development of the composite image by the Vespera. More images and comments about the Vespera to follow.

Rosette Nebula (NGC2237-44). (David J Mathre)
NGC2237_44 Rosette Nebula. Composite of 309 images taken with a Vaonis Vespera. Image processed with Capture One Pro and Topaz Photo AI. (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (87.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (22.4 kWh) from Sense. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 64.6 kWh.

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Tuesday (25-October-2022) — New Jersey

Fairgrown Farm CSA Weekly Delivery Box #26.

This week the box contained the following:

Green Tomatoes (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Green Peppers (Fairgrown Farm, Hopewell Township)
Spaghetti Squash (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)
Gold Onions (Cassaday Farms, Monroeville)
Celery (Great Meadows Farm, Lawrenceville)
Frisee (Great Meadows Farm, Lawrenceville)
Bok Choi (Great Meadows Farm, Lawrenceville)

Add on of eggs, fruit, mushrooms:

Eggs (Polnasek Farm, Hillsborough)
Various Apples and Pears
Lion’s Mane Mushroom, Grey Oyster Mushroom, Black Pearl Mushroom, Pioppino Mushroom (Zell’s Farm)


CSA Delivery Box (Week 23). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Tuesday (27-September-2022) — New Jersey

Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Bird of the day viewed in my backyard: Song Sparrow.


Birds of the Day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (43.6 kWh) from Sense. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 7.6 kWh.

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