Tag: Autumn

Saturday (03-December-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Time-lapse Video and Star Trails.

It is hard to believe that it is December. I have not posted anything since Thanksgiving. A lot of end of year activities at work, still more to clean up in the yard after the early snow storm, and finally getting caught up with the Drobo external data drive recovery and new Drobo backup. I have a few images taken with the new Nikon 1 V1 camera that I need to go back and post, along with some pros and cons about the new camera.

The sky was clear, so I put two cameras out early this morning after the moon went down for night sky images. These images were used to put together the following time-lapse video.

North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 125 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 125 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 88 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 88 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)

Thursday (24-November-2011) — Pennsylvania

Autumn in Pennsylvania: New Mirrorless Camera (Nikon 1 V1).

I got up early this morning to see how the new Nikon 1 V1 mirrorless digital camera performs. I spent the night reading the manual to get an idea of how to use the camera. As with anything new, you have to use it to really understand its capabilities. I drove to the Lambertville – New Hope bridge for some early dawn images. The Delaware river was up a little over 4 feet in the last day due to all of the rain we got on Tuesday and Wednesday. Still below flood stage but up more than usual. The following image is an old building in New Hope along the Delaware river, taken from across the river in the Lambertville Station parking lot. The Raw image was converted to jpg using Adobe Lightroom 3.6 RC with no additional processing. Note that I had to upgrade from Lightroom 3.5 to the 3.6 Release Candidate in order to be able to see and process the image with Lightroom. More images to follow, and I need to check out if my other Raw image processing programs are able to handle images from this new camera.

Later in the afternoon, I had a great Thanksgiving dinner with neighbors across the street. (Images next post). Right now the camera is outside to see how it performs capturing Night Sky images.

New Hope from Lambertville across the Delaware River. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 and 10-100 mm Lens (ISO 110, 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)
New Hope from Lambertville across the Delaware River. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 and 10-100 mm Lens (ISO 110, 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)

Friday (18-November-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey: Leonid Meteors.

I had two cameras out monitoring the night sky with the hope of catching a Leonid Meteor. Two of the images had small meteor trails. A bit later there was something much brighter. I am not sure if it is a meteor, however it does not have parallel lights or regular strobe flashes like a jet trail. The other possibility would be a satellite trail. The curved trail is due to the fisheye lens. I used DxO to process the image to correct for the fisheye effect (4th/final image).

Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with DxO Pro, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with DxO Pro, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)

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