At this time of the year, I often get to see colorful dawn clouds before the sun rises. The following are composites of 41 images showing a 360 degree view of my backyard at dawn transformed into a flat (2D) image. The images were taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec), then processed with Capture One Pro and AutoPano Giga Pro. Some of the images are over 1 GB in size, and even with a Surface Studio Pro 2 computer and dedicated video processor with lots of memory took a long time to process.
Autumn Dawn Clouds. Panorama 360 View. Composite of 41 mage taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Autopano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)Autumn Dawn Clouds. Little Planet View. Composite of 41 mage taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Autopano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)Autumn Dawn Clouds. Little Planet View. Composite of 41 mage taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Autopano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)Autumn Dawn Clouds. Mirror Ball View. Composite of 41 mage taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Autopano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)Autumn Dawn Clouds. Tunnel (Inverse Little Planet) View. Composite of 41 mage taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 15 mm, f/5, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Autopano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Daily Electric Energy Used (78.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (34.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sunny, but cooler outside. Overall a net deficit of 33.7 kWh.
A rather small young doe inside my electric fence. She was wondering why I was pointing a large lens at her. I told her happy Thanksgiving, and we wouldn’t be having venison for dinner.
Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.
Daily Electric Energy Used (69.7 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (23.4 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy all day. Overall a net deficit of 46.3 kWh.
Snow is forcasted for early next week. I finished assembling the DR-Power leaf vacuum and connecting it to my John Deere lawn tractor. I added ~ 1.1 L of 5W 30 Mobil One oil and filled the gas tank. It took a few minutes to start the engine. I am happy I got the electric starter option. Between the noise from the tractor motor and the leaf vacuum motor, I decided I needed to be wearing hearing protection. Even though the grass and leaves were a bit damp, the majority were picked up. I also learned the hard way to check to see if the leaf collector was full. I kept going until the leaves were not being sucked up. Then when I checked found that the trailer was not only full, but over full. Compare the 2nd and 3rd video… It was very difficult to empty the trailer, and I had to dig a good portion out. I managed to collect three trailers full of leaves that are being used to start a new mulch pile. I will go out again tomorrow to finish the job, and to assemble the snow-blower attachment for the DR-Power Field and Brush mower.
Daily Electric Energy Used (74.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (9.4 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy all day. Overall a net deficit of 64.7 kWh.
The first Purple Cornflower flower opened. The plants have many more buds, but have grown to the maximum height (36 inches) in the AeroGarden hydroponic farm. I need to add nearly 2 liters of water + plant food every day to the tray growing the Cornflowers, Plains Coreopsis, and Zinnia plants.
Purple Cornflower Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/16, 1/4 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)Plains Coreopsis Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/16, 1/4 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)Plains Coreopsis Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Daily Electric Energy Used (74.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (9.4 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy all day. Overall a net deficit of 64.7 kWh.
Snow is forcasted for early next week, and I still have some outside end of season projects that need to be completed. While using the DR-Power Field and Brush mower a couple of weeks ago, two bolts holding the disk brake pads fell off. Since it was only the 2nd time I had used the mower, the company sent me replacement parts. I needed to get this fixed so I can install the snow-blower attachment. I also needed to make a custom attachment to connect the DR-Power Lawn Vacuum to my John Deere lawn tractor. They provide a generic attachment that needs to be cut to fit my mower. Some assembly required. I spent the afternoon in the garage working on these two projects and used a Garmin VIRB-360 camera to make a Little Planet view Time-lapse video. Tomorrow, I will connect the lawn tractor to the leaf vacuum and make sure it works.
Daily Electric Energy Used (70.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (30.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Overall a net deficit of 39.5 kWh.
