Things seem to be aligned near the spring and autumn equinox that the clouds to the east at dawn light up with intense colors. High level smoke dust from the forest fires out west may also be contributing to the colorful displays this year. I’ve been checking early every morning, but the skies were clear. This morning it was different, so I ran out and disturbed the deer in the backyard to get this panorama (11415 x 4520 pixel = 38″ x 15″ print @ 300 dpi) .
Backyard Panorama: Early Autumn Morning Colorful Clouds. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Daily Electric Energy Used (36.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy day. Geothermal HVAC system off. A deficit of 10.4 kWh.
Boxer Day — Dawn and Sunrise at Fort De Soto Park. Every year while visiting Florida I like to go to Fort De Soto Park to view the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at dawn and sunrise. My brother and I got there early, just as the and sky and clouds were starting to show some colors. I set up two cameras on tripods, and one handheld. When we arrived the Skyway bridge piers were still lit up with red overnight lights for the holidays.
Daily Electric Energy Used (52.2 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (31.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Overall a net deficit of 20.4 kWh. Most of the hydroponic gardens were off or only on for fewer hours. Also, the thermostat for the Geothermal heater and hybrid heat pump hot water heater were set for vacation mode.
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.
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.
Colorful dawn from the Lambertville – New Hope bridge over the Delaware River. View from the bridge looking east toward New Jersey. Back when I still worked at the Merck facility in West Point Pennsylvania I crossed this bridge every morning very early trying to avoid traffic on Route 206. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/16). HDR composite from 5 images using Nik HDR Efex Pro.