Saturday (13-August-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Perseid Meteor Shower. Conditions for viewing the Perseid Meteors this year were not good. The moon was full with relatively high humidity and some clouds. I set two cameras up to take images overnight, and got maybe three images of meteors. I’ve made a time-lapse movie from the two image sets.

As a side note, I am running out of hard disk space. I could get another WD My Book external drive, but have run out of USB and Firewire ports on my computer. I’m thinking about a Dobro disk array. What ever I do, I also need to maintain an off-site backup copy. I worry about some of the cloud options, both due to cost and the fact that ATT limits me to 5 GB/month of broadband internet access.

Perseid Meteor and Bright Full Moon. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/2.8, 25 sec). (David J Mathre)
Perseid Meteor and Bright Full Moon. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/2.8, 25 sec).
Perseid Meteor. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/4, 29 sec). (David J Mathre)
Perseid Meteor. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/4, 29 sec).

Thursday (11-August-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Multi-Exposure View of the Waxing Gibbous Moon. I went out last night to see about setting up a camera to do some star trails and possibly catch some Perseid meteor trails. I gave up because of the bright  waxing gibbous moon (90% illuminated) and some fast-moving clouds. After midnight, it did clear up long enough to get this multi-exposure view of the moon. I set it up for 2 minutes between exposure. I think I need to go to 2.5 minutes for no overlap for a full moon.

Multi-Exposure of Waxing Gibbous Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 500 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 400, 500 mm, f/4 1/400 sec). Nine images taken at 2 minute intervals. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5.. (David J Mathre)
Multi-Exposure of Waxing Gibbous Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 500 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 400, 500 mm, f/4 1/400 sec). Nine images taken at 2 minute intervals. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5.

Saturday (16-July-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Multi-Exposure Waxing Gibbous Moon — Going Up, Going Down.  A ten exposure image of the waxing gibbous moon going up or down using the in camera multi-exposure function. The exposure times were varied in 1/3 EV increments (1/1000, 1/800, 1/640, 1/500, 1/400, 1/320, 1/250, 1/200, 1/160, 1/125, second). The exposures were taken every 30 seconds and used mirror up to minimize camera/lens vibration.

In Camera Multi-Exposure of Waxing Gibbous Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens + TE-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 400, 1200 mm, f/4 1/1000 to 1/125 in 1/3 EV). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5.. (David J Mathre)
In Camera Multi-Exposure of Waxing Gibbous Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens + TE-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 400, 1200 mm, f/4 1/1000 to 1/125 in 1/3 EV). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5..
In Camera Multi-Exposure of Waxing Gibbous Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens + TE-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 400, 1200 mm, f/4 1/1000 to 1/125 in 1/3 EV). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5.. (David J Mathre)
In Camera Multi-Exposure of Waxing Gibbous Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens + TE-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 400, 1200 mm, f/4 1/1000 to 1/125 in 1/3 EV). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5..

Thursday (14-July-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summer Nighttime Sky over New Jersey.

Waxing gibbous moon with 100% illumination (data from the US Naval Observatory site). The full moon is on the 15th. This month the full moon is known as the “Thunder Moon”. Image taken just after midnight with a Nikon D3s camera and Questar 3.5″ telescope (ISO 1600, ~1500 mm, f/16, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro and Photoshop CS5.

Nearly Full Moon. Image taken with Nikon D3s and Questar 3.5" telescope (ISO 1600, ~1500 mm, f/16, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro and Photoshop CS5 (David J. Mathre)

Thursday (14-July-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

A DSLR video and still image of the July “Thunder Full Moon. These were taken with a Nikon D3s camera and Questar 7” telescope. The moon disk just fits within the D3s sensor, and is clipped in the video. The official full moon is on the 15th, but these images and the video were taken within 4 hours of the full moon on the 14th. I used Adobe CS5 Premiere Pro to edit the video. The digital art version of the full moon was created using Nik Color Efex Pro — Weird Lines Filter.

Thunder Full Moon Digital Art. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and Questar 7 inch telescope (ISO 1600, ~2500 mm, f/16, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Color Efex Pro (Weird Lines) and Photoshop CS5 (David J Mathre)
Thunder Full Moon Digital Art. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and Questar 7 inch telescope (ISO 1600, ~2500 mm, f/16, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Color Efex Pro (Weird Lines) and Photoshop CS5
Thunder Full Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and Questar 7 inch telescope (ISO 1600, ~2500 mm, f/16, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5 (David J Mathre)
Thunder Full Moon over New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and Questar 7 inch telescope (ISO 1600, ~2500 mm, f/16, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5