New Jersey - David Mathre Photography

Wednesday (14-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I went out with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. By sneaking out the backdoor of the garage I was able to catch a pair of Goldfinch feeding on the Sunflowers before they got spooked and flew away. Then lots of Butterflies (Various Skippers, Monarch, Tiger Swallowtail, Silver-spotted Skipper, Pearl Crescent, Painted Lady, Common Buckeye, and ). I have noticed many of the butterflies have ragged wings. Are they just getting old, or escaped being caught by a bird? It has been several days since I have seen a hummingbird moth.

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Daily Electric Energy Used (53.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (29.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The sky was cloudy most of the day (0.04 inches of rain) impacted the solar production. Daily net deficit 23.7 kWh.

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Tuesday (13-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I went out with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 200 mm f/2 OIS lens. Butterflies (Spicebush Swallowtail, Silver-spotted Skipper, Monarch, Painted Lady, Common Buckeye, and Tiger Swallowtail). Bumble Bees on a variety of Sunflowers. Leaf-legged Bug on a Thistle, and an ant on a Bee Balm.

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Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Bee Balm Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (60.3 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. A load of Laundry (3.7 kWh) and two loads in the dishwasher contributed to the increased energy used. The sky was cloudy most of the day (but no measurable rain) impacted the solar production. Daily net deficit 34.8 kWh.

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Monday (12-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Night three trying to capture some of the Perseid Meteor Shower. Again with two cameras out 1) Nikon D810a camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 8 mm, f/4, 8 sec) and 2) Nikon D850 with a 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 19 mm, f/4, 8 sec). The sky was mostly clear, but the moon was bright. After reviewing the images, I did see a few meteor trails. Mainly in the fisheye images where more of the sky was covered.

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Daily Electric Energy Used (56.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (75.2 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Electrical Energy surplus for the day was 19.1 kWh.

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Sunday (11-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Night two trying to capture some of the Perseid Meteor Shower. This time with two cameras out 1) Nikon D810a camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 8 mm, f/4, 8 sec) and 2) Nikon D850 with a 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 19 mm, f/4, 8 sec). After reviewing the images, not must luck. In order to process this many images I have four Surface computers running full time and at full power. By full power, I mean all four cores on the Microsoft Surface Studio 2 (with a dedicated video processor) are running hot — close to 100 °C (45 watts). The computer automatically shuts down if these temperatures are exceeded. The Microsoft Surface Book 2 (with a dedicated video processor) has this bad habit when being stressed to run only on the battery until the battery runs out even though it is plugged into an external power supply. So I had to go back and forth between the four computers to monitor how they were doing. My power usage for the day was nearly 4 kWh larger just because of the extra processing work being done by the computers and servers. Just glad it was a bit cooler outside and the sun was out most of the day to charge the solar panels.

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Daily Electric Energy Used (51.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (77.1 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Just glad that it was cooler outside, even though the sun was out most of the day. Electrical Energy surplus for the day was 25.6 kWh. The weekly stats 384 kWh used, 440 kWh generated for a surplus of 56 kWh.

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Saturday (10-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

The weather forecast indicated the night sky would be relatively clear for a couple of nights. I hope to capture some of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The moon would be out for part of each night, so not ideal conditions. But I figured I would try. I set up a Nikon D810a camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 12 mm, f/4, 8 sec) to capture images all night (2550 images in total). It takes a lot of time to process all of the images for a Time-lapse video, and several Star Trail images. Lots of Jet Trails. How many Meteor Trails do you see? The Time-lapse Video is best viewed in a dark room.

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Daily Electric Energy Used (61.8 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (73.43 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. I needed to clean the oven, and cooked dinner in the oven adding 3.7 kWh to the total used. Daily net surplus 11.6 kWh.