Tag: New Jersey

Sunday (02-December-2012) — New Jersey

Late Autumn Indoor Nature in New Jersey: Dead Mouse in the Basement.

A month ago, just after hurricane Sandy I checked to make sure that there wasn’t any water in the basement. I did see that the mouse/rat poison trays were empty. I also saw a large number of Crickets and House Centipedes. I also thought that I saw something moving fast out of the corner of my eye, but couldn’t be sure if it was a mouse. I placed several new poison trays in the basement just to be sure. 30-October-2012 This was the first time that I had been in the basement since going on the Fall 2012 Semester at Sea Voyage and my October road trip to attend the Nikonians ANPAT 12 trip in New Mexico.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been setting up and re-configuring my home office. The label printer I have requires a com port connection to a computer, however neither of my current computers have com ports. I ordered a USB com port converter on Amazon that arrived in 2 days. When I tried to set up the label printer with the new USB com port, the printer didn’t work. Actually, no lights to indicate that it was even getting power. Rather than just throwing the label printer out (note – in New Jersey, I can’t just dump it in the trash – but need to bring it to a recycling center that is only open once a week) I opened it up and found that a fuse was blown. So, where can I find a fuse?

Back to the original story, I went down to the basement to see if I had the right fuse in my electronics parts collection. Sitting on my bench, I found this dead mouse. I guess that the new batch of poison is working. When I took this picture, I also saw that there is a war going on between the crickets and the house centipedes. I think I am going to set up a camera & flash to see if I can get a time-lapsed view of this indoor wildlife conflict.

Well, since I didn’t find the fuse I needed, I ordered one (actually pack of 5) on Amazon. It should get here in two days. We will see if my old “fix it” electronic days still work. Problems with the 20-year-old Yamaha AX-550 Stereo Amplifier for another day.

Dead Mouse in the Basement. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens with a SB-900 flash (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Dead Mouse in the Basement. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens with a SB-900 flash (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec). (David J. Mathre)

Six-Years Ago (25-November-2006) — New Jersey

Backyard Vandalism in New Jersey: The Morning After.

A tree in my backyard decorated with toilet paper the previous night, the brand of toilet paper used, and an empty egg container. The police took a report, but never got back to me other than saying it was probably high school kids with nothing better to do the day after Thanksgiving. I guess I was lucky since I had cameras out in the backyard taking night sky images that were not tripped over or stolen.

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Six-Years Ago (24-November-2006) — New Jersey

Backyard Vandalism in New Jersey. A Tree in my Backyard Decorated with Toilet Paper.

An interesting night six years ago. I set up my Nikon D200 camera with a 10.5 mm fisheye lens to take wide-angle night sky images from my backyard. I actually put the camera quite a way back from the house, because I wanted to have the camera looking north in my back yard so I could see Polaris (the north star) above the roof of my house. I was still early in a learning mode on how to do night skies and star trails (30 second images + 30 second long exposure noise reduction) once every 2 minutes. I started the exposures beginning about 18:30 H (6:30 PM). The EN-EL3e battery used in the D200 camera had about a 2 hour life, especially when it was cold outside. I had to go out to change the battery every ~ hour. A little after 20:00 H (8:00 PM) I realized that a tree in my back yard had been toilet papered. Going through the images taken by the camera, I could tell when it happened. I am just glad that they didn’t trip over and/or take the camera and tripod. This was reported to the local Montgomery Township police, but nothing ever came of the report.

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 18 mm, f/3.5, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 18 mm, f/3.5, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

Time lapsed video of night sky looking north. The images were taken with a Nikon D200 and 10.5 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, f/2.8, 30 sec).

Thanksgiving (22-November-2012) — New Jersey

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. This is an image of three young wild turkeys in my backyard earlier this year.

Young Wild Turkeys. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/4, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Young Wild Turkeys. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 800, 500 mm, f/4, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)

Sunday (18-November-2012) — New Jersey

Backyard Night Sky in New Jersey: Star Trails and Leonid Meteor Trails.

While processing through the images from the other night, I found three (maybe four) Leonid meteor trails in a star trail composite of 35 one minute exposures. The camera was facing south from my deck, and the sky was just starting to get light.

The Drobo disk array upgrade and data backups are finally complete (after almost three weeks). I can now start processing more images from my Fall 2012 Semester at Sea voyage, and the three-week trip to New Mexico and west Texas (including a week with the ANPAT 12 trip).

Late Fall Night Star Trails and Leonid Meteor Trails over New Jersey. Composite of 35 Images taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, 16 mm, f/2.8, 1 min). (David J. Mathre)
Late Fall Night Star Trails and Leonid Meteor Trails over New Jersey. Composite of 35 Images taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, 16 mm, f/2.8, 1 min). (David J. Mathre)