Saturday (17-November-2012) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Leonid Meteor Trails.

I had two cameras out all night last night. I captured images of a few Leonid Meteors. I now need to put together some time-lapsed movies of the night sky. It is clear again tonight, so will try again with some different angles.

Late Fall Night Sky and Leonid Meteors Trail over New Jersey. Composite of two images taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 1 min). (David J. Mathre)
Late Fall Night Sky and Leonid Meteors Trail over New Jersey. Composite of two images taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 1 min). (David J. Mathre)
Late Fall Night Sky and Leonid Meteors Trail over New Jersey. 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 Sky and Leonid Meteors Trail over New Jersey. 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 Sky and Leonid Meteors Trail over New Jersey. Images taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 1 min). (David J. Mathre)
Late Fall Night Sky and Leonid Meteors Trail over New Jersey. Images taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 1 min). (David J. Mathre)
Late Fall Night Sky and Leonid Meteors Trail over New Jersey. 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 Sky and Leonid Meteors Trail over New Jersey. 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)

Friday (16-November-2012) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Waxing Crescent Moon at Dusk.

I went out to check if the sky would be clear tonight for the Leonid Meteors, and saw the waxing crescent moon. I took this image with a Leica X2. The camera was set for black & white (natural). Since this camera does record raw (Adobe DNG) images, I was also able to process a color version. Let me know which image you like. Since the sky looks clear, I will have cameras out to capture some meteor images — and don’t expect to get much sleep tonight.

Late Fall Waxing Crescent Moon at Dusk. Image taken with a Leica X2 Camera (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec). In camera B&W. (David J. Mathre)
Late Fall Waxing Crescent Moon at Dusk. Image taken with a Leica X2 Camera (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec). In camera B&W. (David J. Mathre)
Late Fall Waxing Cresent Moon at Dusk. Image taken with a Leica X2 Camera (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec) (David J. Mathre)
Late Fall Waxing Cresent Moon at Dusk. Image taken with a Leica X2 Camera (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec) (David J. Mathre)

Thursday (15-November-2012) — New Jersey

Indoor Autumn Nature in New Jersey: House Pet Returns.

Scutigera Coleoptrata (House Centipede) — Not a Silverfish, one of my creepy crawly house pets appeared again this afternoon. Still waiting on the Drobo upgrade to complete, so spent some time taking macro images — until it got tired of the flash and went away.

Scutigera Coleoptrata (House Centipede) -- Not a Silverfish. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR Macro (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/22, 1/250 sec) with SB-700 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS6. (David J Mathre)
Scutigera Coleoptrata (House Centipede) — Not a Silverfish. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR Macro (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/22, 1/250 sec) with SB-700 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS6. (David J Mathre)

Monday (12-November-2012) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Star Trails and Time-Lapse Video.

Last Night I tried to do some night sky photography. I had to give up after less than 3 hours as clouds moved in. With the images I had I did some star trail images, and a short time-lapsed video including the 15 minute star trail images.

Startrails Late Fall Night Sky in New Jersey. Composite of 175 images taken with a Nikon D800 and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 60 sec) using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
Startrails Late Fall Night Sky in New Jersey. Composite of 175 images taken with a Nikon D800 and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 60 sec) using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)

Sunday (11-November-2012) — New Jersey

Indoor Fall Nature in New Jersey: Moth.

As I was going out to try to do some night sky photography, this large brown moth flew into the house. After getting the camera on the deck going, I took the opportunity to use one of my macro lenses that was along on both of my previous trips, but never used. I also used a SB-910 flash that was along and not used — at least the batteries were still charged. This was all done hand-held while sitting on a ladder to get close. Auto-focus with the D4 even with low light and at f/29 was good.

Moth. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/29, 1/250 sec) with SB-910 flash. (David J Mathre)
Moth. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/29, 1/250 sec) with SB-910 flash. (David J Mathre)