Night Sky - David Mathre Photography

Four-Years Ago (29-November-2013) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Star Trails Looking West.

Night sky view from the back of the house. This was the first time I did star trail series looking west. The first composite is from 336 images taken between 18:30-23:59 (PM), and the second composite is from 375 images taken between 00:40-05:40 (AM). All taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). There is significant distortion due to the wide-angle lens. I should look at reprocessing the data using the DxO image processing program to remove the distortion.

Star trails looking west (18:20-23:59 PM). Composite of 336 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)

Star trails looking west (00:40-05:40 AM). Composite of 375 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)

Five-Years Ago (16-November-2012) — New Jersey

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

The sky was clear so I put a couple of cameras out with wide-angle lenses to try to capture some Leonid meteor trails.

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)

One-Year Ago (13-November-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Star Trails looking North.

Night sky view from the back of the house. Light from the moon lit up the chimney and the newly installed solar panels on the roof. Also some light clouds moved in during the shoot. The north star isn’t exactly due north. Composite of 130 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/8, 300 sec).

Startrails looking north (light clouds). The north star isn't exactly due north. Composite of 130 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/8, 300 sec). (David J Mathre) — A Startrails looking north (light clouds). The north star isn’t exactly due north. Composite of 130 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/8, 300 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (03-November-2015) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Star and Jet Trails.

Autumn early morning star and jet trails (and six meteor trails if you look closely) . Composite of 96 images taken with a Nikon D810A camera and a 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). Raw images processed with Lightroom (to convert to TIF format), Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC. The images were combined using Photoshop CC Scirpts/Statistics/Maximum. In the past I would have done this with startrails.exe, but now can do it directly within Photoshop CC with the RAW or TIF images, and not have to convert to a JPG image first. I kept the camera pointed low enough so the moon did not get into the image. The temperature got down to freezing, but the lens did not cloud over with dew or frost.

Star and jet trails. Southern view from my backyard. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (11-October-2015) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky — Star and Jet Trails

View looking south from my backyard. Composite of 120 images taken from 20:00 to 23:59 with a Nikon D4 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro. Star trails composite processed using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).