Tag: Night Sky

Saturday (30-March-2013) — New Jersey

Backyard Spring Night Sky in New Jersey. Wide Angle Lens Options for Nikon 1 Cameras.

One of the issues I have had with the Nikon 1 “mirrorless” cameras is the lack of wide-angle lens options. The widest angle available with the initial set of lenses was 10 mm f/2.8 prime. This has a 77° field of view (FOV) equivalent to a 27 mm lens on a full-frame (FX) DSLR camera. I like taking wide-angle panorama landscape images when traveling. In order to do this with the Nikon 1 camera requires taking several images and then stitching them together during post-processing. Before going to Norway, I saw a note on the internet that the Olympus FCON-T01 Fisheye converter uses the same 40.5 mm thread that the Nikon 1 10 mm f/2.8 lens uses. The 0.74x adapter increases the FOV to something like 20 mm on a FX DSLR camera. I took this combo with me to Norway, and published an image of Greenland from 36,000 feet using the combo. (19-February-2013).

Since returning from Norway, Nikon released a new wide-angle telephoto lens for Nikon 1 cameras – the 6.7 – 13 mm f/3.5-5.6. At 6.7 mm this lens has a 100° FOV equivalent to a 18 mm lens on a FX DSLR camera. The following three images were taken with the Nikon 1 V2 camera 1) with the 10 mm f/2.8 lens; 2) with the 10 mm f/2.8 lens and the Olympus fish-eye converter; and 3) with the 6.7-13 mm lens at 6.7 mm. The wide-angle image with the 6.7 mm does not have the fish-eye curvature effect. Indeed, when in Norway I found that when I used the Olympus lens I would need to keep the horizon right at the middle of the image. I think that I will be adding the 6.7-13 mm lens to my light-weight travel kit.

Note: Nikon changed the threading on the 6.7-13 mm lens to 52 mm, so I can’t use the Olympus adapter with this lens 😉

New Jersey Early Spring Night Sky with Moon and Clouds. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 160, 10 mm, f/2.8, 10 sec). (David J Mathre)
New Jersey Early Spring Night Sky with Moon and Clouds. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 160, 10 mm, f/2.8, 10 sec). (David J Mathre)
New Jersey Early Spring Night Sky with Moon and Clouds. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 and 10 mm f/2.8 lens + Olympus Fisheye adapter (ISO 160, 10 mm, f/2.8, 10 sec). (David J Mathre)
New Jersey Early Spring Night Sky with Moon and Clouds. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens + Olympus Fisheye adapter (ISO 160, 10 mm, f/2.8, 10 sec). (David J Mathre)
New Jersey Early Spring Night Sky with Moon and Clouds. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 and 6.7-13 mm lens (ISO 160, 6.7 mm, f/3.5, 20 sec). (David J Mathre)
New Jersey Early Spring Night Sky with Moon and Clouds. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 6.7-13 mm lens (ISO 160, 6.7 mm, f/3.5, 20 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (02-January-2011) — Argentina

Gone to See Patagonia 2010/2011. Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 7: Night Sky in Patagonia.

I got up really early before dawn to see the night sky in the southern hemisphere. I’ve wanted to see the Southern Milky Way and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. This was the first time that I saw the Orion constellation upside down. I don’t recognize many of the other stars and southern constellations. Images  while staying at Hosteria El Pilar in El Chalten in Argentina.

Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 30 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 30 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16-35 mm f/4 lens (ISO 400, 28 mm, f/4.5, 58 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16-35 mm f/4 lens (ISO 400, 28 mm, f/4.5, 58 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 58 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 58 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4.5, 58 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4.5, 58 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16-35 mm f/4 lens (ISO 400, 28 mm, f/4.5, 58 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 16-35 mm f/4 lens (ISO 400, 28 mm, f/4.5, 58 sec) (David J Mathre)
Southern Hemisphere Milky Way. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4 G lens (ISO 100, f/4, 50 sec) (David J Mathre)
Southern Hemisphere Milky Way. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 50 mm f/1.4 G lens (ISO 100, f/4, 50 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G (ISO 12800, 50 mm, f/2, 1/15 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night Sky in Patagonia. Hosteria El Pilar, El Chalten, Argentina. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G (ISO 12800, 50 mm, f/2, 1/15 sec) (David J Mathre)

Saturday (15-December-2012) — New Jersey

Late Fall Night Sky Anomaly. Super-Nova or Geminid Meteor Coming at Me?

The sky was clear Thursday night. I had three cameras out to capture Geminid meteor trails. Friday night the sky was also clear, so stayed up again to capture any late Geminid meteor trails. After being up two nights in a row, I really needed to catch up on some sleep. When I started to review the images today, I found an anomaly in the star trail image between 2-3 AM Friday morning. The images for this composite were taken on a Nikon D4 with a 14-24 f/2.8 lens. I have trouble with condensation on this lens and this night was no different and because it was cold frost formed on the center on the lens. The result is that light getting to the center of the image is significantly attenuated. I didn’t expect to see anything in the center area because of the frost — but there was one bright star. The unusual star is actually brighter than Sirius. I went back and reviewed the individual images, and found that this “star” only appeared at 02:19 AM — not before and not after. I checked the images from the other two cameras. The D800 with a 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens covered the same space, and indeed it also captured the same anomaly. I didn’t see any news about a super-nova, so did I capture an image of a Geminid meteor coming right at me? Good thing that they burn up in the atmosphere!!

Late Fall 02:00 to 03:00 AM Sky Star Trail (with anomaly) in New Jersey. Composite of 60 Images taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8G lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec) using Star Trails. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:00 to 03:00 AM Sky Star Trail (with anomaly) in New Jersey. Composite of 60 Images taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8G lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec) using Star Trails. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:18 AM Sky in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8G lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:18 AM Sky in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8G lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:19 AM Sky (with anomaly) in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8G lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:19 AM Sky (with anomaly) in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8G lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:20 AM Sky in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8G lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:20 AM Sky in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 14-24 mm f/2.8G lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:18 AM Sky in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:18 AM Sky in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:19 AM Sky (with anomaly) in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:19 AM Sky (with anomaly) in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:20 AM Sky in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Fall 02:20 AM Sky in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)

Thursday (06-December-2012) — New Jersey

Backyard Late Autumn Early Morning Sky: Last Quarter Moon.

It has been a long, but mainly productive day. I got up very early to get a picture of the last quarter moon. I wanted to try out photography of the moon through a 500 mm telephoto lens using the Nikon 1 V1 camera. Because of the smaller size of the image sensor vs. a 35 mm (FX in the Nikon digital world) the effective field of view with this setup is equivalent to using a 35 mm camera with a 1350 mm lens (~2.7x). Since the N1V1 camera does not have a mirror (the mirror in a DSLR needs to move out-of-the-way when taking pictures) and has an electronic shutter mode — there is no mirror slap or shutter motion when taking pictures. This is important when taking pictures through large telephoto lenses where any motion or vibration will blur the image. I had hopes that this would help to get a sharp image of the moon. One limitation with the N1V1 with the FT1 adapter is that it can only autofocus through the center autofocus sensor. For this image I manually focused the lens (and set the camera to manual focus so it would not try to autofocus before releasing the electronic shutter). I used the remote (IR) shutter release so I would not be adding additional vibration to the system. I was impressed with the result. I did take several images trying different settings, and this was one of the better ones.

Last Quarter Moon, Late Fall in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera, FT1 adapter, and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Last Quarter Moon, Late Fall in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera, FT1 adapter, and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)