Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Time-lapse Video and Star Trails.
It is hard to believe that it is December. I have not posted anything since Thanksgiving. A lot of end of year activities at work, still more to clean up in the yard after the early snow storm, and finally getting caught up with the Drobo external data drive recovery and new Drobo backup. I have a few images taken with the new Nikon 1 V1 camera that I need to go back and post, along with some pros and cons about the new camera.
The sky was clear, so I put two cameras out early this morning after the moon went down for night sky images. These images were used to put together the following time-lapse video.
North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 125 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 88 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)South View Star Trails. Late Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
Late Autumn Night Sky over New Jersey: Star Trails and Meteor Trails.
Repeat from last night, but at ISO 400. Nikon 1 V1 camera with the 10 mm f/2.8 lens, and the following settings: ISO 400, manual exposure, 30 second exposure, f/2.8, focus infinity (Long exposure NR = off). I used the interval timer, but found that I needed to set the interval to 40 seconds because it takes ~10 seconds to transfer the image from the buffer to the memory card. This is unfortunate, since it leaves a gap if I tried to create stacked star trails (using the Star Trails program). I did manage to catch a few images of meteor trails. The meteor trails were distinct from the many jet trails. The first two were a pair, but faint, the third is caught in two images with the missing section due to the ~10 second delay between images. The late night and early morning images were combined to make a Night Sky time-lapse video.
Meteor Trail captured with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 10 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)Meteor Trail captured with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 10 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)Meteor Trail captured with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 10 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)Meteor Trail captured with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 10 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)
Late Autumn Night Sky over New Jersey: Meteor Trails and Time-lapse Video.
I wanted to see how the new Nikon 1 V1 camera performs doing night sky photography. I set up the camera with the 10 mm f/2.8 lens, and the following settings: ISO 100, manual exposure, 30 second exposure, f/2.8, focus infinity (Long exposure NR = off). I used the interval timer, but found that I needed to set the interval to 40 seconds because it takes ~10 seconds to transfer the image from the buffer to the memory card. This is unfortunate, since it would leave a gap if I tried to create stacked star trails (using the Star Trails program). I did manage to catch an image of a meteor trail early (5:28 AM) in the morning. The late night and early morning images were combined to make a Night Sky time-lapse video.
Meteor Trail captured with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 10 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)
Backyard Autumn Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey: Time-lapse Video and Star Trails.
Wide-angle night sky time-lapse video looking south in New Jersey (~600 1 minute images taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens at 15 mm and f/5.6). The moon was from another night (video taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 telephoto lens). The overall video sequence created using Adobe Premiere Pro.
The images were also combined in groups of 100 using the Star Trails program to create the following south view star trails. The orange background is due to clouds being lit from the towns to the south. In the last two images the moon is visible.
Backyard Autumn Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey: Leonid Meteors.
I had two cameras out monitoring the night sky with the hope of catching a Leonid Meteor. Two of the images had small meteor trails. A bit later there was something much brighter. I am not sure if it is a meteor, however it does not have parallel lights or regular strobe flashes like a jet trail. The other possibility would be a satellite trail. The curved trail is due to the fisheye lens. I used DxO to process the image to correct for the fisheye effect (4th/final image).
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with DxO Pro, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
