Tag: Night Sky

Saturday (05-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

With a clear night sky, I decided to try the new Ricoh Theta Z1 360 degree camera to create some star trails. I set the camera up on my back patio (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). The camera can collect 358 raw (DNG) images which corresponds to just under 5 hours at 60 second exposures. The images were processed with PTGUI, Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC to create the following 360 degree Equirectangular Panorama, 360 degree Little Planet View, and 360 degree Tunnel View images. I’ve also included a time-lapse video of the night sky

Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Little Planet). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Little Planet). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View). Composite of 360 images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/3.5, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (43.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (61.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More sun. A surplus of 18.9 kWh.

Wednesday (08-April-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

One day past the Full Moon. Comparison images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens with and without a 2.0x TC-EIII teleconverter. Both images zoomed to project as the same size. To my eye, the one without the teleconverter is sharper.

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
One day after full moon. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 800, 400 mm, f/11, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
alt_title. (David J Mathre)
One day after full moon. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens + 2.0x TC-EIII (ISO 800, 800 mm, f/11, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (56.1 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (59.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sunny with intermittent clouds. A surplus of 3.5 kWh.

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Friday (27-March-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Spring Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

Star Trails looking up and west. Only about an hour with limited clouds. Not many jet trails crossing the western sky as air travel has been significantly curtailed. One meteor trail in the second image.

Star Trails looking up. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 11 mm, f/8, 30 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Star Trails looking up. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 11 mm, f/8, 30 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Star Trails looking up. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 11 mm, f/8, 30 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Star Trails looking up. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 11 mm, f/8, 30 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Star Trails looking west. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 19 mm, f/8, 120 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Star Trails looking west. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 19 mm, f/8, 120 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (61.2 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (71.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Lots of sunshine. A surplus of 10.3 kWh.

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Thursday (30-January-2020) — New Jersey

Wintertime Backyard Night Sky Over New Jersey.

The night sky was clear and I haven’t done star trails for some time (Part 2). I set up a Nikon D810a camera with a 19 mm PC-E lens (ISO 800, 19 mm, f/8, 120 sec) on my patio looking south to collect a series of night sky images. The images were processed with Capture One Pro and the composite star trails created using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). The images were converted to B&W with Capture One Pro.


Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.



Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.


Daily Electric Energy Used (85.6 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (38.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sunny with some clouds developing during the day. A deficit of 46.8 kWh.

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Wednesday (29-January-2020) — New Jersey

Wintertime Backyard Night Sky Over New Jersey.

The night sky was clear and I haven’t done star trails for some time. I set up a Nikon D850 camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 15 mm, f/8, 30 sec) on my patio to collect a series of night sky images. The images were processed with Capture One Pro and the composite star trails created using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).


Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.



Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.


Daily Electric Energy Used (78.2 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (39.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. A sunny day. A deficit of 38.7 kWh.

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