Star Trails - David Mathre Photography

Tuesday (07-January-2025) — New Jersey

Nine-Years Ago Today. Sunset from the deck of the MV World Odyssey. Semester at Sea. (07-Jan-2016, Pacific Ocean)

Animal Tracks in the Snow

We had a couple of inches of snow yesterday. This morning, I went on a walkabout looking for animal tracks in the snow. I found bird, cat, fox, and rabbit tracks. I was especially interested in finding where the gaps in the deer fence were. In the past some of the larger critters (raccoons and possums) have enlarged these holes to the point where the deer finally got through. In those spots I needed to install a bottom section of plastic-coated wire fence to close the gaps. First a video of where a neighborhood cat gets under the front gate. She has used this as a way to escape being chased by a fox.

Cat tracks in the snow where it gets under the front gate. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Cat tracks in the snow. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Rabbit tracks in the snow. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Fox tracks in the snow attempting to cross the pond.. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens — Fox tracks in the snow attempting to cross the pond. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Field mouse tunnel/tracks in the snow. Image taken with a Hasselblad X2d camera and 38 mm f/2.5 lens

Animal Tracks in the Snow. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Animal tracks in the snow used to identify holes in the fence. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Night Sky, Moon, Star Trails, Jet Trails, and Meteor Trails over New Jersey

The night sky started cloud free. I wanted to have the telescopes out but wasn’t really sure how long the sky would remain clear. I set up a Nikon Z9 camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens pointed SSE to monitor the sky. Settings for the camera were 15 mm, ISO 800, f/11, and 120 second exposures using the intervalometer with a 4 second delay between exposures. Composites were created using PhotoShop (scripts, statistics, maximum). First image, the sky was relatively clear for the Vespera Pro telescopes to observe the moon. Second image, an 8-minute segment with a meteor trail. Third image, the sky was relatively clear for the Vespera Pro telescopes to observe M42, the Orion nebula. Fourth image, the full night showing lots of clouds passing. I’ve also included a slideshow with 28-minute star trail segments for the night. At the end there is time-lapse video of the night sky.

Winter Night Sky Star Trails Over New Jersey. Composite of images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens.

Winter Night Sky Star Trails (with a meteor trail) Over New Jersey. Composite of images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens.

Star trails slideshow. Individual images are available in my PhotoShelter gallery.

Wednesday (01-January-2025) — New Jersey

Fourteen-Years Ago Today. Early Morning View of Fitzroy from El Pilaf Hosteria in El Chalten. (01-Jan-2011, Argentina)

Winter Night Sky Over New Jersey.

During the day I got several alerts from the Space Weather Prediction Center indicating that there might be chance for an aurora. There are many sunspots visible during the current Solar Maximum that I have been showing over the last month. I set up several cameras just in case we get a display like we did on 11-October-2024. Unfortunately, I didn’t see evidence of an aurora. In the star trail composite images, I did see lots of jet trails, and a few of the Quadrantids meteors.

Full 360° Night Sky View

For the full sky (360°) view, I used a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens pointed straight up (8 mm, ISO 1600, f/8, 30 sec). The first three images are long composites 19:00-22:35 (some clouds before 20:00), 20:00-22:35 (clouds gone), and 22:38-00:30. There are a set of 30-minute composites in the slide show. And finally, a time-lapse video created using the individual 30 second exposure images. The sky is initially clear, then some passing clouds, and then clear until the camera intervalometer stopped (I must have missed a setting).

Winter Night Sky Star Trails Over New Jersey. Composite 30-minute images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (8 mm, ISO 1600, f/8, 30 sec). The individual images are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Time-lapse video of the 30 second exposures (2K video, 10 images/second)

Night Sky View Looking North

For the view looking north, I used a Hasselblad 907x camera with a 21 mm f/4 lens (ISO 1600, f/8, 32 sec). The star trail images were created using Photoshop (scripts, statistics, maximum). The first three images are long composites 17:45-06:22 (some clouds), the second 19:00-01:59 (no clouds), and the third a high resolution (11656 x 8742) version (no clouds). Next there is a slide show with 30-minute composites for the full night. And finally, a time-lapse video created using the individual 30 second exposure images. The sky is initially clear, then some passing clouds, clear for several hours, more clouds, then clear going into the next morning. View the high resolution (2K) video expanded to full screen in a dark room. Lots of jet trails (no drones) and a few Quadrantids meteors.

Winter Star Trails Looking North Over New Jersey. Composite of images taken with a Hasselblad 907x camera and 21 mm f/4 lens. [17:45-06:22 (some clouds)].

Winter Night Sky Star Trails Looking North. Composite 30-minute images taken with a Hasselblad 907x camera with a 21 mm f/4 lens (ISO 1600, f/8, 32 sec). The individual images are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Time-lapse video of the 30 second exposures (2K video, 10 images/second)

Monday (16-January-2022) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), although not visible to my human eye can be observed with the Stellina or Vespera telescopes. It is high enough above the horizon before dawn to be viewed above my house from the back patio. I use the Sky Live website to get the location of the comet, and then enter the numbers into the Singularity application. Within minutes, both the Stellina and Vespera systems have the comet centered and start taking images.

Comet (C/2022 E3, ZTF). (David J Mathre) — Comet (C/2022 E3, ZTF). Composite of 220 images taken with a Vespera Camera (200 mm, f/4, 10 sec exposures, 36m 40s total exposure). JPEG image processed with Topaz AI then Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)

During the day, I used the Vespera telescope fitted with a solar filter to view the many sunspots currently visible. For solar observations, the Vespera takes individual JPEG images which I put together as a short time-lapse video.

The sky was mostly clear before midnight. Captured images of the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) and the Monkey Head Nebula (NGC 2174). Images from the Stellina were without any filter, and ones from the Vespera used a Dual Band (H-alpha, O III) filter. The filter helps bring out detail with images of nebulae.

For the following images, I processed the final JPG image with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. For the raw TIFF images, I needed to use Capture One Pro first, followed by Topaz AI. Follow the link to my PhotoShelter Gallery for larger views of the images. The nebulae images taken using the dual H-alpha, O-III filter are more vivid.

Stellina and Vespera Deep Sky Observations. JPG images processed with Topaz AI, followed by Capture One Pro. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Stellina and Vespera Deep Sky Observations. TIF images processed with Capture One Pro followed by Topaz AI. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

I also set up two cameras to record star trails. I like the ability of the Hasselblad X2D to take long exposures using the internal camera controls. With the Hasselblad, I used 323 sec (5m 23s) exposures. The Nikon Z9 is limited to 30 sec exposures without using an external shutter controller. The previous Nikon D810a did have the ability to take exposures longer than 30 sec. Clouds started coming in after 22:15.

Star and Jet trails looking south. Images taken with a Hasselblad X2D camera and 30 mm f/3.5 lens (ISO 64, 30 mm, f/8, 323 s). Images processed with Phocus and the composites created using PhotoShop (scripts, statistics, maximum). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Star and Jet trails looking north. Images taken with a Nikon Z9 camera, FTZ adapter, and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 19 mm, f/5.6, 30 s). Images processed with Capture One Pro and the composites created using PhotoShop (scripts, statistics, maximum). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (96.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (35.6 kWh) from Sense. Sunny. Deficit of 60.5 kWh.

Tuesday (18-January-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, White-throated Sparrow, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal.

Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

While taking the trash out, I noticed that the moon was nearly full. Actually one day after the full moon. Since the sky was clear, I also set cameras up to do some star trails. There definitely are more jets flying than one and two years ago. Also a couple of meteor trails. A couple of notes using the Leica Q2 monochrome for composite star trail images. The ISO needs to be 100 and the exposure time no greater than 4 seconds, otherwise a second dark (shutter closed) image is taken and subtracted to remove sensor noise. Also, I wish the camera had an option to connect an external power source so I could take longer sequences.

full moon. (David J Mathre) — Full Moon. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and Sigma 150-600 mm sport lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)

Star Trails. (David J Mathre) — Star and Jet Trails looking South. Composite of 273 images [19:00 – 21:15] taken with a Leica SL2 camera and Loawa 9 mm f/5.6 W-Dreamer lens (ISO 100, 9 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated using PhotoShop (statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)

Day 2 of the Bok Choi seeds sprouting time-lapse videos. First video, images taken every 1 minute for 13 hours 36 minutes then displayed at 12 frames/second. The second video images taken every 1 minute for 5 hours, then displayed at 12 frames/second.

Daily Electric Energy Used (95.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (22.7 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Some sun and a bit warmer outside so the resistance heaters were not needed, but the Geothermal HVAC system was on most of the day. Deficit of 73.0 kWh.

Sunday (12-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Northern Flicker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, European Starling, American Robin, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal.

Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Night sky and star trails using a Leica Q2 Monochrome camera. One limitation is the camera takes a 2nd blank (shutter closed) exposure to subtract out sensor noise anytime the exposure is > 4 seconds or the ISO is > 100. With other cameras from Nikon and Fuji, I am able to turn the long exposure noise reduction off, Also, when taking an interval collecting both DNG and JPG the camera stops collecting images after 5 minutes (60 exposures). When recording DNG images, the camera collects 50 minutes (600 exposures). Images were processed with Capture One Pro, and the star trails created using PhotoShop (statistics, maximum).

Daily Electric Energy Used (53.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (30.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 23.1 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (400 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (128 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 272 kWh.