Fourth consecutive night with dark (relative — this is New Jersey) clear skies. This time Night Sky Star Trails with a Nikon D850 camera with a 10.5 mm f/2.8 DX fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). Note a full frame camera with a DX sensor lens, thus some of the sensor is not used. Star Trail composite image created with the jpg “out-of-the-camera” image files using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). A lot fewer jet trails than in previous years. Clouds started coming in during the early morning hours.
Nighttime sky over New Jersey. Composite of images (21:45-04:29) taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 10.5 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)
Night Sky Composite Images (first one 45 min, others 60 min). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Daily Electric Energy Used (36.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (50.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with a few clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 14.2 kWh.
Autumn is coming. Getting colder outside allowing me to open the windows and turn off the Geothermal HVAC system. Third consecutive night with dark (relative — this is New Jersey) clear skies. Repeat Night Sky Star Trails with a Leica SL2 camera with 16-35 mm lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/4, 60 sec). This time portrait mode. Same number of images (152) as last night before the batteries failed. Do wish there was a way to provide external power to the camera for longer overnight sessions. Star Trail composite image created with the jpg “out-of-the-camera” image files using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).
Star Trails looking south from my backyard patio. Composite of 152 image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 16-35 mm lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/4, 60 seconds). JPG images processed with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)
Daily Electric Energy Used (40.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (53.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with a few clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 13.2 kWh. Stove left on boiling water for tea… Or an expensive way to humidify the house.
Taking advantage of several nights with clear skies. For comparison to the Star Trail images yesterday, I set up two high-resolution full-frame cameras to capture the night sky from my patio. 1) Leica SL2 camera with 16-36 mm lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/4, 60 sec). 2) Nikon D810a with 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 200, 11 mm, f/4, 120 sec). The Leica (2 batteries) captured 152 images before running out of power. The outdoor temperature dropped to 36° F. Then Nikon camera (2 batteries) captured 174 images before taking the camera back inside (could have gone on longer). The first two Star Trail composite images were created with the jpg “out-of-the-camera” image files using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). The second two Star Trail composite images were created with the DNG or RAW image files processed with Capture One Pro and then using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).
Star Trails looking south from my backyard patio. Composite of 154 image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 16-35 mm lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/4, 60 seconds). JPG images processed with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)Star Trails looking Up from my backyard patio. Composite of 172 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 200, 11 mm, f/4, 120 seconds). JPG images processed with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)Star Trails looking south from my backyard patio. Composite of 154 image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 16-35 mm lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/4, 60 seconds). DNG images processed with Capture One Pro and PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)Star Trails looking Up from my backyard patio. Composite of 172 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 200, 11 mm, f/4, 120 seconds). RAW images processed with Capture One Pro and PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)
Daily Electric Energy Used (35.8 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (53.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with a few clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 17.8 kWh. Notice the hump in the afternoon solar — has to do with the Sycamore tree shading the roof mid-afternoon
Weekly Electric Energy Used (273 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (337 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More sun this week, and the house open with the Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 64 kWh.
Ricoh Theta Z1 camera set up to capture the night sky from my patio. Two versions of the 360 Equirectangular, 360 Little Planet, and 360 Tunnel view. The first ones processed directly with the jpg files from the Theta Z1 camera. For the second set, the DNG files (dual fisheye) were first processed with Capture One Pro then converted to single 360 Equirectangular 16-bit TIF files. By processing and converting the DNG files to 16-bit TIF files I was able to bring more detail out of the dark shadow areas in the images.
Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Equirectangular 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (jpg) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). Star Trail composite generated with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Little Planet 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (jpg) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). Star Trail composite and Little Planet view created with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum), (image size 1:1, image rotated 180 degrees, filter, distort, polar coordinates). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Inverse Little Planet (Tunnel View) 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (jpg) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). Star Trail composite and Inverse Little Planet view created with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum), (image size 1:1, filter, distort, polar coordinates). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Equirectangular 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (DNG) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). DNG images processed with Capture One Pro, converted to 360 Equirectangular with PTGUI, Star Trail composite generated with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Little Planet 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (DNG) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). DNG images processed with Capture One Pro, converted to 360 Equirectangular with PTGUI, Star Trail composite generated with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). Little Planet view created with PhotoShop CC (image size 1:1, image rotated 180 degrees, filter, distort, polar coordinates). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Inverse Little Planet (Tunnel View) 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (DNG) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). DNG images processed with Capture One Pro, converted to 360 Equirectangular with PTGUI, Star Trail composite generated with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). Tunnel view created with PhotoShop CC (image size 1:1, filter, distort, polar coordinates). (David J Mathre)
Daily Electric Energy Used (35.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (54.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny. Geothermal HVAC system off A surplus of 19.3 kWh. Notice the hump in the afternoon solar — has to do with the Sycamore tree shading the roof mid-afternoon
This was the third night in a row with a clear sky. The moon would rise a hour later. I decided to do star trails again with the Ricoh Theta Z1 360 degree camera. This time I mounted the camera horizontally so one of the fisheye lenses pointed straight up. I wanted to see if this would make a difference with the star trails. Camera settings (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). 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. Interestingly, the camera adjusted the output with a correct horizon. It turned out that the horizontal settings were not as stable (wind jitter?). Fortunately, the PhotoShop CC settings I use to create the composite images (scripts, statistics, maximum) has a setting that tries to align images. Presumably using major common features in all of the images. If you look close, you can see some firefly trails.
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-20:59) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). Without image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum) (DAVID J MATHRE)Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of images (22:00-22:59) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-03:20) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Little Planet View Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-03:20) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-03:20) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Star Trails in one hour segments. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
