David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Nine-Years Ago Today. But I skipped that day crossing the International Date Line. The statue on the forward upper deck of the MV World Odyssey is holding back the sunburst as we crossed the Date Line. (16-Jan-2016, Semester at Sea)
The forecast for the night was light snow. So, no telescopes out observing for the night. Instead, I had a camera watch out the back door window to observe the Trolls. The camera was set in a fixed apertures mode (f/11) and auto ISO (64-6400) with the shutter speed to vary from 1/100 sec to 32 sec. The time-lapse video was created using PhotoShop and Premier.
Nine-Years Ago Today. Semester at Sea passenger working on a watercolor painting on the deck of the MV World Odyssey. (06-Jan-2016, Pacific Ocean)
We didn’t get much snow. Mostly the winter weather was further south, frustrating January 6th protestors in Washington, D.C. In the following time-lapse video, let me know how many birds you can identify, and how many deer you can see in the far background. The deer are outside of the deer fence.
Five-Years Ago Today. Indoor Hydroponic Snapdragon Flower. (15-December-2019, New Jersey).
The trolls were keeping watch for drones overnight. The sky was partly cloudy, and it was cold out. Conditions were not good for the telescopes being out for the night. The composite image was taken through a back door window looking south. If you click on the image, you can access a larger (11656 x 6556 pixel) view. Over a four-hour period, there were lots of jet trails, maybe three Geminid meteor trails, and some car lights. No drones were observed.
When I woke up 6+ inches of snow already fell during the night. An additional 2 inches fell during the day. The snow finally stopped by 15:00. During the night, a fox was sighted by the infrared video camera off the patio.
Birds of the day on a snowy day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Videos using the Snow Blower, and Red Rover to clear snow from the driveway. The tensioning spring for the PTO belt on the Snow Blower was loose. It was pretty hard to get it back on when the temperature was below 20°F. I needed to use a crow bar to push the belt wheel back far enough to attach the spring.
Daily Electric Energy Used (113.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (0.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. The solar panels were covered with 8+ inches of snow. The suplemental resistance heating kicked on at night as the outdoor temperature dropped below 10°F. Deficit of 113.6 kWh.
Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Blue Jay, House Finch.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Little Planet Time-lapse Videos. Continuing to evaluate the LabPano Pilot EE 360 camera. I found that I can do longer shoots using an external USB-C battery pack. It just needs to be one that can do fast charging. The first time-lapse little planet video was changing the AAA batteries in the solar powered Trolls.
Five of the batteries that were removed, wouldn’t take a charge. With the new batteries, three of the Trolls LED lights were on during the day. They are supposed to charge the batteries when it is light out, and only light up when it gets dark out. All but one of the Trolls lights went on when it got dark out, and they were still on at midnight. Will continue to monitor if they continue to charge during the shorter days, and now that the temperature is dropping below freezing every night.
For the next video, the camera was mounted on Red Rover, and on a tripod in the field. Today’s main project was to prepare and seed some of the back sections. A couple of months ago, the sections were fertilized, rototilled, and then covered with black agricultural fabric (to kill germinating weeds). The wildflower seed vendor recommended to sow the seeds after the first few freezes. Apparently, some seeds germinate better if they are out for some time in the cold. (Just hope the birds and mice don’t eat all of the seeds). Today, the black agricultural fabric was removed, the plot leveled with a drag harrow, seeds sowed, then the seeds pressed down with a water-filled drum roller. The LabPano Pilot EE 360 camera was set for a 20x 4K time-lapse video. The white balance and exposure were set to Auto. In the time-lapse video you can see problems with the white balance and exposure. The lighting conditions kept changing from sunny to cloudy.
Daily Electric Energy Used (69.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (24.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy and cold. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 44.6 kWh.
