M63, the Sunflower Galaxy

Messier (M) 63, the Sunflower Galaxy in Canes Venatici in the northern spring sky. This is a fine example of a "flocculent" spiral galaxy with tightly wound and patchy spiral arms. Several small and more distant 14th and 15th magnitude UGC and PGC galaxies are also in the field. This is a stack of 9 x 8-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with the Canon EOS Ra through the Astro-Physics 130mm EDT apo refractor at f/6 with the 6x7 field flattener. One image in the 10-frame sequence had misguiding for some odd reason and was not included in the stack. Taken from home April 30, 2021. Starizona's Galaxy Enhance action applied to M63.

The Perigean Full Moon of April 26, 2021

The close Full Moon, dubbed the Pink Supermoon, of April 26, 2021, with it high in a dark sky and about 2 hours after the moment of actual Full Moon but this was about 10 hours before the Moon reached a close perigee. I've processed this to enhance the contrast and colour differences in the lunar seas, the mare. This is a single image, 1/250 second at ISO 100 with the Canon 6D MkII through the Astro-Physics 130mm EDT refractor with a 2x Barlow for f/12 and 1560mm focal length. Topaz Sharpen AI applied very mildly, as it added artifacts if set too high or on Auto.

The Rising Pink Supermoon of April 26, 2021

The close Full Moon, dubbed the Pink Supermoon, of April 26, 2021, with it rising above my prairie horizon to the southeast this night. The Sun was still up and illuminating the foreground. This is a focus blend of two images — one focused for the distant landscape and one focused for the Moon, each 1/25 second at ISO 100 with the Canon 6D MkII through the Astro-Physics 130mm EDT refractor with a 2x Barlow for f/12 and 1560mm focal length.

Goodbye Winter Sky!

The full array of northern winter stars and constellations, including Orion, setting in the evening twilight at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, on April 20, 2021, so about the last opportunity to shoot the scene for the season. Light from the waxing quarter Moon just off frame at top illuminates the scene, plus the sky is still bright with twilight colours in the west. Orion is just all visible but with Rigel about to set. The Hyades and Pleiades in Taurus are just over the formation at right. Sirius in Canis Major is over the formation at left. Procyon in Canis Minor is at left of centre. Castor and Pollux in Gemini are the two stars at top. Capella in Auriga is at upper right. Perseus is at far right. Mars is dim at centre frame as an "extra star" between Gemini and Auriga. This is a stack of 4 x 30-second tracked exposures for the sky at ISO 800 and 4 x 1-minute untracked exposures for the ground at ISO 200, at f/4 with the 14mm Samyang SP lens on the Canon EOS Ra camera. The tracker was the Star Adventurer 2i. This is not a multi-segment panorama but is a multi-exposure stack. Stacked, masked and blended in Photoshop.

Auroral Arc with Pink Pillars (April 16, 2021)

A classic arc of aurora borealis showing pink pillars and an upper red glow above the main arc. The Kp was 5 this night but with the Bz often north. Early in the evening the aurora appeared as a bright but mostly featureless arc and was visible even in the twilight. This shows the display just before midnight, as it brightened and danced with structure in a brief substorm outburst. A thin STEVE arc appeared shortly afterwards. This is a single 10-second untracked exposure with the TTArtisan 11mm full-frame fish-eye lens wide open at f/2.8 on the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 6400 (the lens is only for mirrorless cameras and does not transmit lens metadata to the camera).

Messier 13 Globular Cluster in Hercules

The globular cluster Messier 13 (M13) in Hercules, with the small galaxy NGC 6207 above it. The very tiny galaxy IC 4617 is just visible between NGC 6207 and M13. M13 is generally considered the finest globular cluster in the northern half the sky (north of the celestial equator). This is a stack of just two images, each 6 minutes at ISO 800 with the Canon EOS Ra and Astro-Physics EDF 130mm f/6 apo refractor with the 6x7 field flattener. The images were the last two in the sequence of 10, and were the sharpest of the set. Earlier images were softer due to poorer seeing?

Panorama of the Milky Way-less Spring Sky (with Labels)

A 360° all-sky panorama of the northern spring sky with the Milky Way as absent from the sky as it can get for the year and from my latitude of 51° N. I shot this April 14/15, 2021 about 12:30 to 1 am MDT with the North Galactic Pole (NGP) in Coma Berenices due south and as high as it gets. So we are looking up out of the plane of the Galaxy, placing the band of the Milky Way along the horizon, visible here only as an arc low across the north at top, where it is obscured by the glow of Northern Lights that appeared this night. South is at bottom; north at top. West is to the right; east to the left. Zenith is at centre. I have added labels to this version. The Big Dipper is directly overhead at the zenith in the centre of the image. Polaris is above centre high in the north, close to the North Celestial Pole (NCP). Arcturus is the brightest star in the spring skly, and is here below centre and below the handle of the Dipper. Spica is at bottom low in the south. Castor and Pollux in Gemini are low in the west, the last of the winter stars setting. Capella in Auriga is at top right in the northwest, circumpolar from my latitude. Regulus in Leo is at bottom right high in the southwest. Flanking Leo are the naked-eye star clusters Melotte 111 (east, left, of Leo) in Coma Berenices, and M44, the Beehive (west, right, of Leo) in Cancer. Vega and Deneb are rising in the east at left, heralding the arrival of the summer stars. The head of Scorpius is just rising low in the southeast at bottom left, but Antares had not yet risen. While the aurora is prominent there was very little airglow banding apparent this night. It was a very clear transparent night. I shot this for book illustrations. This is a multi-segment panorama made of 24 segments (3 tiers of 8 each) for the sky, all tracked on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker, blended with a tier of 8 segments, untracked for the ground, masked in and aligned to the tracked segments. All were 45-second exposures at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. Stitching was with PTGui which required a lot of tedious manual assigning of control points in adjacent images to get sky segments to align. It did not perform well automatically for this scene. And finding matching stars was tough as the spring sky contains so few bright stars and notable patterns to match up. The original is 15,000 pixels square.

Panorama of the Milky Way-less Spring Sky

A 360° all-sky panorama of the northern spring sky with the Milky Way as absent from the sky as it can get for the year and from my latitude of 51° N. I shot this April 14/15, 2021 about 12:30 to 1 am MDT with the North Galactic Pole (NGP) in Coma Berenices due south and as high as it gets. So we are looking up out of the plane of the Galaxy, placing the band of the Milky Way along the horizon, visible here only as an arc low across the north at top, where it is obscured by the glow of Northern Lights that appeared this night. South is at bottom; north at top. West is to the right; east to the left. Zenith is at centre. The Big Dipper is directly overhead at the zenith in the centre of the image. Polaris is above centre high in the north, close to the North Celestial Pole (NCP). Arcturus is the brightest star in the spring skly, and is here below centre and below the handle of the Dipper. Spica is at bottom low in the south. Castor and Pollux in Gemini are low in the west, the last of the winter stars setting. Capella in Auriga is at top right in the northwest, circumpolar from my latitude. Regulus in Leo is at bottom right high in the southwest. Flanking Leo are the naked-eye star clusters Melotte 111 (east, left, of Leo) in Coma Berenices, and M44, the Beehive (west, right, of Leo) in Cancer. Vega and Deneb are rising in the east at left, heralding the arrival of the summer stars. The head of Scorpius is just rising low in the southeast at bottom left, but Antares had not yet risen. While the aurora is prominent there was very little airglow banding apparent this night. It was a very clear transparent night. I shot this for book illustrations. This is a multi-segment panorama made of 24 segments (3 tiers of 8 each) for the sky, all tracked on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker, blended with a tier of 8 segments, untracked for the ground, masked in and aligned to the tracked segments. All were 45-second exposures at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. Stitching was with PTGui which required a lot of tedious manual assigning of control points in adjacent images to get sky segments to align. It did not perform well automatically for this scene. And finding matching stars was tough as the spring sky contains so few bright stars and notable patterns to match up. The original is 15,000 pixels square.

Red Auroral Arc Panorama v2 (April 14, 2021)

A panorama of the auroral arc seen from home in southern Alberta (latitude 51° N) on April 14/15, 2021, showing a very red component above (to the south of?) the main green auroral arc low across the north. At right, it takes on a STEVE-like appearance. Is this an example of a SAR Arc -- a Sub-Auroral Red Arc? A brief sighting of a partial STEVE arc was reported this night but I missed it. The Kp level did go as high as 5 this night. This scene was about 12:30 am MDT April 15, 2021. By coincidence the arc of the Milky Way low across the north parallels the arc of the Northern Lights. Capella is at far left in the northwest; Vega is rising at right of centre in the northeast. This is a stitch of 4 segments, each untracked for 45 seconds at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Red Auroral Arc Panorama v1 (April 14, 2021)

A panorama of the auroral arc seen from home in southern Alberta (latitude 51° N) on April 14/15, 2021, showing a very red component above (to the south of?) the main green auroral arc low across the north. At right, it takes on a STEVE-like appearance. Is this an example of a SAR Arc -- a Sub-Auroral Red Arc? A brief sighting of a partial STEVE arc was reported this night but I missed it. The Kp level did go as high as 5 this night. This scene was at about 12:15 am MDT on April 15. By coincidence the arc of the Milky Way low across the north parallels the arc of the Northern Lights. Capella is at far left in the northwest; Vega is rising at right of centre in the northeast. This is a stitch of 7 segments, each untracked for 30 seconds at f/2.5 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 800. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Messier 106 Galaxy and Companions in Canes Venatici

The large and bright galaxy Messier (M) 106, in Canes Venatici in the northern spring sky. This is a fine example of a spiral galaxy accompanied by many companion galaxies in the galaxy-ruch northern spring sky. At left is the edge-on galaxy NGC 4346; at top right is another edge-on NGC 4220; while at lower right is yet another edge-on NGC 4217 amid a nice field of colourful stars. The galaxy just to the right of M106 is NGC 4248. The faintest galaxies here are about 15th magnitude. This is a stack of 20 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 1600 with the Canon EOS Ra through the Astro-Physics 130mm EDT apo refractor at f/6 with the 6x7 field flattener. Starizona's Galaxy Enhance action applied overall to the image. Taken from home April 14/15, 2021. Slight high haze added some star glows.

The Owl and the Galaxy (M97 and M108)

A portrait of the pairing of the Owl Nebula, M97, with the edge-on spiral galaxy M108, below the Bowl of the Big Dipper. The Owl is a magnitude 9.8 planetary nebula in our galaxy about 1700 light years away, while M108 is another galaxy about 32 million light years away, and shining at magnitude 10. There are many very tiny 15th to 18th magnitude galaxies in the field as well, carrying PGC designations. North is to the left in this framing. This is a stack of 20 x 6-minute exposures with the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 1600, through the Astro-Physics 130mm EDT apo refractor at f/6 with the 6x7 field flattener. Autoguiding was with the MGEN3 stand-alone guider which controlled the camera shutter and performed a 5-pixel dithering move between each exposure. The mount was the AP Mach 1. No dark frames or LENR was applied. Aligning and stacking, with a Median blend mode, was with Photoshop, which worked perfectly on this set. Taken from home on a very clear night on April 13-14, 2021.

Coma Berenices Star Cluster and Galaxies v2

The large star cluster in Coma Berenices known officially as Melotte 111, at right, with two of the most prominent galaxies in Coma at left: NGC 4559 at top and the Needle Galaxy, NGC 4565, at bottom. Several other fainter galaxies are in the field, including NGC 4494 between the Needle Galaxy and the star cluster, but looking very star-like at this image scale. I shot this April 11, 2021 on a fairly clear night as a test of the new SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor telescope and its matching field flattener/reducer. A bit of passing haze added a touch of star glows. There is a version of this same field shot a week earlier in hazy skies with much fuzzier stars. This is a stack of 20 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 800 with the Canon EOS Ra, autoguided on the Astro-Physics Mach 1 mount with the Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone autoguided set to dither 5 pixels between each exposure. No dark frames or LENR were applied. The field of view is about 3.3° x 5°.

Messier 35 and the Jellyfish Nebula

A framing of the area in Gemini containing the large and bright star cluster Messier (M) 35 at right and the curving Jellyfish Nebula, aka IC 443, at left, near the star Propus or eta Geminorum. The small but rich star cluster below M35 is NGC 2158 . The blue reflection nebula above the Jellyfish is IC 444. The Jellyfish is a supernova remnant some 1500 light years away and about 21 light years across. This is a stack of 6 x 8-minute exposures and 8 x 4-minute exposures, all at ISO 800 with the Canon EOS Ra red-sensitive camera, and through the SharpStar 94mm apo refractor at f/4.5 with the EDPH field flattener/reducer. The later shorter exposures were shot with the field getting low in the west and into the murk and light pollution on an early April evening. I shot these as part of testing the new SharpStar 94mm EDPH refractor. No nebula filter was employed here. Luminosity masks with Lumenzia applied as well as a layer of contrast boost applied to the nebulas using the Pro Contrast filter in the Nik Collection Color EFX Pro set of filters. All stacking and blending was with Photoshop. No dark frames taken or applied, just dithering applied between exposures to shift each image by 5 pixels. Auto-guiding, camera control and dithering were with the Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone auto-guider.

Nebulas in Gemini

A portrait of various emission nebulas in southern Gemini and into northern Orion. At top is the bright star cluster Messier 35, with the small more distant open star cluster NGC 2158 below and to the right of it. Left of centre is the shell-like supernova remnant, IC 443, aka the Jellyfish Nebula. The small blue reflection nebula above and to the left of it is IC 444 amid a field of fainter emission nebulosity. The round and bright nebula at bottom is IC 2174 in Orion, aka the Monkeyhead Nebula. It is mostly an emission nebula but has some blue reflection components. The smaller round red nebula above it is Sharpless 2-247. It appears to be an ionized HII region, as a form of bubble, but is not a planetary nebula. So this is a field of various forms of nebulas: emission, reflection and supernova remnants. Missing is an obvious planetary nebula or dark nebula. The orange star to the right of the Jellyfish is Propus, or eta Geminorum. This is a stack and blend of filtered and unfiltered exposures, the latter set maintaining the natural star colours, and avoiding the haloes introduced by the filters, particularly the L-eXtreme. The image is a blend of: 10 x 6 minutes at ISO 800 without a filter + 8 x 12 minutes at ISO 1600 with an Optolong L-eNhance dual narrow-band filter + 6 x 16 minutes at ISO 3200 with the Optolong L-eXtreme vary narrowband filter, the latter set taken at the end of the sequence when the field was quite low. Through masking the L-eXtreme images contributed only some of the nebulosity, particularly the subtle cyan fringes on the leading edges of IC 443 — it is the Oxygen III cyans that the L-eXtreme is good at picking up. All were with the Canon EOS Ra camera and through the SharpStar 76mm triplet apo refractor with the EDPH reducer/flattener for f/4.5. Guiding was with the multi-star Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone auto-guider, which also controlled the camera shutter and performed dithering between each frame to shift each exposure by a few pixels for noise reduction in stacking. All stacking, alignment and blending was with Photoshop v22.3. Some curves were applied with Lumenzia luminosity masks to selectively adjust the mids or dark-mid tones. Nik Collection ColorEFX ProContrast filter applied locally to the nebulas, plus a high pass sharpening, both to further enhance the nebulosity. No darks or LENR frames were employed or applied on this cool but pleasant and very clear and dry late winter night.

STEVE Aurora #4 (March 13, 2021)

An appearance of the STEVE arc on March 13, 2021, here looking east from home in southern Alberta, shot at 11:54 pm MST (the camera clock was 6 minutes slow). This was a hour or so after the main aurora to the north had brightened then faded. STEVE lasted no more than 30 minutes this night. This is a single 10-second shot with the Venus Optics 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 6400.

STEVE Aurora #3 (March 13, 2021)

An appearance of the STEVE arc on March 13, 2021, here looking overhead from home in southern Alberta, shot at 11:51 pm MST (the camera clock was 6 minutes slow). This was a hour or so after the main aurora to the north had brightened then faded. STEVE lasted no more than 30 minutes this night. This is a single 10-second shot with the Venus Optics 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 6400.

STEVE Aurora #2 (March 13, 2021)

An appearance of the STEVE arc on March 13, 2021, here looking west from home in southern Alberta, shot at 11:50 pm MST (the camera clock was 6 minutes slow). This was a hour or so after the main aurora to the north had brightened then faded. STEVE lasted no more than 30 minutes this night. This is a single 10-second shot with the Venus Optics 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 6400.

STEVE Aurora #1 (March 13, 2021)

An appearance of the STEVE arc on March 13, 2021, here looking east from home in southern Alberta, shot at 11:49 pm MST (the camera clock was 6 minutes slow). This was a hour or so after the main aurora to the north had brightened then faded. STEVE lasted no more than 30 minutes this night. This is a single 10-second shot with the Venus Optics 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 6400.

Auroral Arc Panorama (March 13, 2021)

An arc of aurora across the north, taken from home in southern Alberta March 13, 2021 on a night when the STEVE auroral arc appeared about 45 minutes after this was taken whren the main arc shown here had faded. This is a cropped stitch of 9 segments, each 30 seconds at f/2.8 with the Venus Optics 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 1600. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Late Winter/Early Spring Sky 360° Panorama

A 360° all-sky or fish-eye panorama of the late winter and early spring sky from a latitude of 51° N. This was March 13, 2021, from home in southern Alberta. This was a test of new panorama gear, using an Acratech Pan Head on top of a Alyn Wallace/MSM Z-Plate mounted to a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker, to allow taking tracked segments for the panorama, to prevent star trailing. The Z-Plate allowed the Pan Head to mount and move horizontally and vertically in azimuth and altitude despite being on a polar aligned tracker. It worked! This night there was a bright aurora across the northern sky, so I have oriented the view to place due north at bottom. South is at top. High clouds and haze, partly lit by light pollution here, add the natural glows to the stars, emphasizing the bright stars and constellation patterns. No filter was used here. The ground is a stitch of 8 segments shot with the tracker motor off, then blended with a stitch of 20 segments for the sky, in 3 tiers of 8 + 6 + 6 segments, all with the Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.8 and for 1-minute with the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600 for all shots. Stitched with PTGui v12 which at last saves camera metadata when exporting PSD files. The original is 16,000 pixels square.

Late Winter/Early Spring Sky 360° Panorama (with Labels)

A 360° all-sky or fish-eye panorama of the late winter and early spring sky from a latitude of 51° N. This was March 13, 2021, from home in southern Alberta. This was a test of new panorama gear, using an Acratech Pan Head on top of a Alyn Wallace/MSM Z-Plate mounted to a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker, to allow taking tracked segments for the panorama, to prevent star trailing. The Z-Plate allowed the Pan Head to mount and move horizontally and vertically in azimuth and altitude despite being on a polar aligned tracker. It worked! This night there was a bright aurora across the northern sky, so I have oriented the view to place due north at bottom. South is at top. High clouds and haze, partly lit by light pollution here, add the natural glows to the stars, emphasizing the bright stars and constellation patterns. No filter was used here. The ground is a stitch of 8 segments shot with the tracker motor off, then blended with a stitch of 20 segments for the sky, in 3 tiers of 8 + 6 + 6 segments, all with the Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.8 and for 1-minute with the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600 for all shots. Stitched with PTGui v12 which at last saves camera metadata when exporting PSD files. The original is 16,000 pixels square.

Late Winter/Early Spring Sky Panorama with Aurora

A 360° panorama of the late winter and early spring sky with an arc of aurora, from a latitude of 51° N. This was March 13, 2021, from home in southern Alberta. This night there was a bright aurora across the northern sky, so I have oriented the view to place due north just right of centre. The Big Dipper is at right; Leo is rising at far right. The bright winter stars around Orion are at far left to the south. High clouds and haze, partly lit by light pollution here, add the natural glows to the stars, emphasizing the bright stars and constellation patterns. No filter was used here. The yellow arch at left is a band of cloud illuminated by light pollution. This was a test of new panorama gear, using an Acratech Pan Head on top of a Alyn Wallace/MSM Z-Plate mounted to a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker, to allow taking tracked segments for the panorama, to prevent star trailing. The Z-Plate allowed the Pan Head to mount and move horizontally and vertically in azimuth and altitude despite being on a polar aligned tracker. It worked! The ground is a stitch of 8 segments shot with the tracker motor off, then blended with a stitch of 20 segments for the sky, in 3 tiers of 8 + 6 + 6 segments, all with the Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.8 and for 1-minute with the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600 for all shots. Stitched with PTGui v12 which at last saves camera metadata when exporting PSD files. The original is 25,600 pixels wide.

Mars Amid the Taurus Star Clusters

Orange Mars, at centre, between the blue Pleiades (at right) and the large Hyades (at left) star clusters, with orange Aldebaran adorning the Hyades (though it is not a member of the Hyades but a foreground star). The more distant and smaller cluster NGC 1647 is at top left, also in Taurus. This was March 11, 2021. This is a stack of 4 x 4-minute tracked exposures with the Samyang 85mm AF lens at f/2.8 on the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800, with a single exposure of the same length blended in taken through the Kase/Alyn Wallace StarGlow filter to add the star glows! (Though haze moving in was starting to do the job naturally at this time.) The tracker was the Star Adventurer 2i.