A 360° panorama of the landscape and skyscape at Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada, taken August 25, 2014. The Milky Way arches overhead from south to north at right, and the last vestiges of twilight light the western sky at left, providing a natural backdrop for the silhouette of the photographer gazing wistfully into the distance! Some green bands of airglow also light the sky, but only a few farm lights from outside the boundaries of the Park mar the landscape in this darkest of Dark Sky Preserves in Canada. I shot this from the Eagle Butte Loop Trail at the end of the 70 Mile Butte road. Sagittarius and the centre of the Galaxy is at far right, the Big Dipper is above the person. This is a sttich of 9 sections, each shot with the 14mm lens in portrait orientation, and each exposure 80 seconds at ISO 3200 at f/2.8, untracked. Stitched with PTGui in equirectangular projection.
A 360° panorama of the spring sky over the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, on March 29, 2019, with the winter Milky Way and constellations setting at centre, and the spring constellations filling the sky at left and right. At centre is also the tapering pyramid-shaped glow of the Zodiacal Light, which continues to the left across the sky as the Zodiacal Band and brightening at far right above the horizon as the Gegenschein. Urban sky glows from Brooks and Calgary mar the horizon with white and yellow glows. Mars is just below the Pleiades at centre in the Zodiacal Light. The panoroma projection stretches out the sky at top near the zenith, so the Big Dipper at right. is distorted. This is a panorama of 12 segments taken with the 14mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750 in portrait orientation, all for 30 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 4000. Taken at 30° spacings. Stitched with PTGui. I added a mild Orton glow effect with Luminar 3 plugin.
A 360° and horizon-to-zenith panorama of the spring sky over the badlands at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, May 25. 2016. I shot this just before moonrise of the waning gibbous Moon. Mars is the bright object right of centre, then near opposition and at its brightest. Jupiter is low at far right, setting with Leo into the west. Saturn is dimmer and just left of Mars with Mars and Saturn above Antares in Scorpius in the south. The summer Milky Way is rising across the east and into the southeast at left. The Andromeda Galaxy is just above the horizon at left of centre. The Summer Triangle stars are at centre. Arcturus is at upper right, with Spica and the stars of Corvus near the foreground hoodoo. The northern sky at left is brightened with twilight glow, despite this being taken at midnight. At this latitude of 51° north the sky never gets fully dark on late spring and early summer nights. One prominent satellite trail, interrupted by the gap between exposures of the frames it was in, is at left, plus the sky has many others! At this time of year they are well lit by the Sun even at midnight. The horizon is marked by light pollution glows from Calgary (far right) and Brooks (near centre). The display building for the Trail of the Fossil Hunters trail is at far left. This is a stitch of 44 panels, taken in 4 tiers of 11 segments each, shot with the motorized iOptron iPano mount, using its Circular mode. I used the 35mm Canon lens at f/2.8 for 30-second exposures with the Canon 6D at ISO 6400. Developed in Camera Raw, stitched with PTGui, and final processing with Photoshop CC 2015. The original is 32,500 by 8,300 pixels.
