Orion rising behind the iconic Hoodoos on Highway 10 east of Drumheller, Alberta, near East Coulee, on a moonless January night, with illumination by starlight and by a nearby yardlight providing some shadows and warmer illumination. Clouds are beginning to move in and are providing the natural star glows. This is a stack of 10 x 10-second exposures for the ground, mean combined to smooth noise, plus one 10-second exposure for the sky to minimize trailing. All at f/2.8 with the 24mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 3200. Taken January 10, 2016.
A horizon to past-the-zenith mosaic and panorama of the northern autumn sky and the related Greek mythological constellations: from the watery constellations of Aquarius, Pisces, and Cetus at the bottom near the horizon, up to Pegasus and Aries in mid-frame, on up to Andromeda and Pegasus at upper left, and Cassiopeia and Cepheus at top of frame in the Milky Way overhead. The Andromeda Galaxy is just above centre. Most of these constellations are related in Greek mythology, with Andromeda being the daughter of Cassiopeia and Cepheus, who was rescued from the jaws of Cetus the Sea Monster by Perseus, who rode on Pegasus in some accounts. Zodiacal Light brightens the sky at bottom right in Aquarius, and angles across the frame to the left. I shot this from home on a very clear night January 2, 2016 with the Zodiacal Light plainly visible to the naked eye. This is a mosaic of 5 panels, each a stack of 5 x 2 minute exposures, plus each panel having another stack of 2 x 2 minute exposures blended in, and taken through the Kenko Softon filter to add the fuzzy star glows to make the constellations stand out. All were shot with the 24mm Canon lens at f/2.8 and Canon 5DMkII at ISO 1600. All tracked on the AP Mach One mount. All stacking and stitching in Photoshop CC 2015. Final image size is 8500 x 5500 pixels and 3.6 gigabytes for the layered master.
A panorama from Cygnus (at right, setting in the western sky in the evening), across the sky overhead in Perseus, Auriga and Taurus, and down into Orion, Canis Major, and Puppis (at left, low in the southern sky at midnight). This panorama covers about 200° of galactic longitude, from 60° in Cygnus to 260° in Puppis and takes in the entire northern swath of the Milky Way visible in autumn and early winter in the northern hemisphere, from the summer Milky Way at right to the winter Milky Way at left. Orion is at lower left, while the Pleiades and Andromeda Galaxy lie near the bottom edge. Canopus is the bright star just rising at far left, in haze. Vega and Altair are just setting at far right. The view here is looking outward to the near edge of the Milky Way, in the direction opposite the centre of the Galaxy. In this direction the Milky Way becomes dimmer and less defined. Notable are the many red H-alpha emission regions along the Milky Way, as well as the many lanes of dark interstellar dust nearby and obscuring the more distant stars. However, a brighter glow in Taurus partly obscures its Taurus Dark Clouds — that’s the Gegenschein, caused by sunlight reflecting off cometary dust particles directly opposite the Sun and marking the anti-solar point this night, by coincidence close to galactic longitude of 180° opposite the galactic centre. This is a panorama of 14 segments, most composed of 5 x 2.5-minute exposures with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600 and 35mm lens at f/2.8. The end segments near the horizon are stacks of 2 x 2.5-minute exposures. The camera was oriented with the long dimension of the frame across the Milky Way, not along it, to maximize the amount of sky framed on either side of the Milky Way. The camera was on the iOptron Sky-Tracker. I shot the segements for his pan from Quailway Cottage, Arizona on December 8/9, 2015, with the end segments taken Dec 10/11, 2015. I decided to add in the horizon segments for completeness and to make a horizon-to-horizon panorama, despite the poorer sky quality near the horizon. Clouds and airglow tint the sky near the horizon and in other regions of the panorama. All stitching with Photoshop CC 2015.
