Orion setting over the iconic Victoria Glacier at Lake Louise, frozen here in March, and with the scene lit by the light of the waxing Moon. I shot this during the few minutes when the star Sirius had just appeared from behind Mount Fairview at left, and just moments before the star Rigel in Orion set behind Mount Victoria. The Hyades and Pleiades in Taurus are at right over Mt. St. Piran and the Beehive. I was several hundred metres out from shore on the frozen lake. This was March 19, 2019. This is a panorama of 3 segments stitched with Adobe Camera Raw, each segment 8 seconds at f/3.5 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 800. Minor adjustments of tonal balance applied with luminosity masks from Lumenzia.
A panorama of Lake Louise in winter, in Banff National Park, Alberta, taken under the light of the waxing gibbous Moon, off frame here to the left. Orion and the winter stars are perfectly placed setting over Victoria Glacier at the end of the frozen lake to the southwest on the Continentral Divide. I was standing on the lake to shoot this, about 300 metres out from shore. Procyon is at left above Mt. Fairview; Aldebaran the Pleiades are at right over Mt. St. Piran and the Beehive. Perseus and Cassiopeia are at far right to the northwest. Cancer (with the Beehive star cluster) and the stars of Hydra are at far right to the south. So there are beehives on either side of the scene! This was March 19, 2019 and such a scene with this illumination and sky is possible only at a waxing gibbous Moon in March, so getting skies as clear as this on the right couple of nights is not common! I waited 30 years to re-capture this scene which I first shot in the later 1980s on 35mm and 6x7 film. But with digital it is now easy to shoot and assemble panoramas. This is a crop from the original 16-segment panorama, each segment with the 24mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750, oriented “portrait” fashion and turned at 15° increments for lots of overlap between segments. Each segment was 8 seconds at f/3.2 and ISO 800. Stitching was with Adobe Camera Raw. The sky gradient is natural — it is brighter to the left toward the Moon and to the right at the point opposite the Moon. It is darker at higher altitude toward the top of the frame. I have not added in an artificial gradient filter.
The winter stars of Orion (centre), Canis Major (left) and Taurus (right) setting at Vermilion Lakes in Banff National Park, on March 18, 2019. Illumination is from moonlight from the waxing gibbous Moon off frame to the left. Sirius and the stars of Orion are reflected in the nearby open water. This is a panorama cropped from a set of 11 images, all with the 24mm Sigma Art lens at f/3.2 for 10 seconds each and the Nikon D750 at ISO 800, in portrait orientation. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. I applied an Orton glow effect to the landscape using Luminar.
