The galactic centre area of the summer Milky Way in Sagittarius and Scorpius low over McGregor Lake reservoir in southern Alberta on a summer night. Jupiter is the bright object at right to the west of the Milky Way; Saturn is dimmer left, east, of the Milky Way. The sky is blue from the lingering summer solstice twilight. The pink Lagoon, Swan, and Eagle Nebulas show up well, despite this being an unmodified camera. Unfortunately, so does light pollution from towns to the south, primarily Lethbridge. The long exposure smooths the water and blurs the reflections which come from one of the static images. The most southely Messier objects, the star clusters M6 and M7, are just visible in and below the band of clouds. This is a blend of untracked exposures (4 x 1 minute) for the ground, and 4 x 1 minute tracked exposures for the sky, all at ISO 800 with the Nikon D750 and Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.2. Stacking exposures with a mean blend mode smooth noise; the tracking ensures pinpoint stars, but ensuring a sharp foreground requires shooting those exposures with the tracking motor off and blending them later. The tracker was the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer. LENR employed between exposures.
A panorama of a modest display of noctilucent clouds over McGregor Lake reservoir and campsite in southern Alberta on June 29, 2019. This is looking north about midnight on a Saturday night of the Canada Day long weekend. The display faded after this. The stars of Perseus are at right. This is cropped from a 6-segment panorama with the 50mm Sigma lens at f/2.8 and Sony a7III at ISO 400 for 8 seconds each. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
