A panorama of the western sky in deep twilight at Reesor Lake in the Cypress Hills of southeast Alberta, in the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, a Dark Sky Preserve. The sky is still deep blue with twilight and the sky to the northwest bright with the last of the sunset glow. The bright object at left to the southwest is the 5-day-old waxing crescent Moon, overexposed. Jupiter is just below the Moon. Spica is below and to the left of the Moon. Arcturus is the bright star at upper left. The Big Dipper is at upper right, distorted slightly due to the equirectangular map projection of the panorama stitching. Polaris is at upper right. Shot from the east end of Reesor Lake, near the dam and causeway over to the campground. This is a 6-panel panorama with the 20mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750, with the camera turned portrait for more vertical coverage. Stitched with PTGui.
This is a 360° panorama of the dawn sky on September 21, 2020 from home in Alberta, with the Zodiacal Light in the east at left, with bright Venus embedded in the Zodiacal Light. Mars, near opposition, is bright and orange at right of centre. The two planets nicely flank the Milky Way and the bright stars of Orion and the winter sky. The summer Milky Way is setting at far right in the northwest. The Big Dipper is at far left to the northeast. The Beehive Cluster, M44, is above Venus; the Pleiades, M45, is at top; while the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is at upper right. Sirius is above the horizon to the south at left of centre. The stars of Leo are just rising amid the twilight below Venus. This is a panorama of 12 segments, at 30° spacing, with the Sigma 14mm Art lens at f/2 (in landscape orientation) and Nikon D750 at ISO 1600, all 30 seconds untracked. Stitched with PTGui. Camera Raw handled it but give no control over the framing. The light pollution from Strathmore and Calgary light the horizon at right. I shot this about 5:30 am just as the sky was brightening with twilight, enough to colour the sky but not wash out the Milky Way and Zodiacal Light, a narrow window of time as the sky changes colour and brightness surprisingly quickly, even at my latitude of 51° N. This was shot on a very clear morning after several days of smoky skies from fires in the western U.S.
A 240° panorama of a dark band of crepuscular rays sweeping across the sky from northwest (at left) at the sunset point to southeast (at right) at the anti-Sun point. The band is a shadow cast by the clouds to the northwest, and in this case appeared all across the sky, diverging away from the sunset point and converging toward the anti-solar point where the nearly Full Moon is about to rise. The shadows arc nearly overhead at the centre of the image. The perspective gives the effect of the shadows looking like a bow in the sky. This is a 6-panel panorama with the Rokinon 12mm lens, handheld, and Nikon D750. Stitched with PTGui.
