Guests and astronomers doing some stargazing on a fine summer night at the annual Rothney Observatory Milky Way Nights for July 25, 2019. This is looking south when the sky was still deep blue with twilight. Jupiter is the bright object at centre. A single exposure with the Sony a7 III and 15mm Laowa lens at f/2. A Luminar Flex soft glow effect added.
The constellation of Andromeda with its namesake galaxy at centre rising over McGregor Lake in southern Alberta on June 29, 2019, with solstice twilight brightening the sky to the north at left. Cassiopeia is at top left, with Perseus below. Pegasus is at right. This is a stack of 4 x 1-minute exposures for the ground, untracked, and a single 1-minute tracked exposure for the sky. The tracker mistracked for a couple of exposures spoiling the registration, so I used just one image for the sky. All were at ISO 800 with the Nikon D750 and Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.2.
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.
