A wide panorama of Orion and the winter stars setting on a spring evening at Dinosaur Provincial Park, with the Zodiacal Light rising out of the twilight and distant yellow sky glow to the west at centre. Sirius is at left to the southwest, with Orion setting behind the badlands hill, while the Pleiades is in the Zodiacal Light band at centre, with Mars just below the Pleiades. Perseus, Cassiopeia, and the Andromeda Galaxy are setting at right in the northwest. High haze and aircraft contrails (one at centre) add the natural star glows. The lingering twilight adds the sky colour. This is a 240° panorama stitched from 17 segments, all with the 24mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750 in portrait orientation, each segment 20 seconds at f/1.4 and ISO 3200. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. A mild Orton glow effect was added to the landscape with Luminar 3 plugin.
Orion, Sirius, Taurus, the Pleiades, and the winter sky setting in the spring twilight sky, March 29, 2019, at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. Lingering twilight adds the blue sky naturally, during the last moments of a “blue hour.” This is an HDR and luminosity mask blend of 6 exposures to retain detail in the dark foreground and bright twilight. The sky and stars come from a single exposure, with the exception of a shorter exposure blended in for the bright twilight area. A little unintended light painting from headlights from another visiting photographer painted the hill to the left. All with the Sigma 24mm Art lens and Nikon D750. An soft focus Orton glow effect added to the ground with Luminar plugin. This is a good demo of Rule of Thirds and leading lines composition elements.
R Leporis, aka Hind’s Crimson Star, in Lepus the Hare, and an example of a very red carbon star and long-period variable. This is a stack of 8 x 10-second exposures at ISO 1600 with the Canon 6D MkII and Celestron C9.25 at f/10, taken March 28, 2019 with the field very low and still in the blue twilight. So the stars are not sharp, due to the poor seeing. Diffraction spikes added with Astronomy Tools actions.
