A panorama of the dawn sky to the northeast on July 9, 2020 with Comet NEOWISE at centre in Auriga in the twilight, and Venus and the Pleiades at right, with Venus just above Aldebaran in Taurus. Capella in Auriga is the bright star at top. Some wispy noctiliucent clouds are brightest at left of the lone tree. Luckily, the NLCs stayed away this morning allowing a clear sighting and shot of the comet! I shot this from “One Tree Hill” near home in southern Alberta. It was a very wet morning with lots of ground fog about including in the foreground. Moonlight from the waning gibbous Moon to the south behind the camera lights the foreground. This is a 7-segment panorama with the 50mm Sigma lens at f/4 for 10 seconds each at ISO 200 with the Canon 6D MkII and stitched with PTGui, which thoughtfully strips all the metadata from the image.
A single image of bright noctilucent clouds in the dawn sky over a prairie pond near home in southern Alberta on July 7, 2020, with Venus bright as a “morning star” at right above Aldebaran. Comet NEOWISE was in the scene but hidden behind dark weather clouds here. This is a 1-second exposure at f/2.8 and ISO 100 with the 50mm Sigma lens and Canon 6D MkII.
A 120° panorama of the bright display of noctilucent clouds at dawn on July 7, 2020 from southern Alberta, with the bonus of Comet NEOWISE amid the clouds. Venus is at right, reflected in the slough. The NLCs appeared low on the horizon at first then expanded upwards as the Sun angle below the horizon decreased and more of the clouds lit up. They extended about as far up as shown here, so never reached very high, unlike two mornings earlier when they extended past the zenith. This is a panorama of 8 segments with the 50mm Sigma lens at f/2.8 for 2.5 seconds each and the Canon 6D MkII at ISO 100. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. I shot this from my favourite spiot near home I call Solstice Pond as I often shoot NLCs and solstice twilight scenes here. Though this morning it was more like Solstice Slough. There are some ducks in the distance.
