The Milky Way, often described in mythologies as a river in the sky, shines over the Bow River in Banff National Park on a very clear night in early June. The viewpoint is the famous Morant’s Curve on the Bow Valley Parkway, overlooking the Bow, the CPR rail line following the river, and the peaks of the Continental Divide, including Mt. Temple at right near Lake Louise. The location is named for Nicolas Morant who photographed trains in the Rockies using large format cameras from here when under the employ of the CPR. Mars is the bright object at centre, west of Scorpius with Antares and Saturn, then to the east, the star clouds of the galactic centre region of the Milky Way above the southern horizon, in Sagittarius. The Milky Way extends up into Scutum, Serpens, and Aquila. The sky is not black but a deep blue from the perpetual twilight in the sky in early June (this was June 4, 2016) at this latitude. Some green airglow also discolours the sky. Several satellite trails are in the sky as well. This is a stitch of 9 panels to form a partial panorama, looking south and west, each exposure being 20 seconds at f/2.5 with the 24mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 5000. Shot with the iPano panning unit and stitched with PTGui.
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.
