A passage of the International Space Station high across the north in the late blue hour of twilight, with the stars appearing, though the ISS outshines them all. This was the 5:17 pm pass on December 6, 2018 from southern Alberta, and taken with a fixed camera on a tripod, so the stars are trailing slightly as the rotate about Polaris at lower centre. The view is looking north though the fish-eye lens takes in much of the sky. The Big Dipper skims low across the north at botton. On board was Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques on his third day in space of a 6-month mission. This is a stack of 21 10-second exposures at f/3.5 with the Sigma 8mm lens and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 400. The one-second interval between exposures adds the gaps.
Venus as a morning star and at its greatest brilliancy (or illuminated extent) for this dawn apparition, shining at magnitude -4.9 in the dawn twilight. The star Spica is to the right of Venus. Taken from home on November 30, 2018, the day before the official day of greatest brightness. The waning crescent Moon off camera higher in the sky provides the illumination and the sparkles in the snow. This is a stack of 4 x 6 second exposures for the ground to smooth noise and one 6-second exposure for the sky, all with the Nikon D750 at ISO 800 and Sigma 24mm Art lens at f/2.8. Orton glow effects added to the sky and ground with Luminar and Nik Collection effects. Diffraction spikes on Venus added with Astronomy Tools for artistic effect.
A frosty scene with a snowy and hoar-frost coverered landscape in the evening twilight. Taken November 25, 2018 from home with the Venus Optics 15mm and Sony a7III. Luminar Orton and Nik Collection effects added in post, for a bit of proecessing fun, to make a wintery scene for Christmas card.
