A busy evening sky, with the two brightest planets, Venus (below) and Jupiter (above) shining in the western twilight, while the Space Station flies up from the west from botton to top, and a bright Iridium satellite flares across the frame at top. The Iridium flare appears through the Sickle of Leo, with the star Regulus below. This is a stack of 28 images taken as part of a time-lapse sequence, at a large interval to accommodate longer exposures later in the night, thus th elarge gaps in the satellite trails. The background sky (stars and planets) comes only from one frame to keep the stars and planets as pinpoints and not trailed. The ground comes from 8 of the frames, mean combined as a stack to smooth noise. Taken June 7, 2015 from southern Alberta, with the Nikon D750 and Sigma 24mm Art lens, at ISO 1600 and f/2.8 for 2.5 seconds each.
A star trail scene in the summer twilight, taken June 7, 2015 from southern Alberta, over an old farm house near home. The brightest trail at right is from Venus, to the left of it is Jupiter. Various satellites, including the International Space Station, provide the other dashed streaks. The twilight of near summer solstice provides the deep blue sky. This is a stack of 300 frames taken for a time-lapse sequence but stacked here into a single image using the Advanced Stacker Actions Photoshop plug-ins. The ground is from one frame from the beginning of the sequence when the sky and ground were brighter. Most frames were 6 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 800 with the Nikon D750 and Sigma 24mm lens.
A pass of the International Space Station in the brightening twilight of dawn, on the morning of June 1, 2015, with the gibbous Moon setting to the southwest at right. The view is looking south, with the ISS travelling from right (west) to left (southeast) over several minutes. This was the last pass of a 4-pass night, May 31/June 1, starting at 3:55 am MDT this morning. This is a composite stack of 144 exposures, each 2 seconds at f/2.8 with the 15mm full-frame fish-eye and ISO 3200 with the Canon 6D. The gaps are from the 1-second interval between exposures. The length of the trails and gaps reflects the changing apparent speed of the ISS as it approaches, passes closest, then flies away. I stacked the exposures with the Advanced Stacker Actions from StarCIrcleAcademy.com, using the Lighten mode. The ground comes from a Mean blend of just 8 of the exposures to prevent shadows from blurring but to smooth noise.
