Red Aurora from Dinosaur Park (August 29, 2021)

A dim red and green aurora from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, on August 29/30, 2021. There were expectations of a bigger display this night, but litte came to pass! Capella is rising at centre; Perseus is at top right. This is a stack of 4 exposures for the ground to smooth noise and one exposure for the sky, all 30 seconds at f/2.8 with the Canon 15-35mm RF lens at 25mm and the Canon R6 at ISO 4000.

Aurora from Home (August 24, 2021)

A mild display of Northern Lights in the moonlight, from home in southern Alberta, August 24, 2021. This is a single 15-second exposure with the 15-35mm RF lens at f/2.8 and 20mm, on the Canon R6 at ISO 800.

Perseid Meteor Shower over Dinosaur Park

A composite showing about three dozen Perseid meteors accumulated over 3 hours of time, compressed into one image showing the radiant point of the meteor shower in Perseus. This was August 12, 2021, from The Trail of the Fossil Hunters trailhead lot in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. A dim magenta aurora is visible to the northeast at left. Cassiopeia is at centre above the radiant point; the Andromeda Galaxy is just right of centre. Capella is rising at left. Airglow also tints the sky. This is a blend of: a single 30-second exposure for the background sky, one with the aurora at its most active, such as it was this night, with a stack of 8 x 30-second exposures for the ground to smooth noise. Then 32 x 30-second exposures for the individual meteors (a couple of frames have two meteors on them) are overlaid with Lighten blend mode onto the base sky image, each with masks to reveal just the meteors. All frames were with the Canon R6 at ISO 6400 and with the TTArtisan 11mm fish-eye lens at f/2.8. The camera was on a static tripod, not tracking the sky, so I hand-rotated all the meteor frames around Polaris at upper left, to bring them into close alignment to the base sky image, so the positions of all the meteors are close to their actual positions in the starfield when they appeared. A couple of exceptions were the meteors at bottom which appeared in Taurus, below the horizon at the time the sky image was taken, so those meteors are moved up artificially. ON1 NoNoise applied to the sky image. Ground illumination is from starlight.

Aurora and Distant NLCs (June 11-12, 2021)

A display of Northern Lights low across the northeast, with a very distant and low showing of noctilucent clouds (NLCs) to the north along the northern horizon at left. These would have been far to the north of me. This was about 1 am MDT. This is a single 30-second shot with the 21mm TTArtisan lens at f/2.8 and Canon R6 at ISO 1600. Taken from the field at home.

Aurora from Home on June 10, 2021

A mild aurora with the glow of perpetual solstice twilight across the north, on the night of June 10/11, 2021. Taken with the TTArtisan 21mm lens as part of testing.

SAR Arc of Red Aurora (May 11-12, 2021)

An auroral arc at left across the northern horizon with a faint red SAR — Stable Auroral Red — arc to the east. The SAR arc was not visible to the eye. The camera was the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra so that helped pick up the dim deep red glow. The wide lens captures the broad sweep of the summer Milky Way rising, arcing from NE at left to SE at right, with the galactic core area at far right. This is a single tracked exposure for 2 minutes at f/2.8 with the TTArtisan 11mm full-frame fish-eye lens, on the EOS Ra at ISO 1600, and on the MSM tracker.

Arc of Green and Red Aurora (May 11-12, 2021)

A green auroral arc across the northern horizon with faint red components above, with a touch of blue as well. The red glow forms a very dim red arc high across the north which is likely a SAR — Stable Auroral Red — arc. It became more prominent a few minutes later when the main arc died down in intensity. The camera was the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra so that helped pick up the dim deep red glow. The wide lens captures the full sweep of the auroral arc from NW at left to NE at right. This is a single untracked exposure for 30 seconds at f/2.8 with the TTArtisan 11mm full-frame fish-eye lens, on the EOS Ra at ISO 3200.

Aurora from Home (April 18, 2021) #2

A horizon aurora at Kp4 or so, from home in southern Alberta on April 18, 2021, with the waxing Moon providing the illumination. It had snowed the day before. A single 10-second shot at f/2 with the Venus Optics 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 1600.

Aurora from Home (April 18, 2021) #1

A horizon aurora at Kp4 or so, from home in southern Alberta on April 18, 2021, with the waxing Moon providing the illumination. A single 6-second shot at f/2 with the Venus Optics 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 1600.

Auroral Arc with Pink Pillars (April 16, 2021)

A classic arc of aurora borealis showing pink pillars and an upper red glow above the main arc. The Kp was 5 this night but with the Bz often north. Early in the evening the aurora appeared as a bright but mostly featureless arc and was visible even in the twilight. This shows the display just before midnight, as it brightened and danced with structure in a brief substorm outburst. A thin STEVE arc appeared shortly afterwards. This is a single 10-second untracked exposure with the TTArtisan 11mm full-frame fish-eye lens wide open at f/2.8 on the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 6400 (the lens is only for mirrorless cameras and does not transmit lens metadata to the camera).

Aurora with Camera Shooting (April 16, 2021)

Shooting the aurora during the display on April 16-17, 2021, with the Sony a7III and 15mm Laowa lens.

Aurora Selfie #2 (April 16, 2021)

An aurora selfie taken during the display on April 16-17, 2021, with the Sony a7III and 15mm Laowa lens. I am operating the Canon EOS Ra which was taking still images. I used the Sony this night mostly to do 4K movies.

Aurora Selfie #1 (April 16, 2021)

An aurora selfie taken during the display on April 16-17, 2021, with the Sony a7III and 15mm Laowa lens.

Auroral Arc with Blue Components (April 16, 2021)

A classic arc of aurora borealis showing upper level blue and magenta components to the arc and a blue ray at left (not to be confused with the reddish lens flare from the Moon just off frame at the upper left edge). The Kp was 5 this night but with the Bz often north. This was early in the evening when the aurora appeared as a bright but mostly featureless arc and was visible even in the twilight. It did brighten and dance with structure about midnight. This is a single 30-second untracked exposure with the TTArtisan 11mm full-frame fish-eye lens wide open at f/2.8 on the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 1600 (the lens is only for mirrorless cameras and does not transmit lens metadata to the camera).

Panorama of the Milky Way-less Spring Sky (with Labels)

A 360° all-sky panorama of the northern spring sky with the Milky Way as absent from the sky as it can get for the year and from my latitude of 51° N. I shot this April 14/15, 2021 about 12:30 to 1 am MDT with the North Galactic Pole (NGP) in Coma Berenices due south and as high as it gets. So we are looking up out of the plane of the Galaxy, placing the band of the Milky Way along the horizon, visible here only as an arc low across the north at top, where it is obscured by the glow of Northern Lights that appeared this night. South is at bottom; north at top. West is to the right; east to the left. Zenith is at centre. I have added labels to this version. The Big Dipper is directly overhead at the zenith in the centre of the image. Polaris is above centre high in the north, close to the North Celestial Pole (NCP). Arcturus is the brightest star in the spring skly, and is here below centre and below the handle of the Dipper. Spica is at bottom low in the south. Castor and Pollux in Gemini are low in the west, the last of the winter stars setting. Capella in Auriga is at top right in the northwest, circumpolar from my latitude. Regulus in Leo is at bottom right high in the southwest. Flanking Leo are the naked-eye star clusters Melotte 111 (east, left, of Leo) in Coma Berenices, and M44, the Beehive (west, right, of Leo) in Cancer. Vega and Deneb are rising in the east at left, heralding the arrival of the summer stars. The head of Scorpius is just rising low in the southeast at bottom left, but Antares had not yet risen. While the aurora is prominent there was very little airglow banding apparent this night. It was a very clear transparent night. I shot this for book illustrations. This is a multi-segment panorama made of 24 segments (3 tiers of 8 each) for the sky, all tracked on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker, blended with a tier of 8 segments, untracked for the ground, masked in and aligned to the tracked segments. All were 45-second exposures at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. Stitching was with PTGui which required a lot of tedious manual assigning of control points in adjacent images to get sky segments to align. It did not perform well automatically for this scene. And finding matching stars was tough as the spring sky contains so few bright stars and notable patterns to match up. The original is 15,000 pixels square.

Panorama of the Milky Way-less Spring Sky

A 360° all-sky panorama of the northern spring sky with the Milky Way as absent from the sky as it can get for the year and from my latitude of 51° N. I shot this April 14/15, 2021 about 12:30 to 1 am MDT with the North Galactic Pole (NGP) in Coma Berenices due south and as high as it gets. So we are looking up out of the plane of the Galaxy, placing the band of the Milky Way along the horizon, visible here only as an arc low across the north at top, where it is obscured by the glow of Northern Lights that appeared this night. South is at bottom; north at top. West is to the right; east to the left. Zenith is at centre. The Big Dipper is directly overhead at the zenith in the centre of the image. Polaris is above centre high in the north, close to the North Celestial Pole (NCP). Arcturus is the brightest star in the spring skly, and is here below centre and below the handle of the Dipper. Spica is at bottom low in the south. Castor and Pollux in Gemini are low in the west, the last of the winter stars setting. Capella in Auriga is at top right in the northwest, circumpolar from my latitude. Regulus in Leo is at bottom right high in the southwest. Flanking Leo are the naked-eye star clusters Melotte 111 (east, left, of Leo) in Coma Berenices, and M44, the Beehive (west, right, of Leo) in Cancer. Vega and Deneb are rising in the east at left, heralding the arrival of the summer stars. The head of Scorpius is just rising low in the southeast at bottom left, but Antares had not yet risen. While the aurora is prominent there was very little airglow banding apparent this night. It was a very clear transparent night. I shot this for book illustrations. This is a multi-segment panorama made of 24 segments (3 tiers of 8 each) for the sky, all tracked on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker, blended with a tier of 8 segments, untracked for the ground, masked in and aligned to the tracked segments. All were 45-second exposures at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. Stitching was with PTGui which required a lot of tedious manual assigning of control points in adjacent images to get sky segments to align. It did not perform well automatically for this scene. And finding matching stars was tough as the spring sky contains so few bright stars and notable patterns to match up. The original is 15,000 pixels square.

Red Auroral Arc Panorama v2 (April 14, 2021)

A panorama of the auroral arc seen from home in southern Alberta (latitude 51° N) on April 14/15, 2021, showing a very red component above (to the south of?) the main green auroral arc low across the north. At right, it takes on a STEVE-like appearance. Is this an example of a SAR Arc -- a Sub-Auroral Red Arc? A brief sighting of a partial STEVE arc was reported this night but I missed it. The Kp level did go as high as 5 this night. This scene was about 12:30 am MDT April 15, 2021. By coincidence the arc of the Milky Way low across the north parallels the arc of the Northern Lights. Capella is at far left in the northwest; Vega is rising at right of centre in the northeast. This is a stitch of 4 segments, each untracked for 45 seconds at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Red Auroral Arc Panorama v1 (April 14, 2021)

A panorama of the auroral arc seen from home in southern Alberta (latitude 51° N) on April 14/15, 2021, showing a very red component above (to the south of?) the main green auroral arc low across the north. At right, it takes on a STEVE-like appearance. Is this an example of a SAR Arc -- a Sub-Auroral Red Arc? A brief sighting of a partial STEVE arc was reported this night but I missed it. The Kp level did go as high as 5 this night. This scene was at about 12:15 am MDT on April 15. By coincidence the arc of the Milky Way low across the north parallels the arc of the Northern Lights. Capella is at far left in the northwest; Vega is rising at right of centre in the northeast. This is a stitch of 7 segments, each untracked for 30 seconds at f/2.5 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 800. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Auroral Arc Panorama (March 13, 2021)

An arc of aurora across the north, taken from home in southern Alberta March 13, 2021 on a night when the STEVE auroral arc appeared about 45 minutes after this was taken whren the main arc shown here had faded. This is a cropped stitch of 9 segments, each 30 seconds at f/2.8 with the Venus Optics 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 1600. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Late Winter/Early Spring Sky Panorama with Aurora

A 360° panorama of the late winter and early spring sky with an arc of aurora, from a latitude of 51° N. This was March 13, 2021, from home in southern Alberta. This night there was a bright aurora across the northern sky, so I have oriented the view to place due north just right of centre. The Big Dipper is at right; Leo is rising at far right. The bright winter stars around Orion are at far left to the south. High clouds and haze, partly lit by light pollution here, add the natural glows to the stars, emphasizing the bright stars and constellation patterns. No filter was used here. The yellow arch at left is a band of cloud illuminated by light pollution. This was a test of new panorama gear, using an Acratech Pan Head on top of a Alyn Wallace/MSM Z-Plate mounted to a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker, to allow taking tracked segments for the panorama, to prevent star trailing. The Z-Plate allowed the Pan Head to mount and move horizontally and vertically in azimuth and altitude despite being on a polar aligned tracker. It worked! The ground is a stitch of 8 segments shot with the tracker motor off, then blended with a stitch of 20 segments for the sky, in 3 tiers of 8 + 6 + 6 segments, all with the Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.8 and for 1-minute with the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600 for all shots. Stitched with PTGui v12 which at last saves camera metadata when exporting PSD files. The original is 25,600 pixels wide.

Auroral Arc in the Moonlight (Feb 28, 2021)

A panorama of an arc of Northern Lights, taken from home on February 28, 2021, with a Kp 4 to 6 level aurora and geomagnetic storm in progress. But it was fading by the time the sky cleared from home this night. I shot this about 11:05 pm. MST. To the eye the aurora looked colourless and was difficult to tell apart from the moonlit high clouds. But even in Live View, the camera distinctly showed the green auroral arc. The display never got very bright in the time I was watching and shooting. This is a panorama of 5 segments with the Rokinon SP 14mm lens at f/2.8 for 15 seconds each, and with the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 400, stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. I blended in an additional selfie segment taken right after the pan segments, to add me into the scene. A mild Orton Glow effect added to the foreground with Luminar AI.

Aurora from Home v2 (Feb 19, 2021)

An aurora from home in southern Alberta on February 19, 2021. The Kp index was up to 4 this night and produced superb shows from northern latitudes, and a nice photogenic horizon display from my latitude of 51° N. Illumination is from the waxing quarter Moon behind the camera in the west. This is looking northeast over the old farm rake. This is a single 15-second exposure at f/2.8 with the Laowa 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 800.

Aurora from Home v1 (Feb 19, 2021)

An aurora from home in southern Alberta on February 19, 2021. The Kp index was up to 4 this night and produced superb shows from northern latitudes, and a nice photogenic horizon display from my latitude of 51° N. Illumination is from the waxing quarter Moon behind the camera in the west. This is looking northeast. This is a single 15-second exposure at f/2.8 with the Laowa 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 800.

Introducing the Aurora (Feb 19, 2021)

An aurora selfie from home in southern Alberta on February 19, 2021, with me offering up views of the Northern Lights. The Kp index was up to 4 this night and produced superb shows from northern latitudes, and a nice photogenic horizon display from my latitude of 51° N. Illumination is from the waxing quarter Moon behind the camera in the west. This is looking northeast. This is a single 15-second exposure at f/2.8 with the Laowa 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 800.