A 360° panorama of the sky and Milky Way as seen from the summit of Mount Kobau near Osoyoos, BC, Canada at the Mt Kobau Star Party, July 28, 2014. This is a stitch with PTGui of 8 segements, 45° apart, each 50 seconds, with the 14mm Rokinon lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D at ISO 6400. All on a fixed tripod, no tracking. Light pollution from Osoyoos and Oliver light the sky at left. The centre of the Milky Way is at bottom in Sagittarius, the Big Dipper and Arcturus are at upper right.
How many sources of skyglow can you pick out here? • The Milky Way • Airglow • Light pollution (too much!) • Perpetual northern twilight • Aurora The Milky Way (at left) arches over an old pioneer farmstead from the 1930s and 40s near home in southern Alberta. Mars (very bright and in some clouds) and Saturn shine at lower centre, while Jupiter is the bright object in clouds at right just above the old house. Arcturus is the brightest star here at upper right of centre, made more obvious here by shining through the clouds. The Big Dipper, distorted by the map projection used in the this panorama, is at upper right. Light pollution from Strathmore and Calgary lights the clouds coming in from the west. Green airglow is visible below the Milky Way. Twilight provides the blue to the northern sky at either end. There’s a very slight aurora low in the north but hardly noticeable. This is a 360° horizon to zenith panorama taken with the iPano motorized panning unit, using the 24mm lens at f/2.8 and Nikon D750 at ISO 6400, for a stitch of 28 panels, in 4 tiers of 7 segments each. Stitched with PTGui. South is at centre, north to either end. The original is 25,700 x 7,700 pixels.
A 360° panorama of the Milky Way and night sky taken at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada. I shot this Sept 21, 2014 on a very clear night with a faint aurora appearing to the north (behind the hotel). The panorama documents the extent of lighting in the area. The Hotel itself was closed and so was dark. Taurus and the Pleiades are rising at upper right. At upper left is the faint glow of Gegenschein amid the Zodiacal Band across the dim area of the autumn sky. North is at bottom. The Andromeda Galaxy is at centre (zenith). This is a stitch of 8 segments, each shot with the 15mm full-frame fisheye lens, for 1 minute at f/2.8 and with the Canon 6D at ISO 5000. I used PTGui to stitch the segments, with this version being a spherical fidh-eye projection.
