The Big Dipper over Pyramid Mountain and Pyramid Lake in Jasper National Park, Alberta, October 19, 2016, on a dark moonless night before moonrise. Some foreground illumination comes from lights across the lake on the Pyramid Lake Lodge. The sky has some green from airglow or diffuse aurora. Haze and thin clouds add the natural glows around the stars. No filter was used here. This is from a latitude of 54° N so the Big Dipper does not set and is circumpolar despite it being at its lowest point in the sky for the year in the northern autumn season. This is a stack of 8 x 20-second exposures for the ground, mean combined to reduce noise, and one 20-second exposure for the sky, all at ISO 6400 with the Sigma 20mm lens at f/2 and Nikon D750. This was from 350 frames shot for a time-lapse sequence.
The Big Dipper reflected in the still waters of the lake at Police Outpost Provincial Park, in southern Alberta, on September 26, 2016, with an aurora to the north at right. Only in autumn can one shoot the Dipper reflected in the water in the evening sky, as it is then riding low along the northern horizon. This is from a latitude of 49° N where the Dipper is circumpolar. It is also called the Plough in Great Britain. This is a stack of 4 x 25 second exposures for the dark ground to smooth noise and one 25-second exposure for the sky and water, all with the 25mm Canon lens at f/2.2 and Canon 6D at ISO 3200. Taken with dark frame LENR on.
The Big Dipper in hazy clouds over the Waterton River at Maskinonge Pond, September 23, 2016, taken at the Night Photography Workshop I conducted there that night. The glow at right is light pollution from the Shell Waterton Gas Plant and from Pincher Creek to the north. This is a stack of 5 x 30 second exposures, mean combined to smooth noise, and one 30-second exposure for the sky, all with the Sigma 20mm lens at f/2.2, and Nikon D750 at ISO 3200.
