A 360° panorama of the entire sky over the historic and pioneer Larson Ranch site in the Frenchman River Valley in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada. Grasslands in a Dark Sky Preserve and from most of the Park no lights at all can be seen and none light the sky. This is the natural sky, complete with colourful sky glows. The clouds here look dark, silhouettted against at sky lit only by natural sources: the stars, the Milky Way, the aurora at right, and a general airglow tinting the sky green to the north at right, with some red bands of airglow at left to the south. All ground illumination here is from these natural night light sources. The Milky Way was arching overhead when I shot this, so in this “equirectangular” projection it stretches up from the south at left of centre and spreads out across the top of the frame then descends to the northeast at right. The Pleiades is rising at lower right and at upper right is the Andromeda Galaxy. The Big Dipper is just right of centre low on the northern horizon. From this latitude of 49° N the Big Dipper is circumpolar. This is a stitch of 32 panels, shot with the iOptron iPano motorized panning mount, each panel being 40 seconds at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 6400. Overlap was 35%. Stitched with PTGui.
A 2-section panorama of the Northern Lights, aurora, from Grasslands National Park, from the Frenchman River valley, August 26/27, 2014. The lights are spotlights from naturalists doing census counts of nocturnal black-footed ferrets, endangered and introduced into the Park several years ago. The Big Dipper is at far left, Polaris at upper left. M31 is at upper right. Some bands of airglow are also visible at left and right. Both pan sections taken with the 14mm Rokinon lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D at ISO 5000 for 60 seconds. Stitched in PTGui.
A 360° fish-eye panorama of the winter sky in mid-February, shot from home in southern Alberta. This version adds labels. Orion is to the south at bottom, with the winter Milky Way arcing across the sky from southeast, at bottom, to northwest, at top. A faint glow of Zodiacal Light extends across the sky from west (right) to east (left). Urban sky glow lights the sky to the west. To the north at top, an auroral arc extends along the horizon. The Big Dipper is at upper left in the northeast. Polaris is at top centre. Venus is bright and setting low in the west at right. Leo is rising in the east at left. This is a stitch of 6 segments, each shot with the Rokinon 12mm full-frame fish-eye lens at f/2.8, for 30 seconds each at ISO 6400 with the Nikon D750. Stitched with PTGui.
