The Big Dipper over the iconic Castle Mountain in Banff National Park, Alberta, with a backdrop of a faint aurora in the northern sky. This was at 3 am on July 16, 2018, and taken from the Castle Cliffs viewpoint on the Bow Valley Parkway. The sky was also brightening with dawn twilight blue. This is a stack of 8 exposures for the ground, mean combined to smooth noise, and one exposure for the sky. All 30 seconds at f/2 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens, and Nikon D750 at ISO 3200. LENR dark frame subtraction applied in camera.
The Big and Little Dippers, and Polaris, over Castle Mountain in Banff National Park, with the scene lit by starlight. A faint aurora adds the sky colour, as does the oncoming morning twilight. This is a 3-segment vertical panorama, each 30 seconds at f/2 with the Sigma 24mm lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 3200. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
A scene of Earth and sky, with Big Dipper over the late Cretaceous sedimentary layers of the Red Deer River Badlands. The Big Dipper is at top pointing down to Polaris and the Little Dipper, over the moonlit Badlands on Highway 10 east of Drumheller, Alberta. Light from the waxing gibbous Moon provides the illumination on April 26, 2018. This is a stack of 5 x 15-second exposures for the ground to smooth noise, and one 15-second exposure for the sky, all at f/4 with the Rokinon 14mm SP lens and Sony a7III camera at ISO 800. Nik Sharpener applied to the ground. The Dipper is distorted slightly by the pincushion distortion of the 14mm lens. The Moon off frame to the right adds the gradient to the sky.
