Constellations - Big Dipper
The Two Dippers in Moonlight (April 2021)
A portrait of the Big Dipper and Little Dipper high in the northern spring sky on a moonlit April night. Polaris is at lower left at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. This is a stack of 4 x 1-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens adapted to the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 400, blended with a single image taken through an Alyn Wallace/Kase StarGlow filter plus an exposure taken through a Tiffen 6-point Star filter for added effect. Filter layers blended in with Lighten mode and masked to just the stars to prevent them from affecting the background sky illumination and uniformity. Taken April 20, 2021 from Dinosaur Provincial Park with the camera on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker with the quarter Moon off frame at top.
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.
Late Winter/Early Spring Sky 360° Panorama
A 360° all-sky or fish-eye panorama of the late winter and early spring sky from a latitude of 51° N. This was March 13, 2021, from home in southern Alberta. 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! This night there was a bright aurora across the northern sky, so I have oriented the view to place due north at bottom. South is at top. 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 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 16,000 pixels square.
Late Winter/Early Spring Sky 360° Panorama (with Labels)
A 360° all-sky or fish-eye panorama of the late winter and early spring sky from a latitude of 51° N. This was March 13, 2021, from home in southern Alberta. 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! This night there was a bright aurora across the northern sky, so I have oriented the view to place due north at bottom. South is at top. 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 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 16,000 pixels square.
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 with Big Dipper and Cassiopeia
A quiescent arc of Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, across the northern horizon from home on February 1, 2021. The W of Cassiopeia is at top left; the familiar Big Dipper is at top right. Polaris in the Little Dipper, or Ursa Minor, is above centre. Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper are nicely placed at this time on a February evening flanking Polaris at an equal altitude, in the northwest and in the northeast. The Milky Way runs down the left side of the frame This is a single 30-second untracked exposure with the Sony a7III at ISO 1600, and with the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm lens wide open at f/2.
A 180° panorama of a display of Northern Lights to the northeast, the first in many weeks for us in a Kp4 level display, with bright Mars amid clouds to the southeast, at right. Mars was near opposition and so nearly at its brightest at this time. The Big and Little Dippers are at left to the north; the Pleiades is right of centre to the east. Moonlight from the low gibbous Moon off frame to the southeast provides the illumination. Taken from home, Sept 25-26, 2020, in a stitch of 6 segments, all 20 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 1600 with the Sigma Art 14mm lens and Nikon D750. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
Aurora from Home (Sept 25, 2020)
A display of Northern Lights to the northeast, the first in many weeks for us in a Kp4 level display. The Big and Little Dippers are at left to the north. Capella is the bright star at right. Moonlight from the low gibbous Moon off frame to the southeast provides the illumination. Taken from home, Sept 25-26, 2020. This is a stack of 4 exposures for the ground to smooth noise, and one for the sky, all 10 seconds at f/2 and ISO 1600 with the Sigma Art 14mm lens and Nikon D750.
Zodiacal Light with Venus and Mars
The Zodiacal Light before dawn on September 21, 2020 with Venus bright in the Zodiacal Light at left of centre, and Mars bright at far right. Orion and the winter stars are at centre. The Big Dipper is at far left/ This is a panorama of 6 segments, each untracked for 25 seconds at f/2 with the 14mm Sigma Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600, and stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
Comet NEOWISE at Columbia Icefields (July 27, 2020)
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on July 27, 2020 from the Columbia Icefields (Jasper National Park, Alberta) from the Toe of the Glacier parking lot, looking north over Sunwapta Lake, formed by the summer meltwater of Athabasca Glacier. So this is a portrait of ice in the sky and icy water on Earth. This was my parting shot of the comet, as it was fading rapidly at this time receding from Earth, though it was still naked eye. Plus the waxing Moon was going to be lighting the sky much more in the following week. So this was the night! While it was pale to the eye, the long expposure of the camera did pick up the blue ion and white dust tails very well. The ion tail extends about 15° and the dust tail at least 10°. The tails are certainly more prominent than in 99% of any comets we see any given year! So this was still a nice comet! Red and green bands of airglow, some faint magenta aurora on the horizon, and some lingering blue perpetual twilight at his northern latitude all tint the sky. The Big Dipper stars are at top. Arcturus is at far left. The orange star at bottom is Tania Australis, here made a little larger by it shining through some thin haze. This is an exposure blend of a stack of 4 x 4-minute untracked exposures for the ground, with 4 x 2-minute tracked and stacked exposures for the sky. Stacking the images smooths noise. Tracking the sky prevents star trailing in the long exposures required to reveal the faintest stars and the subtle comet tails. The camera was on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. For the ground shots I simply turned the tracker motor off. All with the 24mm Sigma Art lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 1600 for the ground and ISO 3200 for the sky. Topaz Sharpen AI applied to the ground; Topaz DeNoise AI applied to the sky. In camera LENR employed on all shots on this warm night. The foreground is lit in part by lights from the Icefields Centre buildings off camera to the right.
Comet NEOWISE and Ursa Major Over Mount Wilson (July 26, 2020)
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on July 26, 2020 from Saskatchewan River Crossing in Banff National Park, Alberta. The comet is just about to set behind Mount Wilson, the iconic peak in the area. A meteor appears at top in the image framed to include the Big Dipper and the constellation of Ursa Major. While the comet was fading, its blue ion and white dust tails still show up well. It was from near here that scientist and explorer James Hector, member of the 1858-59 Palliser Expediton, observed Comet Donati on September 10, 1858 as they made their way up the valleys of the Bow, Mistaya, Howse and Saskatchewan Rivers, as part of a British scientific expedition to map the area and much of southern Alberta. This is an exposure blend of a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground at ISO 800 (exposed long to bring out ground details), with 3 x 30-second tracked and stacked exposures at ISO 1600 for the sky. I shot short exposures for the sky to catch the comet before it set. The meteor was on one frame of the sky stack layered and blended in separately. The camera was on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. For the ground shots I simply turned the tracker motor off. All with the 35mm Canon lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra. Topaz Sharpen AI applied to the ground. In camera LENR employed on all shots on this warm night. Shot from the parking lot of the Howse Pass Viewpoint area off the Icefields Parkway.
Comet NEOWISE in Ursa Major with Airglow (July 22, 2020)
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) on July 22-23, 2020 below the Big Dipper and in Ursa Major, and with prominent red and green bands of airglow which were more obvious tonight than on previous nights shooting the comet. Even with the bright sky the comet’s faint blue ion tail can be traced up past the Bowl of the Big Dipper. This is a stack of 5 x 2-minute tracked exposures with the 35mm Canon lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 800, on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. Taken from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. An active thunderstorm was on the horizon below this scene, lighting the sky with flashes. Stacked and aligned in Photoshop. I’ve made only minimal effort here to eliminate the sky gradients and colours, but instead embraced them! The air was also dusty this night with reduced transparency.
Comet NEOWISE and Big Dipper Over Badlands (July 22, 2020)
Another incredible sky this night! This is Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over the badlands formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta on July 22-23, 2020, with the Big Dipper above. A very active thunderstorm system moving northeastward this night but well to the west of me lights the horizon. Parallel bands of red and green airglow tint the sky, as does the blue of lingering summer twilight. Even with the bright sky the comet’s blue ion tail can be traced up to and past the Bowl of the Big Dipper. This is an exposure blend, with the landscape from a stack of seven exposures from 2.5 to 3.5 minutes long at f/2.8 and ISO 1600, stacked to smooth noise, blended with a single untracked 30-second exposure for the sky at ISO 6400 at f/2, all with the Sigma 24mm lens and Canon EOS Ra camera. The ground is illuminated by starlight and sky light only; no light painting was used here. Topaz DeNoise AI applied to the sky; Sharpen AI applied to the ground. Some light sculpting applied to the ground with a Dodge and Burn layer and a luminosity mask, to make the foreground less flat in lighting.
Comet NEOWISE and Big Dipper (July 20, 2020)
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) over the still waters this night of Crawling Lake in southern Alberta. The Big Dipper is at top. Even in this short exposure, the two tails — dust and ion — are visible. This was July 20, 2020. The blue ion tail is extending up into the Bowl of the Big Dipper, for some 20° in length. Very impressive! The main image content is a single untracked exposure of 20 seconds at f/2.2 and ISO 3200 with the 35mm Canon lens and Canon 6D MkII. The distant clouds, horizon, and water in the distance and in the immedate foregound without stars is from an average stack of 6 exposures, all at the above settings, to smooth noise. I shot this from Crawling Lake in southern Alberta on a near perfect night, though distant clouds are lit by yellow light pollution.
Comet NEOWISE Below the Dipper Bowl (July 20, 2020)
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) in a tracked close-up on July 20, 2020, showing the straight blue ion tail and the curving whitish-yellow dust tail. Even the ion tail was visible in binoculars and traceable out for 12° or so, or two 10x binocular fields. Here in the processed image it extends up into and beyond the Bowl of the Big Dipper, a distance of 20°. The curving dust tail extends about 15°. A bit of cyan colour is visible around the head of the comet. The bright galaxies M81 and M82, very tiny here, are at upper right. The two pairs of stars either side of the comet head are Tania (left) and Talitha (right), in pairs with the two stars each labeled Borealis and Australis. They form the feet of Ursa Major, but are also part of the asterism known as the Three Leaps of the Gazelle along with another pair to the west off frame at left. This is a median stack of six 1.5-minute successive exposures with the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800 and Sigma 50mm lens at f/2.8, on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker but unguided. Stacked and aligned automatically in Photoshop with the Scripts>Statistics function. Applications of Curves brings out the fainter tails without blowing out the bright head. I applied extensive sets of gradient masks to help remove the sky gradients toward the bottom (horizon). However, inevtiably some sky gradient colours remain. An application of ON1 Dynamic Constrast and a high pass filter helped bring out the ion tail details and subtle banding structure in the dust tail. Other than that I did not apply any local adjustments to the ion tail to accentuate its brightness relative to the dust tail. But as always, the long exposure of a camera reveals more than the eye can see. I shot this from Crawling Lake in southern Alberta on a near perfect night, though some light cloud or possible airglow still discolours the sky.
Comet NEOWISE and STEVE Aurora over Waterton River (July 14, 2020)
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) with the Northern Lights and a STEVE arc aurora to the left, all over the Waterton River at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, on July 13-14, 2020. This was from the Maskinonge picnic area. The Big Dipper is at upper left. A very faint green picket fence aurora is at right above the comet, a characteristic of STEVE arcs. This was an astounding night for sky phenomena! This is a blend of a stack of six exposures for the ground and water to smooth noise, blended with a single short exposure for the sky, all 15 seconds at f/2 and ISO 3200, with the 20mm Sigma Art lens and Canon EOS Ra camera (with the Nikon-mount Sigma lens adapted to the EOS Ra with a Metabones F to RF adapter). LENR employed on all shots to reduce thermal noise this warm summer night.
Selfie with Binoculars in the Backyard in January #2
A selfie with me in the backyard on a mild January night looking at M81 and M82 above the Big Dipper with binoculars. Shot for a book illustration. This is a single exposure with the Nikon D750 and Sigma 20mm Art lens.
The International Space Station (ISS) travels across the sky on December 2, 2019, beginning at 6:08 p.m. MST, from due west at left to due east at right, passing high in the north at centre in this 360° fish-eye view. At right, the ISS fades from view at it experiences sunset, dimming and reddening as it passes above the Pleiades. This was from home in Alberta with a waxing quarter Moon providing the illumination, with the Moon behind the camera due south and out of frame. This is looking due north. I am posing for a selfie with the Station. This is a stack of 7 x 40-second exposures for the ISS path, masked and blended in Lighten mode onto a single image for the sky, foreground, and me! That background layer was shot immediately after the last ISS frame. All with the 8mm Sigma fish-eye lens at f/3.5 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 1000.
Panorama of the Auroral Arc and Milky Way (Nov 21, 2019)
A panorama of the arc of the Northern Lights across the northern sky at right, from home in southern Alberta on November 21, 2019. At far left is the summer Milky Way setting while in between is the urban glow from cities to the west (notably Calgary) with the skyglow now blue-white from LEDs lights — it used to be yellow from sodium vapour lights. So this is a study in sky glows, both natural and artificial. The Big Dipper and Polaris are at centre over my house.. Capella in Auriga, Aldebaran and the Pleiades in Taurus, and the stars of Perseus are at right rising in the northeast. Altair and Aquila are at far left, setting in the southwest. This is a 6-segment panorama with the 15mm Venus Optics lens at f/2 on the Sony a7III for 20 seconds each at ISO 1600, stitched with ACR.
A Kp5 level aurora seen October 24-25, 2019 from home across the north. The aurora always appeared as a diffuse glow and arc without much structure or motion this night, though the patchy clouds didn’t help! But it shows how a bright aurora can shine through the clouds. The Big Dipper is in the clouds, but the LIttle Dipper and Polaris are at top left. This is a single image with the 15mm Venus Optics lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 1600 for 20 seconds each. Luminar Flex Soft Glow filter added for effect.
Selfie Under the Northern Lights in Norway
On the Trollfjord, Oct 19, 2019, north of Tromso.
Auroral Curtains at Sea (Oct 19, 2019 v12)
A fine display of aurora in curtains across the north, October 19, 2019, observed from the upper Deck 9 of the ms Trollfjord on the southbound voyage north of Tromsø along the Norwegian coast. Illumination is partly from the waning gibbous Moon. This is a 0.4-second exposure with the 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 6400.
Auroral Curtains at Sea (Oct 19, 2019 v11)
A fine display of aurora in curtains across the north, October 19, 2019, observed from the upper Deck 9 of the ms Trollfjord on the southbound voyage north of Tromsø along the Norwegian coast. Illumination is partly from the waning gibbous Moon. This is a 0.8-second exposure with the 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 6400.