The Milky Way over the region of Athabasca Pass, as seen from the highway viewpoint on the Icefields Parkway, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Oct 22, 2016. It was this pass that David Thompson used primarily in the later 1700s and early 1800s as his route into BC for extending the fur trade across the Divide. He travelled back and forth across this pass during his employment with the North West Company. His Narratives provides great quote about his experience one winter night on the summit of the Pass: “My men were not at their ease, yet when night came they admired the brilliancy of the Stars, and as one of them said, he thought he could almost touch them with his hand.” The Milky Way here is the section through Aquila, with Altair at top and Mars bright above the peaks of the Continental Divide. Illumination is by starlight. This is a stack of 8 exposures, mean combined to smooth noise, for the ground and one exposure for the sky, all 25 seconds at f/2 with the Sigma 20mm lens, and Nkion D750 at ISO 6400.
The Milky Way with Sagittarius and Scutum star clouds, over misty Reesor Lake in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, July 13/14, 2013. This is a single 30-second untracked exposure (not a composite) with the 24mm lens at f/2 and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 3200. I painted the foreground mist with a white LED flashlight.
The summer Milky Way over the Log Cabin at the Reesor Ranch, July 16, 2013. This is a stack of 5 x 4 minute tracked exposures for the sky + one 4 minute untracked exposure for the ground. Each at f/2.8 with the 15mm lens and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600.
