The trio of Messier galaxies, M98, M99, and M100 near the star 6 Comae Berenices along with fainter NGC galaxies. The face-on spiral M100 is at top right; the edge-on spiral M98 is at lower right; the face-on spiral M99, the Coma Pinwheel, is at bottom. The pair of galaxies to the left of M99 is NGC 4298 and NGC 4302. This is a stack of 7 x 5-minute exposures with the SharpStar HNT150 Hyperbolic Newtonian astrograph at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800.
Jupiter (brightest), Saturn (to the left), and the Milky Way over the Saskatchewan River and the area of Howse Pass, on July 26, 2020. Mount Cephren is at left; the scene is framed to include Cephren. The nebulas and star clouds of the galactic centre area at right show up well on this very clear night. The bright Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, is most obvious, flanked by the star clusters M23 and M25 to the side, and the nebulas M17 and M16 above, and M8 and M20 below. The fuzzy globular cluster M22 is to the left of the large Lagoon Nebula, M8. Green airglow tints the sky. This is an exposure blend of a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground at ISO 1600 (exposed long to bring out ground details), with 2 x 1-minute tracked and stacked exposures at ISO 3200 for the sky. Shot from the Howse Pass Viewpoint area off the Icefields Parkway at Saskatchewan River Crossing. 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, a filter-modified camera. 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. An Orton soft glow effect added to the sky with Luminar Flex plug-in.
The summer Milky Way and galactic core area in Sagittarius, setting on a late summer evening in mid-September, with some of the foliage starting to turn to autumn colours. Thin cloud in the sky this night added the star glows naturally. This was from home in southern Alberta at latitude 51° N. The Small Sagittarius Starcloud, M24, is prominent above the bushes, with the reddish nebulas M17 and M16 above and flanked by the star clusters M25 and M23 (just in the bushes). Above M24 is the Scutum Starcloud with the star cluster M11. This is two tracked and stacked 2-mnute exposures blended with a single untracked 2-minute exposure for the ground, all with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 28mm and f/2.8, and Canon R5 at ISO 1600, on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker. Taken on a night of lens testing as a "grab" shot. It serves to illustrate this region of sky and its configuation in late summer from mid-northern latitudes.
