The Big Dipper over Pyramid Mountain at Pyramid Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta, on Oct 24, 2015. Illumination is from a waxing gibbous Moon. This is a stack of 4 exposures, mean combined, for the ground to smooth noise with one of the exposures adding the sky, to prevent trailing. Each was 15 seconds at f/4 and ISO 800 with the Nikon D750 and Sigma 24mm lens.
The Milky Way in Sagittarius (toward the galactic centre) going down behind the badland hills along the Red Deer River. I shot this near East Coulee on Highway 10 in Alberta, on an autumn night. Some clouds were drifting through over the exposure times. Passing car headlights helped light the trees on the opposite bank. This is a stack of 4 tracked exposures for the sky (each 2 minutes at f/2.2 with the 24mm lens) and then 4 untracked exposures for the ground (each 4 minutes at f/2.5), all with the Canon 6D at ISO 800. The tracker was the iOptron Sky-Tracker. Stacking, using Mean stack mode, helps smooth noise. This was shot as a demo image for use in a video tutorial series.
The Moon in total eclipse on September 27, 2015 – the “supermoon” eclipse – shining red over the Milk River and sandstone formations at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta, with the Milky Way in full view in the sky darkened by the lunar eclipse. The Sweetgrass Hills of Montana are to the south. The centre of the Milky Way is at far right. The Andromeda Galaxy is at upper left. The Moon was in Pisces below the Square of Pegasus. It was a perfectly clear night, ideal conditions for shooting the eclipse and stars. This is a stack of 5 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky and 5 x 4-minute untracked exposures for the ground to smooth noise. The Moon itself comes from a short 30-second exposure to avoid overexposing the lunar disk. Illumination of the ground is from starlight. All exposures with the 15mm lens at f/2.8 and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. The camera was on the iOptron Sky-Tracker.
