A 240° panorama of the Milky Way on an early May night, in the wee hours at about 2 am with the Milky Way rising across the east. Cassiopeia and Perseus are at left, Cygnus at centre, and Sagittarius at right low on the horizon. At far right is Mars (brightest) and Saturn above Antares in Scorpius low in the south. A faint aurora and possibly airglow adds some green and red at centre. I shot this from the field next to my rural yard in southern Alberta. Lights from farms and gas plants mar the horizon and brighten the sky to the north and east. I shot this as a test of the iOptron iPano motorized panning mount. This is a stitch of 32 segments (!), shot in 4 rows or tiers of 8 segments each, with the 35mm lens at f/2 and stock Canon 6D at ISO 4000. All segments developed in Camera Raw, then exported to TIFFs to import into PTGui software. I used the Equirectangular projection to stitch the segments. Final processing of the flattened panorama in Photoshop. The original is 25,400 x 8,500 pixels.
A 360° panorama of the summer solstice sky, taken from home at latitude 51° North, at 1:00 a.m. on the night of June 22/23, 2017, with an abundance of sky glows: - The yellow and blue glow to the north, at centre, of perpetual twilight (the sky never gets astronomically dark) - A minor display of northern lights adding green and magenta to the north - Some faint green bands of airglow to the west (far left) and east (right of centre) - And the Milky Way arching across the sky from NE to SW. - Light pollution lights the clouds yellow from sodium vapour lamps. However, there were no noctilucent clouds this night, which would have addded another form of solstice skyglow. Highlights include: - The Big Dipper and Arcturus are at far left - a satellite pierces the handle of the Big Dipper - Polaris is left of centre - the Summer Triangle stars are at right of centre straddling the Milky Way - Saturn is at far right above the horizon in the Milky Way - the Galactic Centre is in the south at far right low on the horizon as it is from this latitude - the Andromeda Galaxy is rising in the NE at centre. This is a stitch of 6 segments, each with the 12mm Rokinon full-frame fish-eye lens, horizontally framed, on the Nikon D750, all 40 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 3200. Stitched with PTGui. Shot from home in southern Alberta.
Reesor Ranch 360° night sky panorama, taken July 16, 2013 with the Moon still up and lighting up the sky but behind the trees and about to set. This is an 8-segment panorama taken with the 8mm fish-eye, at 45° spacing, and each segment 80 seconds at f/3.5 and the Canon 5D MkII at ISO 3200. North is just left of centre. Two cameras are at left shooting time-lapses.
