A 360° panorama of the Milky Way and night sky taken at Red Rock Canyon in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada. I shot this Sept 21, 2014 on a very clear night with no noticeable aurora and very little airglow. The ground is lit solely by starlight. This is a stitch of 8 segments, each shot with the 15mm full-frame fisheye lens, for 1 minute at f/2.8 and with the Canon 6D at ISO 6400. I used PTGui to stitch the segments, with this version being an equirectangular projection.
How many sources of skyglow can you pick out here? • The Milky Way • Airglow • Light pollution (too much!) • Perpetual northern twilight • Aurora The Milky Way (at left) arches over an old pioneer farmstead from the 1930s and 40s near home in southern Alberta. Mars (very bright and in some clouds) and Saturn shine at lower centre, while Jupiter is the bright object in clouds at right just above the old house. Arcturus is the brightest star here at upper right of centre, made more obvious here by shining through the clouds. The Big Dipper, distorted by the map projection used in the this panorama, is at upper right. Light pollution from Strathmore and Calgary lights the clouds coming in from the west. Green airglow is visible below the Milky Way. Twilight provides the blue to the northern sky at either end. There’s a very slight aurora low in the north but hardly noticeable. This is a 360° horizon to zenith panorama taken with the iPano motorized panning unit, using the 24mm lens at f/2.8 and Nikon D750 at ISO 6400, for a stitch of 28 panels, in 4 tiers of 7 segments each. Stitched with PTGui. South is at centre, north to either end. The original is 25,700 x 7,700 pixels.
The Milky Way over Maskinonge Lake at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada, on June 17/18, 2018. This was an unusually calm night, allowing the reflections of the stars in the lake waters. Jupiter is in Libra at far right. Saturn is Sagittarius in the Milky Way at left of centre. Scorpius is in between. The sky is deep blue from solstice twilight. The Maskinonge area is a sacred site to the Blackfoot Nation. This is a two-section panorama, with the ground a stack of 5 exposures for each section to smooth noise, with the sky and stellar reflections coming from one exposure for each segment to minimize trailing. All 25 seconds at f/2.2 with the 20mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 3200. Stiching with Photoshop Photomerge.
