The stars of the northern winter sky rising at dawn on the morning of August 14, 2020, from home in southern Alberta. The waning crescent Moon is overexposed here, shining above bright Venus , then in southern Gemini as a bright “morning star” in the east. Mars is also bright and reddish, to the south at far right. Orion is rising over the ripening wheatfield at centre. Above Orion is Taurus with the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. The bright star to the left and above the Moon is Capella in Auriga. Castor and Pollux are rising at left. A flaring satellite trail appears below Venus. This is a two-segment panorama with the 14mm Sigma Art lens at f/2.5 and Nikon D750 at ISO 800 for 20 seconds each. Stitched with PTGui which erases all the metadata from the image. I added a mild Orton Glow effect with Luminar Flex.
A 200+ degree panorama of the arch of the winter Milky Way, from south (left) to northwest (ar right) with the Zodiacal Light to the west at centre. This was from Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta on February 28, 2017. A spell of warm weather left very little snow, so the landscape does not look like winter here. But the sky is! This is a stitch of 6 segments but warped with fish-eye projection so that only 3 or 4 segments are contributing to this image. Stitched with PTGui. Each segment was 30 seconds at f/2.8 with the Rokinon 12mm lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 6400. Nik Dfine and Topaz noise reduction applied, in addition to ACR.
A 360° panorama captures the arch of the Milky Way on a June night, over Two Jack Lake, near Banff, Alberta. Mount Rundle is at centre, and Cascade Mountain behind the trees at right. Mars (brightest) and Saturn shine above Mt Rundle. Lights from campers on the lakeshore are at left while light pollution from Banff and Calgary light the scattered clouds. The Milky Way stretches from Perseus at far left in the northeast to Sagittarius at centre in the south. The northern sky at far left and right is blue with lingering summer twilight that lights the northern sky all night near summer solstice. This is a stitch of 28 segments in 4 tiers of 7 segments each with the iPano motorized panning unit. Each was 20 seconds at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 5000. The scene can be cropped off at right to frame just the lake and Milky Way.
