Orion and the winter stars and constellations rising in the light of a first quarter Moon on December 2, 2019. This was from home in Alberta. Orion is above the trees with Aldebaran in Taurus and the Pleiades above him. At top left is the star Capella and the constellation of Auriga. At left of centre are Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Just rising amid the trees is Procyon in Canis Minor. Sirius and Canis Major had not yet risen. The timing nicely captures 4 of the sky’s best star clusters in a row across the sky, with the Beehive just rising at lower left, the Hyades at upper right, and the Pleiades at top. Between the Hyades and the Beehive is the small binocular cluster in Gemini, M35, but visible in this wide-angle view. The low setting Moon behind the camera to the right added a warm “bronze hour” tint to the landscape. Tracks in the snow are from deer. This is a blend of untracked exposures for the ground and tracked exposures for the sky, using the Star Adventurer tracker. The ground and sky are each stacks of 4 x 1.5-minute exposures with the 15-35mm Canon RF lens at 15mm and f/2.8 and on the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800. I had some fun with filters on this one, applying a Soft Glow filter with Luminar Flex to the ground and an Orton Glow effect to the sky with ON1 Photo RAW 2020. So, yes, this is processed to be “artistic!”
A display of noctilucent clouds and northern lights together in the same sky to the north, along with summer twilight on July 8/9, 2019. This is a single exposure with the 50mm Sigma lens and Sony a 7III for 8 seconds at f/1.6 and ISO 400.
A 150° panorama of an arc of diffuse aurora to the northeast, and above the glow of solstice twilight to the north at centre, while the urban sky glow from Calgary lights the sky at left to the west, as well as an odd band of cloud that persisted all evening across the north. This was at the Old Barn site near home. The aurora has the characteristic green band but with a magenta glow above from high altitude oxygen glowing. Capella is embedded in the auroral arc, just right of the road which is aimed due north. The W of Cassiopeia is at right, with the Andromeda Galaxy rising below in the northeast, along with the stars of Perseus and Pegasus. Arcturus is at far left over the barn in the west. This is a crop from an 8-segment panorama with the 24mm Sigma lens and Nikon D750, all segments 30 secconds at f/2 and ISO 800. Stitched with Photoshop Photomerge. ACR refused to stitch the left segments.
