The summer Milky Way towering over the sandstone concretions and badlands at Red Rock Coulee Natural Area, in southeast Alberta. Taken July 26, 2017. Saturn is the bright object amid the Dark Horse dark lanes in the Milky Way at right. Sagittarius is just above the horizon amid some cloud. The bright star at top left is Altair in Aquila. This is a composite of 10 tracked exposures for the sky (mean combined to smooth noise) taken immediately after 4 untracked exposures for the ground (again, mean combined to smooth noise). Each exposure was 1 minute at f/2.2 with the Sigma 20mm Art lens and ISO 3200 with the Nikon D750. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini.
This is the Milky Way and night sky on a perfectly clear night, July 25, 2017, on the Canadian Prairies at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Alberta, near the border looking south to the Sweetgrass Hills (West Butte) of Montana. The Milk River, which flows into the Missouri River, winds below. The site is sacred to the Blackoot First Nations. The wooden buildings below are replicas of the late 1800s North West Mounted Police outpost in Police Coulee. Sagittarius and Scorpius are on the southern horizon at right, and Saturn is the bright object in the Dark Horse at far right. The galactic centre is amid the bright star clouds above the horizon. The sky at left is green with natural airglow. Altair is the bright star at top. The ground is illuminated only by starlight and airglow. This is a composite of a stack of 4 untracked exposures for the ground (mean combined to smooth noise) and 4 tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately afterwards, and again mean combined to smooth noise. All are 2 minutes at f/2 with the 20mm Sigma Art lens, and Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini.
In 1873 explorer and pioneer William Butler travelling across the then unsettled Canadian Prairies wrote, “No solitude can equal the loneliness of a night-shadowed prairie.” This is the Milky Way and night sky on a perfectly clear night, July 25, 2017, on the Canadian Prairies at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Alberta, near the border looking south to the Sweetgrass Hills (West Butte) of Montana. The Milk River, which flows into the Missouri River, winds below. The site is sacred to the Blackoot First Nations. The wooden buildings below are replicas of the late 1800s North West Mounted Police outpost in Police Coulee. Sagittarius and Scorpius are on the southern horizon, and Saturn is the bright object in the Dark Horse right of centre. The galactic centre is amid the bright star clouds above the horizon. The sky at left is green with natural airglow. The ground is illuminated only by starlight and airglow. This is a composite of a stack of 8 untracked exposures for the ground (mean combined to smooth noise) and 4 tracked exposures for the sky taken immediately afterwards, and again mean combined to smooth noise. All are 2 minutes at f/2 with the 20mm Sigma Art lens, and Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini.
