The northern autumn constellations of Pegasus (partially seen at right), Andromeda (across the centre), Perseus (at lower left) and Cassiopeia (at upper left) rising over moonlit formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. Illumination is from the waxing gibbous Moon, setting in the southwest so it is providing a warm "bronze-hour" light. The Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is at centre. The star clusters NGC 752, M34 and the Double Cluster are at left, as well as the Perseus OB Association of stars. Some of the small star clusters in Cassiopeia are resolved as well. Some green bands of airglow also tint the sky, otherwise lit blue by the moonlight. The scene provides a nice contrast of warm earth and cool sky tones. Taken July 8, 2022, this is a blend of tracked (for the sky) and untracked (for the ground) exposures — a stack of 2 for the ground but only one for the sky: 2 minutes at f/5.6 and ISO 800 for the ground and 1 minute at f/2.8 and ISO 400 for the sky, all with the RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and Canon R5. A mild Pro Contrast effect filter added to the ground with Nik Collection 5 and a mild Orton glow added to the sky with Luminar AI. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini. Noise reduction applied to the single sky image using RC-Astro Noise XTerminator. I didn't take any more sky shots as the Moon was fast setting and disappearing into clouds, so the light for the ground shots taken after the sky shot would be going away soon. Plus clouds were moving into the frame. The mosquitoes enjoyed my presence here this warm July night!
The Big Dipper and Ursa Major over moonlit formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. Illumination is from the waxing gibbous Moon, setting in the southwest so it is providing a warm "bronze-hour" light. The scene provides a nice contrast of warm earth and cool sky tones. Taken July 8, 2022, this is a blend of tracked (for the sky) and untracked (for the ground) exposures — a stack of 2 for the ground and 2 for the sky: 2 minutes at f/5.6 and ISO 800 for the ground and 1 minute at f/2.8 and ISO 400 for the sky, all with the RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and Canon R5. A mild Pro Contrast effect filter added to the ground with Nik Collection 5 and a mild Orton glow added to the sky with Luminar AI. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini. The mosquitoes enjoyed my presence here this warm July night!
The Andromeda Galaxy (aka Messier 31) and the stars of Andromeda rising over moonlit formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. Illumination is from the waxing gibbous Moon, low in the southwest so it is providing a warm light. This is an example of a "deepscape" - a nightcape with a telephoto lens to also record a deep-sky object in the frame above the horizon. However, moonlight prevents the galaxy from showing up as well as it would in a dark sky. The sedimentary formations here are from the late Cretaceous, about 70 million years old, while the light from the Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million years old, though the galaxy itself is much older — billions of years old, older than the Earth and Sun. The scene provides a nice contrast of warm earth and cool sky tones. Taken July 8, 2022, this is a blend of tracked (for the sky) and untracked (for the ground) exposures — a stack of 2 for the ground and 5 for the sky, all 1 minute at f/4 and ISO 400 with the RF28-70mm lens at 70mm and Canon R5. The blend of sky exposures blurred the moving clouds framing the galaxy. I added a mild Pro Contrast effect filter to the ground with Nik Collection 5, and added sharpening to the ground with Topaz Sharpen AI. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini.
