Smoky Sunset at Vermilion Lakes

Sunset at Vermilion Lakes, Banff, Alberta, over Mt. Rundle reflected in the still waters, on an evening with a smoke-filled sky from B.C. forest fires. This is a single shot with the Canon EOS Ra and 15-35mm RF lens.

The Milky Way over Blakiston Creek

The galactic core area of the northern summer Milky Way over the Blakiston Valley and Blakiston Creek in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta on a July night. Sagittarius is at left over Vimy Peak, with the bright Sagittarius Starcloud over the valley, with the Messier 6 and 7 star clusters low and left of centre. Scorpius with reddish Antares is at right. The pink Lagoon Nebula, M8, is at top, and the globular cluster M22 is at upper left. The dark Pipe Nebula is at top centre. This is a blend of tracked exposures for the sky and untracked exposures for the ground: a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked at f/2.8 and ISO 1600 for the sky, blended with a stack of 2 x 5-minute untracked at f/4 and ISO 1600 for the ground. A tracked 2-minute exposure through an Kase/Alyn Wallace Starglow filter adds the star glow effect. An additional 8-minute exposure at ISO 400 and f/8 taken early in the evening during blue hour adds some illumination to the distant mountains. However, the majority of the landscape comes from untracked exposures taken just before the tracked ones when the sky was dark, with illumination just from starlight with a more normal colour balance. Forest fire smoke moving in added some haze and lowered contrast. The bright light is the Prince of Wales Hotel, and the light to the left is from the golf course clubhouse. The sky tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini which worked perfectly. The camera was the Canon ESO Ra and lens the Canon 15-35mm RF at 35mm.

The Milky Way over Driftwood Beach

The northern summer Milky Way over Middle Waterton Lake at Driftwood Beach in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta on a July night. Sagittarius is at centre, with the pink Lagoon Nebula, M8, right of centre. The Dark Horse complex of dust lanes is over the peak at right. The Scutum Starcloud is at top centre. The bright object at far left is Jupiter, with dimmer Saturn to the right, with both over Vimy Peak and in Capricornus or thereabouts! This is a blend of tracked exposures for the sky and untracked exposures for the ground: a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked at f/2.8 and ISO 1600 for the sky, blended with a single 8-minute untracked at f/5.6 and ISO 800 for the ground, taken with Long Exposure Noise Reduction on to eliminate most thermal hot pixels this warm night. A tracked 2-minute exposure through an Kase/Alyn Wallace Starglow filter adds the star glow effect. An additional short 30-second exposure at ISO 400 and f/4 is for the lights of the Prince of Wales Hotel and their reflections, to preevent them from overexposing too much which they would in the long ground exposure. Forest fire smoke moving in added some haze and lowered contrast. The sky tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini which worked perfectly. The camera was the Canon ESO Ra and lens the Canon 15-35mm RF at 15mm.

The Milky Way over Upper Waterton Lake

The summer Milky Way and galactic core region over Upper Waterton Lake and Waterton Townsite on a July evening. This was from the famous viewpoint of the Prince of Wales Hotel, looking south with Sagittarius and the Galactic Centre positioned over the lake. Scorpius is at right with reddish Antares. The M6 and M7 star clusters are low over the lake. The pinkish Lagoon Nebula, M8, is left of centre, with the M24 Small Sagittarius Starcloud above. Some forest fire smoke dampened the contrast and transparency this night. This is a blend of tracked exposures for the sky and untracked exposures for the ground: a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked at ISO 1600 and f/2.8 for the sky and a stack of 3 x 4-minute untracked at ISO 800 and f/4 for the ground. LENR noise reduction applied in-camera to the ground images to reduce thermal speckling on this warm night. An additional short 30-second exposure at ISO 400 and f/5.6 masked in is for the town lights to subdue their brightness, though the result does better resemble the naked eye view, as the lighting has been reduced and shielded recently to make it much less glaring than before. An additional 2-minute tracked exposure at the end of the sequence taken through a Kase/Alyn Wallace Starglow filter blended in add the star glows! The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini which worked perfectly and consistently. The camera was the Canon EOS Ra with the 15-35mm RF lens at 24mm.

Summer Milky Way at Dinosaur Park

The summer Milky Way and galactic core region over the formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, July 9, 2021, on a warm moonless night. This is a blend of 4 tracked exposures (2 to 3 minutes each) at f/2.8 for the sky and 3 untracked exposures (4 to 8 minutes) at f/5.6 for the foreground. An additional tracked exposure through a Kase/Alyn Wallace Starglow filter adds some subtle glows to the bright stars. Two of the sky exposures were shot through a Kase Natural Night filter as a test, but it didn't make a big difference over the unfiltered images. All with the Canon Ra at ISO 1600 to 3200, and on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker, and with the Canon 15-35mm RF lens. No artificial lighting was employed here. Smoke from BC forest fires spoiled the transparency and contrast in the sky.

Circumpolar Star Trails with Noctilucent Clouds

An extensive display of noctilucent clouds blended with a star trail sequence of the circumpolar stars of the northern sky. This is a stack of thirty 30-second exposures taken at the end of a sequence of 450 shots, taken when the sky was darkest with the most stars visible, blended with a shorter exposure taken earlier in the night when the noctilucent clouds were more extensive across the twilight sky. So this is a "time-blend" of frames taken from a set shot for a time-lapse. All with the TTArtisan 11mm full-frame fish-eye lens at f/2.8 and on the Canon R6.

The Rising Strawberry Moon of June 2021 with Clouds

The Full Moon of June 24, 2021, colloquially called the "Strawberry Moon," rising over the wind-rippled water of McGregor Lake in southern Alberta. The Moon is casting a prominent "glitter path" across the water, with clouds moving in above. This is an exposure blend of two images: a long one for the sky and water, and a short one for the disk of the Moon, to prevent it from being an overexposed white disk. The eye can take in this type of scene but the cameras of today, as good as they are, still cannot record the full dynamic range in brightness of such a scene in one exposure. This was with the Canon EOS Ra and 24-105mm RF zoom lens at 105mm.

The Rising Strawberry Moon of June 2021

The Full Moon of June 24, 2021, colloquially called the "Strawberry Moon," rising over the wind-rippled water of McGregor Lake in southern Alberta. The Moon is casting a prominent "glitter path" across the water. This is an exposure blend of two images: a long one for the sky and water, and a short one for the disk of the Moon, to prevent it from being an overexposed white disk. The eye can take in this type of scene but the cameras of today, as good as they are, still cannot record the full dynamic range in brightness of such a scene in one exposure. This was with the Canon EOS Ra and 200mm L lens.

Glitter Path of the Strawberry Moon

The Full Moon of June 24, 2021, colloquially called the "Strawberry Moon," rising over the wind-rippled water of McGregor Lake in southern Alberta. The Moon is casting a prominent "glitter path" across the water. This is an exposure blend of two images: a long one for the sky and water, and a short one for the disk of the Moon, to prevent it from being an overexposed white disk. The eye can take in this type of scene but the cameras of today, as good as they are, still cannot record the full dynamic range in brightness of such a scene in one exposure. This was with the Canon EOS Ra, and 200mm L lens and 1.4x Extender for 280mm focal length.

The Rising Strawberry Moon on the Horizon

The Full Moon of June 24, 2021, colloquially called the "Strawberry Moon," just rising over the distant hill at McGregor Lake in southern Alberta. The disk of the Moon is flattened by atmospheric refraction and tinted golden from atmospheric absorption, as is the case for all rising and setting Moons, and Suns. This is an exposure blend of two images: a long one for the sky and water, and a shorter one for the disk of the Moon, to prevent it from being overexposed. This was with the Canon EOS Ra and 200mm L lens and 1.4x Extender for 280mm focal length.

Milky Way over Icy Cameron Lake

The Milky Way, with the starclouds of the galactic core in Sagittarius at left and the head of Scorpius at right, over a still ice-covered Cameron Lake, a high altitude alpine lake in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada. This was on a very clear night on June 2, 2021. The Lagoon Nebula, M8, and M24 Small Sagittarius Starcloud are prominent at left. Antares and the Rho Ophiuchi dark lanes are at right just over the mountain ridge, with the tracked shots timed to catch Antares before it set behind the peak. The Galactic "Dark Horse" is at centre, with this area of sky about as high as it would get for the night — this is right on the Canada-US border at 49° N. The landscape is lit only by starlight and residual airglow. Cameron Lake is in the extreme southwest corner of Alberta and is certainly one of the darkest places in Canada. Waterton Lakes is a Dark Sky Preserve. The slope at left is scarred from the 2017 Kenow Fire. This is a blend of tracked and untracked exposures: a stack of 2 x 8-minute untracked shots at ISO 400 for the ground, and a stack of 4 x 2-minute tracked shots at ISO 1600 for the sky. All were with the 35mm Canon L-series EF lens at f/2.8 and Canon Ra camera. The tracker was the little MSM Move-Shoot-Move Rotator, polar aligned with the laser. The ground shots were taken immediately after the tracked sky shots. Stacked, masked and blended in Photoshop.

Scorpius over Mount Custer

A "deepscape" image of the head of Scorpius with the colourful Rho Ophiuchi nebula complex culminating over the icy peak of Mount Custer in Montana, as taken from the north shore of Cameron Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. Antares is the yellow star, with the globular cluster Messier 4 just to the right. The mountain is lit only by starlight. This is from latitude 49° N so this area of sky is low in the south and just clears this mountain even with Scorpius at its highest, which it was here. This is a blend of tracked and untracked exposures: 4 x 1-minute tracked at ISO 3200 for the sky plus a single 4-minute untracked exposure at ISO 800 for the ground, all with the Samyang 85mm AF lens at f/2.8 on the Canon Ra camera, and on the Move-Shoot-Move MSM tracker, polar aligned with the laser. Out of the 8 tracked shots I took for the set, half were unacceptably trailed. Taken on a very clear night June 2, 2021 with the tracked shots taken after the untracked image. That's a mistake with the MSM as it can take 2 or 3 minutes for the gears to re-engage and start tracking, wasting those shots and valuable time.

Milky Way over Waterton Townsite

The galactic core region of the Milky Way over Upper Waterton Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta on an early June night. Scorpius is at right, Sagittarus at centre, with the Galactic Dark Horse and Small Sagittarius Starcloud above and the pink Lagoon Nebula at centre. The M6 and M7 star clusters are just above the end of the lake. I shot this on a very clear night, June 1, 2021, from the Prince of Wales Hotel grounds. The sky is slightly blue from the impending moonrise and the solstice twilight. This is a blend of a tracked and untracked exposures: a single 2-minute tracked exposure at ISO 1600 with the MSM Move Shoot Move tracker, with a single 4-minute untracked exposure with the MSM off and at ISO 400, all with the 35mm Canon L lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra. An additional 30-second exposure at ISO 200 adds the town lighting to prevent that area from being overexposed in the longer exposures. It was windy enough that the MSM proved bouncy and created slightly trailed stars in all shots. Blended, masked and stacked with Photoshop.

Waterton at Night — the Naked Eye View

The view of the Milky Way over Upper Waterton Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, processed to resemble the actual naked eye view. Scorpius is at right, Sagittarus at centre, with the Galactic Dark Horse and Small Sagittarius Starcloud above. The M6 and M7 star clusters are just above the end of the lake. I shot this on a very clear night, June 1, 2021, from the Prince of Wales Hotel grounds. This image simulates the monochromatic naked-eye view. This is a blend of a tracked and untracked exposures: a single 2-minute tracked exposure at ISO 1600 with the MSM Move Shoot Move tracker, with a single 4-minute untracked exposure with the MSM off and at ISO 400, all with the 35mm Canon L lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra. An additional 30-second exposure at ISO 200 adds the town lighting to prevent that area from being overexposed in the longer exposures. Blended, masked and stacked with Photoshop.

Milky Way over Maskinonge Pond

The galactic core region of the Milky Way over Maskinonge Pond and Sofa Mountain at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta on an early June night. Scorpius is at right, Sagittarus at centre, with the Galactic Dark Horse and Small Sagittarius Starcloud above and the pink Lagoon Nebula at centre. The brightest area low in the south is the main Sagittarius Starcloud near the galactic centre. The M6 star cluster is just above the mountain ridge. I shot this on a very clear night, June 1, 2021. This is a blend of a tracked and untracked exposures: a single 4-minute tracked exposure with the MSM Move Shoot Move tracker, and a stack of two 4-minute untracked exposures with the MSM off, all with the 35mm Canon L lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 400. Blended, masked and stacked with Photoshop.

Galactic Centre over Sofa Mountain

A "deepscape" of the rich galactic core region of the Milky Way, here shining over Sofa Mountain in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta on an early June night. The lower part of the Galactic Dark Horse, called the Pipe Nebula, B78, is at right. The Large Sagittarius Starcloud is at lower centre over the mountain ridge, and very yellow because of interstellar dust absorption; the whiter Small Sagittarius Starcloud (aka M24) is at top, flanked by the large star clusters M23 at right and M25 at left. The pink Lagoon Nebula, aka M8, is at centre, with the bluish Trifid Nebula, M20, above. The globular star cluster M22 is at lower left. I shot this on a very clear night, June 1, 2021, from the Maskinonge Pond area. This is a blend of a tracked and untracked exposures: a stack of 4 x 1-minute tracked exposures at ISO 3200 with the MSM Move Shoot Move tracker, with a single 8-minute untracked exposure with the MSM motor off and at ISO 400, all with the 85mm Samyang AF lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra. The untracked shot was taken immediately after the tracked shots from the same position, though the camera was re-leveled to frame the mountain. The sky really was at this altitude just above the mountain, as this was from latitude 49° N. Blended, masked and stacked with Photoshop.

Galactic Centre over Sofa Mountain (with Labels)

A "deepscape" of the rich galactic core region of the Milky Way, here shining over Sofa Mountain in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta on an early June night. This version has labels identifying the main deep sky objects in the field, including all the many Messier objects in the area. The lower part of the Galactic Dark Horse, called the Pipe Nebula, B78, is at right. The Large Sagittarius Starcloud is at lower centre over the mountain ridge, and very yellow because of interstellar dust absorption; the whiter Small Sagittarius Starcloud (aka M24) is at top, flanked by the large star clusters M23 at right and M25 at left. The pink Lagoon Nebula, aka M8, is at centre, with the bluish Trifid Nebula, M20, above. The globular star cluster M22 is at lower left. I shot this on a very clear night, June 1, 2021, from the Maskinonge Pond area. This is a blend of a tracked and untracked exposures: a stack of 4 x 1-minute tracked exposures at ISO 3200 with the MSM Move Shoot Move tracker, with a single 8-minute untracked exposure with the MSM motor off and at ISO 400, all with the 85mm Samyang AF lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra. The untracked shot was taken immediately after the tracked shots from the same position, though the camera was re-leveled to frame the mountain. The sky really was at this altitude just above the mountain, as this was from latitude 49° N. Blended, masked and stacked with Photoshop.

Clouds of Dust and Stars over Sofa Mountain

The region of Scorpius and Ophiuchus filled with dusty dark nebulas and colourful reflection nebulas, here in a "deepscape" over Sofa Mountain in Waterton Lakes National Park. The yellow star at right in Antares with the Rho Ophiuchi reflection nebulas nearby. At left is the Galactic Dark Horse that includes the Pipe Nebula at bottom. This area of sky was rising at the time, with some green tinting from airglow. I shot this on June 1, 2021 from the Maskinonge Pond area. This is a blend of tracked and untracked exposures: a stack of 2 x 1-minute tracked exposures at ISO 3200 for the sky, blended with 2 x 8-minute untracked exposures at ISO 400 for the ground, all at f/2.8 with the Samyang 85mm AF lens and Canon EOS Ra camera. The tracker was the Move-Shoot-Move MSM tracker which mistracked for many of the exposures, giving only 2 out of 16 or so that were tracked properly and not trailed. Using the MSM required a lot of wasted time and unusable exposures.

Milky Way Arch in Moonlight over Dinosaur Park

This is a 160°-wide panorama of the Milky Way arching over the Badlands formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, taken on a moonlit night in May. The waxing crescent Moon is low and off frame at left and is providing the warm illumination. Capella is the bright star at far left. The Summer Triangle stars are right of centre, with bright Vega at top. Cassiopeia and Perseus are at left; Cygnus is at centre. Haze in the sky adds the natural star glows but also mutes the contrast in the Milky Way and adds the horizon glows. However, a weak aurora adds a green and magenta glow to the northern horizon at centre. This is a blend of a 6-segment panorama framed for the sky, with a matching 6-segment panorama framed for the ground, layered, masked and blended in Photoshop. Segments were spaced 30° apart with the camera in landscape orientation. The sky segments are untracked, each 20 seconds at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens. The ground segments are each 30 seconds also at f/2.8. All were with the Canon R6 at ISO 3200. I should have used 1 to 2 minutes each for the ground panorama, shot at a lower ISO, but it was late! Stitching was with Adobe Camera Raw. I applied a mild Orton glow effect using Luminar AI. Shot May 16, 2021.

Earth and Sky at Dinosaur Park

This is a 160°-wide panorama of the Milky Way arching over the late Cretaceous Badlands formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, taken on a moonlit night in May, juxtaposing the dramatic earth tones with the bluish sky above. The waxing crescent Moon is low and off frame at left and is providing the warm illumination. Capella is the bright star at far left. The Summer Triangle stars are right of centre, with bright Vega at top. Cassiopeia and Perseus are at left; Cygnus is at centre. Haze in the sky adds the natural star glows but also mutes the contrast in the Milky Way and adds the horizon glows. However, a weak aurora adds a green and magenta glow to the northern horizon at centre. This is a blend of a 6-segment panorama framed for the sky, with a matching 6-segment panorama framed for the ground, layered, masked and blended in Photoshop. Segments were spaced 30° apart with the camera in landscape orientation. The sky segments are untracked, each 20 seconds at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens. The ground segments are each 30 seconds also at f/2.8. All were with the Canon R6 at ISO 3200. I should have used 1 to 2 minutes each for the ground panorama, shot at a lower ISO, but it was late! Stitching was with Adobe Camera Raw. I applied a Dynamic Contrast filter to the ground using ON1 Effects, and a mild Orton glow effect using Luminar AI. Shot May 16, 2021.

The Moon, Mars and Winter Stars at Dinosaur Park

The waxing crescent Moon near the stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini, with Mars below, as the last of the winter stars set into the western twilight on a May night. This was May 16, 2021 from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. Capella in Auriga is at right. Procyon in Canis Minor is at left. This is a stack of 7 images (all 8 seconds) for the ground to smooth noise, blended with one long 13s exposure for the sky, plus one short 0.3s exposure for the Moon, to prevent its disk from overexposing too much, especially with the haze present this night. All with the Canon R6, untracked, and adapted Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.8.

Panorama of the Milky Rising at Dinosaur Park

The northern summer Milky Way rising on a spring night at Dinosaur Provincal Park, Alberta. This is a 180° panorama from northwest, at left, where the waxing crescent Moon is setting, over to southeast, at right, where Scorpius and the galactic centre is rising. The Summer Triangle stars are at centre; Cassiopeia is left of centre; Auriga and Gemini are setting at far left amid the glow of the setting Moon. The sky was hazy, adding the natural star glows, horizon clouds and tints. No light pollution or starglow filter was employed. This was May 15/16, 2021 about 1 am. This is a blend of tracked exposures for the sky and untracked exposures for the ground. The sky is a stitch of 9 segments at 30° spacings, each 1 minute at ISO 1600 with the original Canon 24mm L lens at f/2. The camera was in portrait orientation. The ground is a stitch of 18 segments at 15° spacings and taken after the sky segments with the tracker motor off, each ground segment 2 minutes at ISO 3200 with the lens at f/4 for more depth of field. Both passes were single row panoramas, with the camera unchanged in altitude. All with the Canon EOS Ra camera on the Move-Shoot-Move (MSM) rotator/tracker with the Alyn Wallace Z Plate to allow the camera to pan horizontally on the level, despite the tracker being tipped over polar aligned. All stitching was with Adobe Camera Raw, to create two panoramas, which were then layered, masked (using Select Sky) and blended in Photoshop. A mild Orton glow effect added with Luminar AI. I have left some satellites in.

Goodbye Winter Sky!

The full array of northern winter stars and constellations, including Orion, setting in the evening twilight at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, on April 20, 2021, so about the last opportunity to shoot the scene for the season. Light from the waxing quarter Moon just off frame at top illuminates the scene, plus the sky is still bright with twilight colours in the west. Orion is just all visible but with Rigel about to set. The Hyades and Pleiades in Taurus are just over the formation at right. Sirius in Canis Major is over the formation at left. Procyon in Canis Minor is at left of centre. Castor and Pollux in Gemini are the two stars at top. Capella in Auriga is at upper right. Perseus is at far right. Mars is dim at centre frame as an "extra star" between Gemini and Auriga. This is a stack of 4 x 30-second tracked exposures for the sky at ISO 800 and 4 x 1-minute untracked exposures for the ground at ISO 200, at f/4 with the 14mm Samyang SP lens on the Canon EOS Ra camera. The tracker was the Star Adventurer 2i. This is not a multi-segment panorama but is a multi-exposure stack. Stacked, masked and blended in Photoshop.

Auroral Arc Panorama (March 13, 2021)

An arc of aurora across the north, taken from home in southern Alberta March 13, 2021 on a night when the STEVE auroral arc appeared about 45 minutes after this was taken whren the main arc shown here had faded. This is a cropped stitch of 9 segments, each 30 seconds at f/2.8 with the Venus Optics 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 1600. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.