Nightscapes - Milky Way
Red Moon in the Winter Sky (Nov. 8, 2022)
A wide-angle view of the total eclipse of the Moon of November 8, 2022, with the red Moon at right amid the stars of the northern winter sky and Milky Way, plus with bright red Mars at top. Above and left of the Moon is the blue Pleiades star cluster, while below it and to the left is the larger Hyades cluster with reddish Aldebaran in Taurus. The stars of Orion are left of centre, including reddish Betelgeuse, while at far left are the two Dog Stars: Procyon, at top, in Canis Minor, and Sirius, at bottom, in Canis Major. So this is a gathering of many red stars, planets and the rare red Moon. I shot the frames for this scene beginning at 3:50 am MST, 10 minutes before mid-totality during this 1h25m-long total eclipse. Some ice haze this night added the natural star glows. Either bands of airglow, or perhaps just reflected lights off the icy haze add the reddish bands to the sky. The sky scene appears over the old abandoned pioneer house on my property. This is a stack of 4 x 1-minute tracked exposures at ISO 1600 for the sky, blended with a single 1-minute tracked exposure at ISO 1600 for the ground to minimize blurring (I left the tracker running at the sidereal rate for all frames), plus a 5-second exposure for the Moon itself at ISO 400 to preserve the colouration of the disk and not overexpose it. However, I enlarged this short exposure Moon by 1.5x to cover up the overexposed Moon better and to better simulate the naked eye view where the eye and brain always thinks the Moon is much larger than the 0.5° it really is in the sky. A mild Orton glow added to the entire scene with Luminar Neo. All frames the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 16mm and f/2.8 on the Canon R5, and on the Star Adventurer tracker. Shot from home in southern Alberta on a night that we were lucky to have clear at all, as it had been snowing heavily all day. It cleared at night as predicted, but the temperature dropped to -25° C, so just operating gear was a chore, limiting my ambitions this night! And my travels. Snowy roads kept me home, but for once I didn't need to chase clear skies for a lunar eclipse.
Galaxy and glacier! The Milky Way over glacier-fed Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier in Banff National Park, Alberta. The Scutum Starcloud is just above and setting over Victoria Glacier, accompanied by star clusters in Serpens and Ophiuchus. Some airglow tints the sky above the mountains green and magenta. I shot this on a fine night on October 17, 2022 from the usual lakeshore promenade. Planning the timing of the shot was done with The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE) and TPE3D. While an iconic picture-postcard scene by day, it is a challenge to shoot at night as lights from the Chateau Lake Louise behind the camera illuminate the foreground and the distant wooded mountainsides. This is a blend of two sets of exposures: - a stack of two untracked 2-minute exposures for the ground at ISO 800 - a stack of four tracked 1-minute exposures for the sky at ISO 1600 All with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at f/2.8 and 20mm and Canon R5, and with the camera and tripod not moving between image sets, and on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The reflected stars are trailed as they come from the untracked ground shots. Tracking reflected stars is very tough as it requires re-aligning the tracker to turn around the reflected celestial pole, in my case 51° below the horizon, not very practical. Panoramas stitched in Adobe Camera Raw and blended and masked in Photoshop. A mild Orton glow effect added to the sky with Luminar Neo and a ground enhancement effect added with Radiant Photo plug-in.
Galaxy and glacier! This is a vertical panorama of the Milky Way Galaxy over Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier in Banff National Park, Alberta. The Summer Triangle stars of Vega, Deneb and Altair are at centre. The Scutum Starcloud is just above and setting over Victoria Glacier. The dark lanes of interstellar dust — stardust! — weave among the bright star clouds of the Milky Way. I shot this on a fine night on October 17, 2022 from the usual lakeshore promenade. While a very iconic scene, it is a challenge to shoot at night as lights from the Chateau Lake Louise illuminate the foreground and even the distant wooded mountainsides. Some green and red airglow tints the sky along the horizon. This is a blend of three vertical panoramas: - the first is a set of three untracked 2-minute exposures for the ground at ISO 800 with the camera moved up by 15° from segment to segment; - the second shot immediately afterward is made of 7 x 1-minute tracked exposures at ISO 1600 for the sky, also moved 15° vertically from segment to segment; - elements of a third 3-section panorama taken about 90 minutes earlier during "blue hour" were blended in at a low level to provide better lighting on the distant peaks. All with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at f/2.8 and 20mm and Canon R5, and with the camera not moving between image sets, and on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The reflected stars are trailed as they come from the untracked ground shots. Tracking reflected stars is very tough as it requires re-aligning the tracker to turn around the reflected celestial pole, in my case 51° below the horizon, not very practical. Panoramas stitched in Adobe Camera Raw and blended and masked in Photoshop. A mild Orton glow effect added with Luminar Neo. Foreground and landscape enhanced with Radiant Photo plug-in.
Athabasca River at Moonrise Panorama
A panorama of the glacier-fed Athabasca River and peaks around Mount Fryatt in Jasper National Park, as the Milky Way is setting and the waning gibbous Moon rising, lighting the peaks of the Continental DIvide with lunar alpenglow. Mount Fryatt is at centre, while to the right is Mount Geraldine, and to the left are Brussels Peak and Mount Christie. Jasper is one of the world's largest Dark Sky Preserves. I shot this on a fine night on October 15, 2022 from the "Goats and Glaciers" Viewpoint on the Icefields Parkway. Jupiter, large and fuzzy in some thin cloud, is at far left, while Saturn is left of centre over Mount Christie. The bright area in the Milky Way over Mount Fryatt is the Scutum Starcloud. Altair is the bright star at top. Some green airglow tints the sky at left, while some red airglow or possibly low-level aurora tints the sky at right. The location is called Goats and Glaciers because mountain goats are often here enjoying the salt lick deposits. This is a blend of three 3-section panoramas: - the first taken with a Star Adventurer Mini for 3 x 2-minute tracked exposures for the sky at ISO 800; - the second immediately afterward with the tracker off for 3 x 3-minutes at ISO 800 for the ground; - and the third taken about an hour later as the Moon rose, lighting the peaks with warm light, for 3 x 2.5-minutes at ISO 1600. All with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at f/2.8 and 15mm and Canon R5, and with the camera not moving between image sets . So this is a time blend, combining frames taken an hour apart, to retain the dark sky with the Milky Way before moonrise, blended with the alpenglow at moonrise. However, most of the landscape comes from the earlier panorama lit only by starlight. Panoramas stitched in Adobe Camera Raw and blended and masked in Photoshop.
The summer Milky Way over and reflected in the relatively calm water of Pyramid Lake in Jasper National Park, on a mid-October night. The Jasper Sky Tram adds the lights on Whistler Peak. Bands of airglow tint the sky with red. Lights from the Jasper townsite, still mostly unshielded sodium vapour lights as of 2022, add the skyglow at left. Altair is the bright star at top. The red Lagoon Nebula is just setting behind the mountain skyline. The slight wind rippled the water enough to prevent a perfect reflection. I shot this during the first weekend of the 2022 Jasper Dark Sky Festival, and so there were quite a few people on the island, and next to me at this spot, and around Pyramid Lake enjoying the stars on this mild autumn night. This is a blend of: a stack of 4 x 1-minute tracked exposures for the sky at ISO 1600 plus a stack of 7 x 2-minute untracked exposures at ISO 800 for the ground, plus an additional single 1-minute tracked exposure for the reflected stars and the foreground water. All were with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 15mm and f/2.8 and Canon R5. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini. The tracked exposures were shot first, followed immediately by the untracked ground exposures. I enhanced the landscape slightly with the Radiant Photo plug in and added a mild Orton glow with Luminar Neo. Noise reduction was with ON1 NoNoise AI.
Mount Cephren at Lower Waterfowl Lake, in the light of the low waning Moon lighting the peaks but not the foreground. This is from the lakeside viewpoint on the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park, Alberta. I shot this on a very clear night October 13, 2022. There was enough wind to ripple the water and blur any stellar reflections. The Milky Way is to the left of Cephren, but is being lost in the brightening moonlit sky. This is a blend of 5 x 20-second exposures stacked for the ground to smooth noise, and a single 20-second exposure for the sky, all with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at f/2.8 and Canon R5 at ISO 1600. All were untracked camera-on-tripod shots. ON1 NoNoise AI applied to the single sky image for noise reduction. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar AI.
This is a panorama of Peyto Lake in Banff National Park, on the Icefields Parkway in Alberta, taken at moonrise on a very clear and mild mid-October evening. The glacier-fed lake appears its characteristic blue even when lit by starlight. It is not blended in from an earlier "blue hour" shot. To the southwest at left is the summer Milky Way over Peyto Glacier and Peyto Peak. To the west at centre is Arcturus setting over Caldron Peak, while to the north at left of centre are the stars of the Big Dipper and Ursa Major. At far right, in the blue moonlit sky, is Perseus and the autumn Milky Way. At far left over the walkway is Saturn in Capricornus. Magenta airglow tints the northern sky and nicely frames the peaks, which are lit by golden lunar alpenglow, warm light from the rising waning gibbous Moon behind the peaks at right to the east. This is an example of a "moonstrike" image; the timing was perfect this night to catch the mix of Milky Way and alpenglow. I was the only one there that night to enjoy the view, and occupy the prime spot at the end of the new viewpoint. This is a blend of two panoramas: the first of the sky taken at or just before moonrise with the camera on a star tracker to keep the stars pinpoint, and the second taken for the ground about 20 minutes later with the tracker off, when the Moon was up high enough to light the peaks of the Continental Divide west of Peyto Lake. Both pans were with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 15mm and f/2.8, and Canon R5 at ISO 1600, with the sky pan being 6 segments for 1 minute each, and the untracked ground panorama being the same 6 segments for 2 minutes each, but with LENR on to subtract thermal noise hot pixels from the image, something the R5 is prone to. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw and masked and blended in Photoshop. Noise reduction was with ON1 NoNoise AI, and foreground enhancement with the Radiant Photo plug-in, plus with a mild Orton glow added mostly to the sky with Luminar Neo.
Stargazing Under the Milky Way
A vertical panorama of the summer Milky Way over the observing field at the Saskatchewan Summer Star Party, held in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park in southwest Saskatchewan, Canada, at a latitude 49° N. The Park is a Dark Sky Preserve. This was August 26, 2022 on a perfect night of stargazing under very clear skies. The Milky Way extends from Sagittarius near the horizon, to Cygnus nearly overhead at this time, so a vertical sweep of 90°. I've left the satellite trails in for this scene. This is a panorama of 6 segments taken up the Milky Way with the camera on a tracker to prevent star trailing, blended with a set of 5 untracked exposures taken just prior with the tracker motor off for the ground, to prevent the foreground blurring. The ground segments were each 30 seconds at f/2 and ISO 3200, while the sky segments were each 1 minute at f/2.8 and ISO 1600, all with the Canon Ra and RF28-70mm lens, on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. Each sky segment was a stack of two exposures. Stitched in PTGui, but blended in Photoshop. The original is 6500 x 10300 pixels.
The Northern Stars at Moonrise at Dinosaur Park
This captures a panorama of the northern sky over the foreground landscape of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, with the waning Moon rising, and an arc of Northern Lights above the northern horizon. A Kp6 show was forecast for this night but nothing spectacular materialized -- we had just a quiescent arc across the north. This was on the night of August 17-18, 2022. The Moon rising at right is the last quarter Moon. Jupiter is the bright object at far right. The Big Dipper and Arcturus are at left; Polaris is at upper left of centre; Cassiopeia and Perseus are at right of centre; while Andromeda and Pegasus are at right. The Andromeda Galaxy is above the Moon. This is a panorama of a blend of 6 tracked (for the sky) and 6 untracked (for the ground) exposures: 2 minutes at f/2.8 and ISO 1600 for the ground and shadow detail, and 1 minute at f/2.8 and ISO 800 for the sky, all with the stock Canon R5 and RF15-35mm lens set at 19mm and the camera turned in portrait orientation. Spacing of the segments was at 30° intervals. The panorama segments for the ground and sky were stitched with Adobe Camera Raw into two panoramas using the same settings, then masked and blended with Photoshop. An additional short exposure of the segment with the Moon in it was blended in to reduce the bright Moon glare. The camera was on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. The AstroPanel v6 extension panel and its excellent Hot Pixel removal action was used to suppress the abundance of hot pixels in the ground image, resulting from this being a very warm night, and my need to take the image set fast before the Moon rose too high -- so I did not use in-camera Long Exposure Noise Reduction, though I should have! I added a mild Orton effect glow with Luminar AI. The original is 18,800 by 6,500 pixels.
The Summer Milky Way at Dinosaur Park
This captures the vertical sweep of the summer Milky Way over the foreground landscape of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. The image serves as a good illustration of the richness of objects, dark dust lanes and bright starfields along the Milky Way, from Sagittarius low in the south at bottom, to Cygnus at top. In between are Aquila and Scutum, with part of Ophiuchus at right. This was from latitude 50.5° North, where Sagittarius and the galactic centre are low in sky. The Summer Triangle stars of Deneb, Vega and Altair are at top. This is a vertical panorama (a "vertorama"), made of a blend of tracked (for the sky) and untracked (for the ground) exposures: 5 x 2-minutes at f/2.8 and ISO 1600 for the ground, and 5 segments panning up the Milky Way, each 2 x 2-minutes at f/2.8 and ISO 800, all with the stock Canon R5 and RF15-35mm lens set at 28mm. The panorama segments for the sky were stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. The ground stack was masked and blended in with Photoshop. The camera was on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. No filters were employed. The ground images were taken at the start of the sequence when the sky was fairly dark, not earlier in the evening in "blue hour." Illumination is therefore from starlight and some moonlight in the sky. This was on the night of August 17-18, 2022. The last quarter Moon was rising, and present in the sky off camera at left by the time I took the upper sky segments, so I have left in the slight blue tint from moonlight in the sky, to contrast with the green and earth tones of the ground. The AstroPanel v6 extension panel and its excellent Hot Pixel removal action was used to suppress the abundance of hot pixels in the ground image, resulting from this being a very warm night, and my need to take the image set fast before the Moon rose too high -- so I did not use in-camera Long Exposure Noise Reduction, though I should have! I added a mild Orton effect glow to the scene with Luminar AI. The original is 8,500 by 12,100 pixels.
Scorpius and Sagittarius at Dinosaur Park
The galactic centre area in Sagittarius (at left) and Scorpius (at right) low in the south on a summer night at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. This was June 30/July 1, 2022. Being just 10 days after summer solstice and at latitude +50° North, the sky even to the south still has a blue tint from all-night twilight. I made no attempt to neutralize the sky colouration. In addition, some haze from smoke discoloured the sky and reduced transparency and contrast low in the sky. Many of the nebulas and star clusters in this part of the Milky Way are visible, many of them showpiece Messier objects for binoculars and telescopes. The colourful area around the star Rho Ophiuchi above Antares is at right, though muted here by the smoke and haze. This is a blend of a single tracked 1-minute exposure at f/2 with the RF28-70mm lens and ISO 1600 for the sky, with a stack of two 6-minute untracked exposures at f/3.5 and ISO 800 for the ground, all with the Canon R5 on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. A mild Orton glow effect added to the sky with Luminar AI and a mild dynamic Pro Contrast effect added to the ground with Nik Collection 5 Color EFX Pro. LENR in-camera dark frame subtraction employed on all frames on this mild night. Taken between 12:30 am and 1 am.
The summer Milky Way in Cygnus, with the Summer Triangle stars rising over the Hoodoos formations on Highway 10 near Drumheller, Alberta. A low-level aurora display tints the sky magenta and blue at left, making for an unusually colourful sky. The bright stars are: Vega is at top, Deneb at centre and Altair at bottom right. This is a blend of a tracked 2-minute exposure for the sky at f/2.8 and ISO 1600, with a stack of 3 untracked 8-minute exposures for the ground at f/5.6 and ISO 800, all with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and the red-sensitive Canon Ra. Some of the foreground illumination comes from a single distant sodium vapour light, thus the blue shadows. No light painting was used here. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini.
The Last of the Summer Milky Way
A nightscape scene of the summer Milky Way setting over the Elbow River in the Kananaskis Country in southern Alberta, on a superb autumn evening, with the rising waning Moon lighting the forground and autumn trees. This is a blend of a stack of three 4-minute exposures at ISO 800 for the ground with a single 2-minute tracked exposure at ISO 1600 for the sky, all with the 15-35mm RF lens at 15mm and at f/2.8 on the Canon Ra camera. Luminosity masks and dodge & burn layers applied with TK8 Actions. ON1 No Noise AI applied to the sky. A mild Orton Glow added with Luminar AI. Taken September 26, 2021 and timed to catch the light from the rising waning Moon on the landscape. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini. This serves as a good example of blending tracked and untracked images when there are trees in the foreground. It's a masking challenge!
A nightscape scene of the summer Milky Way over the Elbow River and Elbow Falls in the Kananaskis Country in southern Alberta, on a superb autumn evening, with the rising waning Moon beginning to light the hills. Illumination is from starlight and moonlight. This is a blend of a single long 6-minute exposure at ISO 800 for the ground with a single short 30-second untracked exposure at ISO 6400 for the sky, all with the 15-35mm RF lens at 15mm and at f/2.8 on the Canon Ra camera. Luminosity masks and dodge & burn layers applied with TK8 Actions. ON1 No Noise AI applied to the sky. A mild Orton Glow added with Luminar AI. Taken September 26, 2021.
Summer Stars at Fossil Hunters Trail
The summer Milky Way in the southwest with the planets Jupiter (brightest) and Saturn (centre) to the east, over the Badlands formations at the Trail of the Fossil Hunters site at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. The illumination of the sky and ground is from the rising last quarter Moon off frame to the east at left, adding the warm lighting naturally. Lights from the town of Brooks to the southwest adds the skyglow at right. This is a blend of tracked exposures for the sky and untracked for the ground: 2 x 2-minutes tracked for the sky at f/2.8 and ISO 1600, plus 2 x 5-minutes at f/4 and ISO 800 for the ground, all with the Canon 15-35mm RF lens on the Canon R6 camera, and on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. Taken August 29, 2021. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar AI and some dodge/burn contrast enhancements brushed onto the foreground with TK Actions Paint Contrast action.
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.
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.
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.
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.