The Milky Way, often described in mythologies as a river in the sky, shines over the Bow River in Banff National Park on a very clear night in early June. The viewpoint is the famous Morant’s Curve on the Bow Valley Parkway, overlooking the Bow, the CPR rail line following the river, and the peaks of the Continental Divide, including Mt. Temple at right near Lake Louise. The location is named for Nicolas Morant who photographed trains in the Rockies using large format cameras from here when under the employ of the CPR. Mars is the bright object at centre, west of Scorpius with Antares and Saturn, then to the east, the star clouds of the galactic centre region of the Milky Way above the southern horizon, in Sagittarius. The Milky Way extends up into Scutum, Serpens, and Aquila. The sky is not black but a deep blue from the perpetual twilight in the sky in early June (this was June 4, 2016) at this latitude. Some green airglow also discolours the sky. Several satellite trails are in the sky as well. This is a stitch of 9 panels to form a partial panorama, looking south and west, each exposure being 20 seconds at f/2.5 with the 24mm Sigma Art lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 5000. Shot with the iPano panning unit and stitched with PTGui.
The arch of the northern spring Milky Way across the eastern sky, as seen on a beautifully clear and mild spring night at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta on May 14, 2018. The galactic centre in Sagittarius is at right to the south. Jupiter is the bright object in the southwest at far right; above it Arcturus. The Summer Triangle stars are rising in the east at centre, including bright blue-white Vega at top centre. The Big Dipper is at far left. Due north and the North Star are at left toward the faint yellow-green and magenta glow of aurora on the horizon. Little of the aurora was visible to the eye. Bands of green and red airglow colour the sky at centre and at right to the south. The distinct and sharp-edged band of airglow was present all through the shooting session. This is a stitch of 21 segments, in 3 tiers of 7 each, taken with the Syrp Genie Mini controller in panorama mode, but with the camera manually raised from 0° to 30° to 60° altitude for each of the three tiers. The Mini did the azimuth panning and shutter control automatically. All exposures were 30 seconds at f/2.8 with the Sigma 20mm Art lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 6400. Stitching was with PTGui which did the job fast and seamlessly.
The Columbia Icefields and Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park, just before the waning Moon rose over the mountains to light the foreground, but as it was already lighting the peaks around the Icefields. The Milky Way is fading into the blue sky of a moonlit night. The Moon is rising just left of centre below the Pleiades cluster. The Big Dipper is at far left to the north. This is a 360° panorama shot on the road (literally!) down to the toe of the Athabasca Glacier, using a 15mm full-frame fish-eye lens at f/2.8 for 8 segments at 45° spacings, for 60 seconds at ISO 3200 with the Canon 5D MKII.
