The summer Milky Way over Moraine Lake, in Banff National Park, Alberta, from the classic viewpoint on the rock “moraine” hill – it is actually the result of a rockslide not a glacial moraine. This is looking southwest with the images taken about 11:15 pm on August 31, 2016 on a rare clear night in the summer of 16! The ground is illuminated by a mix of starlight, lights from the Moraine Lake Lodge, and from a display of aurora brightening behind the camera to the north. Indeed, I had to neutralize the green cast out of the mountains caused by the aurora. The starclouds of Scutum and Sagittarius are just above the peaks of the Valley of Ten Peaks. This is a stack of 16 images for the ground, mean combined to smooth noise, and one exposure for the sky, untracked, all 15 seconds at f/2 with the Sigma 20mm Art lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 6400. The frames are part of a 450-frame time-lapse.
The summer Milky Way to the southwest over Victoria Glacier and Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Alberta on a moonless night, August 29, 2016. The bright star at top is Altair. This was about 2 am at the end of the night, and after a time-lapse sequence. Mt. Fairview to the left and others are partly illuminated by light spill from the Chateau Lake Louise and from highway lights in the valley below. This is a stack of 4 exposures for the ground, averaged to smooth noise, and one exposure for the sky, all 30 seconds at f/2 with the 20mm Sigma Art lens and at ISO 3200 with the Nikon D750. All untracked. Long Exposure Noise Reduction applied.
The summer Milky Way to the southwest over Victoria Glacier and Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Alberta on a moonless night, August 29, 2016. The bright star at top is Altair, with the stars of Aquila being the main constellation here, with the Scutum starcloud just over the glacier and the stars of Ophiuchus to the right. The Serpens-Ophiuchus Double Cluster is prominent here just to the right of the Milky Way. Mt. Fairview to the left and others are partly illuminated by light spill from the Chateau Lake Louise and from highway lights in the valley below. This is a stack of 16 exposures for the ground, averaged to smooth noise by a factor of 3 stops, and one exposure for the sky, all 10 seconds at f/2 with the 20mm Sigma Art lens, and at ISO 6400 with the Nikon D750. All untracked and shot as part of a time-lapse sequence at a fairly high ISO and fast shutter speed, to capture the rapid cloud motion, and to capture 300 frames in under an hour before the Milky Way got too far advanced to the north. These frames are taken from a time with minimal cloud and the Milky Way in its best position over the glacier.
