Orion rising at right, with Sirius, the Dog Star, just clearing the treetops amid the glow of light pollution, while Procyon, the bright star in Canis Minor, shines to the left, having risen before Sirius, thus its name - Pro-Cyon — before the Dog. At upper left are the twin stars of Castor and Pollux in Gemini the Twins. Sirius was rising about 8 pm. The Beehive star cluster, M44, is at the left of frame. Some bands of red airglow add red streaks in addition to the red nebulas in the frame. Taken from home in southern Alberta on a very clear night January 2, 2016. This is a stack of 5 x 2-minute exposures plus another 3 x 2 minute exposures with the Kenko Softon filter to add the star glows, each set Median combined stacked to eliminate aircraft trails. The ground comes from one image. All were tracked, at f/2.8 with the 24mm lens and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600.
The autumn Milky Way over the Quailway Cottage near Portal, Arizona, on a slightly hazy December evening, adding the star glows. We are looking due north here with Polaris just below centre. Cassiopeia is overhead at top. Cygnus is at left in the west; Auriga is at right in the east. This is with the 15mm full-frame fish-eye lens, and so takes in a wide 180° view of the sky, and from horizon to zenith. This is a stack of 4 x 3-minute exposures for the sky at f/4 and ISO 1600, with the camera tracking the sky, and 2 x 3-minute exposures for the ground at f/2.8 and ISO 1600 but with the camera not tracking, to avoid blurring the ground. There is some blurring in the trees, which I think looks fine. The tracker was the iOptron Sky-Tracker, the camera the Canon 6D.
Orion and the northern winter constellations and Milky Way setting at dawn over the Chiricahua Mountains of southwest Arizona, near Portal, AZ. The waning crescent Moon in the west provided the illumination in this dawn shot from December 6, 2015. Orion is just above the main peak at centre, with Sirius, in Canis Major, to the left and Aldebaran, in Taurus, to the right. The Pleiades are setting at right. The star cluster at top is the Beehive, M44, in Cancer. Bands of airglow add the red streaks. The site is the Quailway Cottage near Portal, Arizona. This is a stack of 4 x 2 minute exposures, tracked, at f/3.5 with the 15mm full-frame fish-eye lens and Canon 6D at ISO 1250, for the sky, and the same specs for 4 exposures, untracked for the ground. Each set was mean-combined stacked to reduce noise.
