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.
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.
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.
