This is a 360° panorama of the dawn sky on September 21, 2020 from home in Alberta, with the Zodiacal Light in the east at left, with bright Venus embedded in the Zodiacal Light. Mars, near opposition, is bright and orange at right of centre. The two planets nicely flank the Milky Way and the bright stars of Orion and the winter sky. The summer Milky Way is setting at far right in the northwest. The Big Dipper is at far left to the northeast. The Beehive Cluster, M44, is above Venus; the Pleiades, M45, is at top; while the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is at upper right. Sirius is above the horizon to the south at left of centre. The stars of Leo are just rising amid the twilight below Venus. This is a panorama of 12 segments, at 30° spacing, with the Sigma 14mm Art lens at f/2 (in landscape orientation) and Nikon D750 at ISO 1600, all 30 seconds untracked. Stitched with PTGui. Camera Raw handled it but give no control over the framing. The light pollution from Strathmore and Calgary light the horizon at right. I shot this about 5:30 am just as the sky was brightening with twilight, enough to colour the sky but not wash out the Milky Way and Zodiacal Light, a narrow window of time as the sky changes colour and brightness surprisingly quickly, even at my latitude of 51° N. This was shot on a very clear morning after several days of smoky skies from fires in the western U.S.
A 360° panorama on the high plains of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Alberta, July 15, 2013 on the Graburn Road. This is an 8-section panorama with the 8mm fish-eye lens, with segments at 45° spacings and each exposure 90s at f/3.5 and with the Canon 5D MkII at ISO 3200. North is at left, south in the middle, with the road running east to west. Visible from left to right are: very low level aurora - the Survivor Tree and lights from my other cameras shooting and my car - bands of green airglow running across the sky from east to west - a spot of light from a distant thunderstorm and lightning - the centre of the Milky Way setting in the southwest - airglow bands in the west - and horizon glow from Medicine Hat. Segments processed in Photoshop and assembled with PTGui, then further processing of stitched scene in Photoshop.
This is the Milky Way of the autumn season in the Northern Hemisphere, on a late September night, from the very dark site of Red Rock Canyon, in Waterton Lakes National Park, Canada. The scene is a crop from the full 360° rectangular panorama, taken about 11:00 pm. Illumination is solely by starlight. Being autumn, the larches and aspens are in autumn colours. Snow is on Mount Blakiston at left, while the sharp peak at centre is Anderson Peak. The galactic centre is toward the southwest at left of centre, though Sagittarius itself had set by the time I shot this panorama. The bright star cloud of Scutum is above the mountains. The Milky Way stretches up through Aquila, through the Summer Triangle stars, and across the top as the Milky Way was then passing through the zenith. At right, the sky is red from airglow and a dim aurora. At left is the dim glow of the Gegenschein. My other camera is in the scene, shooting a time-lapse of the Milky Way motion. This is a multi-tier panorama, with the full 360° panorama consisting of 48 segments (!), in 4 tiers of 12 segments each, taken with the iPano motorized panning unit. Each exposure was 30 seconds at f/2 with the 24mm lens and Canon 6D at ISO 6400. Stitching was with PTGui, which did it flawlessly. The original of this image is 12,800 x 5,600 pixels.
