Smoky Sunset over the Bow Valley

Blue hour twilight with a waxing crescent Moon, over the Bow Valley, Banff, Alberta, on an evening with the air filled with smoke from B.C. forest fires to the west, muting the colours and clarity. This is from the Hoodoos Viewpoint trail on Tunnel Mountain Drive, looking back toward Banff. The lights of the Banff Springs Hotel are in the distance at left. The Bow River winds below. Tunnel Mountain is at centre with Sulphur Mountain to the left and at far left a portion of Mt. Rundle. Cascade Mountain is at far right. This is a panorama from 7 segments with the Canon EOS Ra and 15-35mm RF lens.

Smoky Sunset Panorama over the Bow Valley

A 180° panorama taken in blue hour twilight with a waxing crescent Moon, over the Bow Valley, Banff, Alberta. This evening the air was filled with smoke from B.C. forest fires to the west, muting the colours and clarity. This is from the Hoodoos Viewpoint trail on Tunnel Mountain Drive, looking back toward Banff. The lights of the Banff Springs Hotel are in the distance at left. The Bow River winds below. Tunnel Mountain is at centre with Sulphur Mountain to the left and at far left is Mt. Rundle. Cascade Mountain is at far right. This is a panorama from 6 segments with the Canon EOS Ra and 15-35mm RF lens at 22mm.

The Prismatic Colours of Noctilucent Clouds

A superb showing of noctilucent clouds (NLCs) on June 27, 2021, with the colours very prominent, even to the eye. The colours transition from the red and oranges of the solstice twilight, through to yellows and even greens above (these were obvious to the eye), then to the cyan and electric blue of the clouds themselves. The tops of the clouds fade to a deep red as they are being illuminated there by the setting Sun at their altitude and latitude and so appear red, with that red edge decreasing in altitude as the evening progressed as the Sun set lower below the horizon. A widespread area of very clear sky locally and far to the north may have contributed to the better visibility of the colours as the light from the Sun had a clearer path through the atmosphere. This was June 27-28, 2021, in a particularly widespread display that started the evening with the clouds filling the northern half of the sky,. This was from home and is a panorama stitched from 9 segments, each with the 24-105mm f/4 RF lens at 67mm, and Canon R6 camera.

Noctilucent Clouds in Deep Twilight at Crawling Lake

A panorama of noctilucent clouds in the waning stages of a great display, as they retreated to a low but bright band across the northwest and northern horizon, here over the wind-rippled waters of Crawling Valley Reservoir near home in southern Alberta. The wind prevented the ideal reflection. This was June 20, 2021, the evening of summer solstice this year. So this was the shortest night of the year with the Sun the least distance below the horizon it would get for us at my latitude of 51° N. The colours blend the blue, yellow and orange of the solstice twilight with the blue-white of the NLCs, with a slight reddish tinge at the tops of the clouds where the Sun is setting. This is a 5-section panorama with the 85mm Samyang lens and Canon R6, stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Noctilucent Clouds Panorama at Crawling Lake

A 150° panorama showing the full sweep of the noctilucent clouds display of June 20, 2021, in its later stages, as the clouds retreated to a low but bright band across the northwest and northern horizon, here over the wind-rippled waters of Crawling Valley Reservoir near home in southern Alberta. The wind prevented the ideal reflection. This was June 20, 2021, the evening of summer solstice this year. So this was the shortest night of the year with the Sun the least distance below the horizon it would get for us at my latitude of 51° N. The colours blend the blue, yellow and orange of the solstice twilight with the blue-white of the NLCs, with a slight reddish tinge at the tops of the clouds where the Sun is setting. This is an 11-section panorama with the 85mm Samyang lens and Canon R6 oriented in landscape mode (i.e. horizontally), stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. There is a version shot just before this one with the camera min portrait mode, and that takes in more sky.

Arc of Noctilucent Clouds (June 20, 2021)

A 150° panorama showing the full sweep and arc of the noctilucent cloud display of June 20, 2021, in its later stages, as the clouds retreated to a low but bright band across the northwest and northern horizon, here over the wind-rippled waters of Crawling Valley Reservoir near home in southern Alberta. The wind prevented the ideal reflection. This was June 20, 2021, the evening of summer solstice this year. So this was the shortest night of the year with the Sun the least distance below the horizon it would get at my latitude of 51° N. The colours blend the blue, yellow and orange of the solstice twilight with the blue-white of the NLCs, with a slight reddish tinge at the tops of the clouds where the Sun is setting. This is a crop of a 24-section panorama with the 85mm Samyang lens and Canon R6, in portrait orientation (moving the camera 10° between segments), stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Noctilucent Clouds Panorama at Crawling Lake with 50mm Lens

A 150° panorama showing the full sweep of the noctilucent clouds display of June 20, 2021, early in its appearance, with the clouds still high in the north, though 20 minutes or so before this the clouds reached up to the zenith in the brighter twilight sky. This is over the wind-rippled waters of Crawling Valley Reservoir near home in southern Alberta. The wind prevented the ideal reflection. This was June 20, 2021, the evening of summer solstice this year. So this was the shortest night of the year with the Sun the least distance below the horizon it would get for us at my latitude of 51° N. The colours blend the blue, yellow and orange of the solstice twilight with the blue-white of the NLCs. This is an 11-section panorama with the 50mm Sigma lens and Canon R6 oriented in landscape mode (i.e. horizontally), stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Noctilucent Clouds at Dawn (June 17, 2021)

A 180° panorama of the massive display of noctilucent clouds at dawn on June 17, 2021 from home in southern Alberta. This display was bright and extensive at dusk on June 16, and re-appeared over much of the northeastern sky at dawn. It reached up to the zenith as the sky brightened. This is a panorama of 11 segments with the 24mm lens and Canon R6, stitched with Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop.

Noctilucent Clouds at Dusk with 85mm Lens (June 16, 2021)

A 45° panorama of the massive "grand display" of noctilucent clouds at dusk on June 16, 2021 from "One Tree Hill" near home in southern Alberta. This display was bright and extensive at dusk on June 16, and re-appeared over much of the northeastern sky at dawn on June 17. Note the colours — with the NLCs having a reddish tinge at the top where sunlight is reddened as the Sun sets from that altitude and location of the clouds. The lower areas of NLCs often appear green as well. But the main colour of NLCs is electric blue, very much so this night when they were so bright. The sharp dark edge in the clouds at left is real; it is not a stitching artifact. Capella is the brightest star to the right of the lone tree. This is a panorama of 6 segments with the 85mm Samyang lens and Canon R6, stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Arc of Noctilucent Clouds (June 16, 2021)

A 90° panorama of the massive "grand display" of noctilucent clouds at dusk on June 16, 2021 from "One Tree Hill" near home in southern Alberta. This display was bright and extensive at dusk on June 16, and re-appeared over much of the northeastern sky at dawn on June 17. This shows the arc of the NLCs, defined at the top by the edge where sunlight is no longer illuminating the clouds, an edge that drops in altitude as the Sun itself drops farther below the horizon. Capella is at centre, Leo and Regulus at far left, and Perseus at right of centre. The main colour of NLCs is electric blue, very much so this night when they were so bright. This is a panorama of 10 segments with the 50mm Sigma lens and Canon R6, stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Noctilucent Clouds Wide-Angle Panorama (June 16, 2021)

A wide 90° panorama of the massive "grand display" of noctilucent clouds at dusk on June 16, 2021 from "One Tree Hill" (my name for it!) near home in southern Alberta. This display was bright and extensive at dusk on June 16, and re-appeared over much of the northeastern sky at dawn on June 17. The waxing Moon in Leo is at far left, Capella is right of centre, and Cassiopeia is at upper right. This is a panorama of 5 segments with the 24mm Canon lens and Canon R6, stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Night Panorama of Waterton Lakeshore

A 180° panorama from Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, of the scene in the Waterton townsite looking across the Upper Waterton Lake to Vimy Ridge and the Milky Way rising in the east. To the south, at right, the galactic core area is rising down the lake but is obscured here by clouds moving in. The bright star over Vimy at centre is Altair. The north, at left, are bands of green airglow prominent this night to the camera. Those glows are not aurora. Haze adds the natural star glows. The yellow sky glow in the far distance at right must be urban glow from Whitefish and Kalispell, Montana. I shot this June 3, 2021. This is a blend of two 6-segment panoramas: one for the ground shot without the tracker motor on and one for the sky with the tracker motor on. The exposures for the ground were 2 minutes at ISO 3200, and for the sky were 1 minute at ISO 3200, all with the Sigma 20mm lens at f/2.8 adapted to the Canon EOS Ra camera, on the Move-Shoot-Move MSM tracker. As is the MSM's habit, it stopped tracking for one of the segments. It is not a reliable device to use for critical time-sensitive shoots.

Milky Way Arch in Moonlight over Dinosaur Park

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.

Earth and Sky at Dinosaur Park

This is a 160°-wide panorama of the Milky Way arching over the late Cretaceous Badlands formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, taken on a moonlit night in May, juxtaposing the dramatic earth tones with the bluish sky above. 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 Dynamic Contrast filter to the ground using ON1 Effects, and a mild Orton glow effect using Luminar AI. Shot May 16, 2021.

Panorama of the Milky Rising at Dinosaur Park

The northern summer Milky Way rising on a spring night at Dinosaur Provincal Park, Alberta. This is a 180° panorama from northwest, at left, where the waxing crescent Moon is setting, over to southeast, at right, where Scorpius and the galactic centre is rising. The Summer Triangle stars are at centre; Cassiopeia is left of centre; Auriga and Gemini are setting at far left amid the glow of the setting Moon. The sky was hazy, adding the natural star glows, horizon clouds and tints. No light pollution or starglow filter was employed. This was May 15/16, 2021 about 1 am. This is a blend of tracked exposures for the sky and untracked exposures for the ground. The sky is a stitch of 9 segments at 30° spacings, each 1 minute at ISO 1600 with the original Canon 24mm L lens at f/2. The camera was in portrait orientation. The ground is a stitch of 18 segments at 15° spacings and taken after the sky segments with the tracker motor off, each ground segment 2 minutes at ISO 3200 with the lens at f/4 for more depth of field. Both passes were single row panoramas, with the camera unchanged in altitude. All with the Canon EOS Ra camera on the Move-Shoot-Move (MSM) rotator/tracker with the Alyn Wallace Z Plate to allow the camera to pan horizontally on the level, despite the tracker being tipped over polar aligned. All stitching was with Adobe Camera Raw, to create two panoramas, which were then layered, masked (using Select Sky) and blended in Photoshop. A mild Orton glow effect added with Luminar AI. I have left some satellites in.

Red Auroral Arc Panorama v2 (April 14, 2021)

A panorama of the auroral arc seen from home in southern Alberta (latitude 51° N) on April 14/15, 2021, showing a very red component above (to the south of?) the main green auroral arc low across the north. At right, it takes on a STEVE-like appearance. Is this an example of a SAR Arc -- a Sub-Auroral Red Arc? A brief sighting of a partial STEVE arc was reported this night but I missed it. The Kp level did go as high as 5 this night. This scene was about 12:30 am MDT April 15, 2021. By coincidence the arc of the Milky Way low across the north parallels the arc of the Northern Lights. Capella is at far left in the northwest; Vega is rising at right of centre in the northeast. This is a stitch of 4 segments, each untracked for 45 seconds at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Red Auroral Arc Panorama v1 (April 14, 2021)

A panorama of the auroral arc seen from home in southern Alberta (latitude 51° N) on April 14/15, 2021, showing a very red component above (to the south of?) the main green auroral arc low across the north. At right, it takes on a STEVE-like appearance. Is this an example of a SAR Arc -- a Sub-Auroral Red Arc? A brief sighting of a partial STEVE arc was reported this night but I missed it. The Kp level did go as high as 5 this night. This scene was at about 12:15 am MDT on April 15. By coincidence the arc of the Milky Way low across the north parallels the arc of the Northern Lights. Capella is at far left in the northwest; Vega is rising at right of centre in the northeast. This is a stitch of 7 segments, each untracked for 30 seconds at f/2.5 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens on the Nikon D750 at ISO 800. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Auroral Arc Panorama (March 13, 2021)

An arc of aurora across the north, taken from home in southern Alberta March 13, 2021 on a night when the STEVE auroral arc appeared about 45 minutes after this was taken whren the main arc shown here had faded. This is a cropped stitch of 9 segments, each 30 seconds at f/2.8 with the Venus Optics 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 1600. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Late Winter/Early Spring Sky Panorama with Aurora

A 360° panorama of the late winter and early spring sky with an arc of aurora, from a latitude of 51° N. This was March 13, 2021, from home in southern Alberta. This night there was a bright aurora across the northern sky, so I have oriented the view to place due north just right of centre. The Big Dipper is at right; Leo is rising at far right. The bright winter stars around Orion are at far left to the south. High clouds and haze, partly lit by light pollution here, add the natural glows to the stars, emphasizing the bright stars and constellation patterns. No filter was used here. The yellow arch at left is a band of cloud illuminated by light pollution. This was a test of new panorama gear, using an Acratech Pan Head on top of a Alyn Wallace/MSM Z-Plate mounted to a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker, to allow taking tracked segments for the panorama, to prevent star trailing. The Z-Plate allowed the Pan Head to mount and move horizontally and vertically in azimuth and altitude despite being on a polar aligned tracker. It worked! The ground is a stitch of 8 segments shot with the tracker motor off, then blended with a stitch of 20 segments for the sky, in 3 tiers of 8 + 6 + 6 segments, all with the Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.8 and for 1-minute with the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600 for all shots. Stitched with PTGui v12 which at last saves camera metadata when exporting PSD files. The original is 25,600 pixels wide.

Moonrise at Dinosaur Park Panorama

A 180° panorama of the rising Full Moon and twilight colours over the badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta on December 29, 2020. This was the "Cold Winter" Moon of 2020. The view is overlooking the Red Deer River valley. I shot this panorama from the Park's entrance gate viewpoint. The image is a 14-segment panorama with the 50mm Sigma lens at f/4.5 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 100, stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. The original is 34,000 pixels wide.

Jupiter & Saturn over Bow River Valley

The still close pairing of Jupiter and Saturn in the evening twilight over the Bow River Valley, in southern Alberta, taken from the Siksika First Nations land near Blackfoot Crossing on December 28, 2020. The night was very clear with brilliant twilight colours. The waxing Moon was providing some of the foreground illumination. This is an HDR panorama of 3 x 3 panels: 3 segments, each with 3 exposures of 2, 4, and 8 seconds, to retain the sky colours but bring out the landscape details. Merged with Adobe Camera Raw. Shot with the Sigma 50mm lens on the red-sensitive Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 100.

Jupiter and Saturn in Twilight Panorama

Jupiter and Saturn nearing their December 21, 2020 Great Conjunction, with this image taken December 14, 2020 from home in southern Alberta. This is a panorama stitch of two images, each a blend of 4 untracked images for the dark ground and stacked to smooth noise, plus a stack of 4 tracked images for the sky, all with the 85mm Rokinon lens at f/3.5 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 400. The camera was on the Star Adventurer 2i tracker, only roughly polar aligned as Polaris was not readily visible amid clouds to the north and in the bright sky. Diffraction spikes added in Astronomy Tools actions. Stitched in Photoshop with Photomerge. Taken well past traditional "blue hour" but when there was still a lot of colour in the sky to the camera, yet the sky was dark enough to show other stars.

Planet Array in Twilight with Labels (Nov 20, 2020)

A panorama of the array of planets across the evening sky on November 20, 2020, with the waxing crescent Moon between the close pairing of Jupiter and Saturn in the southwest at right and Mars in the southeast at left. Uranus also just shows up, but not Neptune as it was too faint to record in the twilight. In this version I have added the labels and the constellation lines for the autumn constellations (which are patterns mostly associated with water), and the ecliptic line. This is a 5-section panorama with the 20mm Sigma Art lens at Nikon D750, stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. All 10 seconds at ISO 100 and f/2.8. Taken from home in southern Alberta.

Planet Array in Twilight (Nov 20, 2020)

A panorama of the array of planets across the evening sky on November 20, 2020, with the waxing crescent Moon between the close pairing of Jupiter and Saturn in the southwest at right and Mars in the southeast at left. Uranus also just shows up, but not Neptune as it was too faint to record in the twilight. This is a 5-section panorama with the 20mm Sigma Art lens at Nikon D750, stitched with Adobe Camera Raw. All 10 seconds at ISO 100 and f/2.8. Taken from home in southern Alberta.