A 360° panorama of the summer sky and Milky Way over the historic 76 Ranch Corral in the Frenchman Valley, in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. The 76 Ranch was once the largest in Canada. Today, it is incorporated into the National Park. This was August 7, 2018, on a night with some haze and smoke obscuring the horizon. Mars is to the left of the Milky Way centre to the south in Capricornus. Saturn is embedded in the Milky Way in Sagittarius. The Big Dipper is at far right to the northwest, with Arcturus setting to the left of the Dipper. The Andromeda Galaxy at far left near the autumn Milky Way rising in the northeast. Some green airglow tints the sky. This is a stitch of 26 segments: 12 in a lower tier, 8 in a mid-level tier, and 6 in an upper tier, manually positioned, and taken with the 20mm Sigma lens and Nikon D750. All exposures 30 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 6400.
A 360° panorama of the Milky Way from Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, with an auroral arc across the northeast at left. The Big Dipper is at far left. Sagittarius and the centre of the Galaxy with the Dark Horse feature in the dark lanes are at right of centre, above the old corral that was once used here when this was the 76 Ranch, one of the largest ranches in Canada. It is now part of the Park. The Park is a Dark Sky Preserve - the lone lights here are searchlights from naturalists conducting a census of the endangered and noctural black-footed ferret introduced back into the Park several years ago. Otherwise there are no lights here in the Frenchman River valley coulee. It is very dark! I took this August 26, 2014 using the 14mm Rokinon lens in portrait orientation, taking 8 segments at 45° spacings, each 80 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 4000 with the Canon 6D.
A 360° panorama of the entire sky over the historic and pioneer Larson Ranch site in the Frenchman River Valley in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada. Grasslands in a Dark Sky Preserve and from most of the Park no lights at all can be seen and none light the sky. This is the natural sky, complete with colourful sky glows. The clouds here look dark, silhouettted against at sky lit only by natural sources: the stars, the Milky Way, the aurora at right, and a general airglow tinting the sky green to the north at right, with some red bands of airglow at left to the south. All ground illumination here is from these natural night light sources. The Milky Way was arching overhead when I shot this, so in this “equirectangular” projection it stretches up from the south at left of centre and spreads out across the top of the frame then descends to the northeast at right. The Pleiades is rising at lower right and at upper right is the Andromeda Galaxy. The Big Dipper is just right of centre low on the northern horizon. From this latitude of 49° N the Big Dipper is circumpolar. This is a stitch of 32 panels, shot with the iOptron iPano motorized panning mount, each panel being 40 seconds at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm lens and Nikon D750 at ISO 6400. Overlap was 35%. Stitched with PTGui.
