Nightscapes - Scenics
Venus and Mars over the Bow River
The planets Venus (brightest at centre) and Mars (upper left of Venus) in the late evening twilight over the Rocky Mountains and Bow River in Banff National Park. This was June 6, 2023, from the Storm Mountain viewpoint on the Bow Valley Parkway north of Castle Junction. The stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini are at right. Mars is just to the left of the Beehive star cluster, M44,, just showing up here. The tracks are the Canadian Pacific Railway line, heading off toward Kicking Horse Pass over the Continental Divide. This is a blend of 5 exposures, from 30 seconds at ISO 400 for the dark ground to 5 seconds at ISO 200 for the bright sky, taken in quick succession, all with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at f/4 and Canon R5. Blended with Select Sky and manually painted masks. Location and timing planned with The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps. Diffraction spikes added for artistic effect with AstronomyTools actions.
A CPR freight train eastbound through the Canadian Rockies, in the evening twilight with bright Venus in the western sky over the peaks of the Continental Divide. This is a single 0.5-second exposure with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 28mm and f/5 and Canon R5 at ISO 100. Location and timing planned with The Photographer's Ephemeris and TPE3D apps.
The Blakiston Valley in Waterton Lakes National Park, in Alberta, Canada, in a panorama captured by moonlight, May 29, 2023. Illumination is from the waxing gibbous Moon just off frame at top. The Blakiston Creek is below; the main peak at centre is Mt. Crandell. Scorpius is rising over Vimy Peak at left. Venus is bright and setting down the valley beside Mt. Galway at right. Dimmer Mars is to the left of Venus, The bright light in the distance at left is the Prince of Wales Hotel. The valley was ravaged by a forest fire in September 2017. This is a crop from 9 segments, each 20 seconds at f/2.8 with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 24mm and Canon R5 at ISO 800. All untracked. The original is 20,000 pixels wide. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
Wildflowers in the Wind and Moonlight
A moonlit scene of yellow balsamroot wildflowers blowing in the wind on a moonlit night in the Blakiston Valley in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, May 29, 2023. Blakiston Creek winds below toward the Waterton River. The waxing gibbous Moon just off frame at top provides the illumination. Moonlight is the same colour temperature as sunlight, so in a long exposure like this, a scene looks like daylight This is a blend of four exposures: 3 x 25 seconds for the dark ground, focus stacked for the foreground and distance, and a single 10 second exposure for the bright sky, both at f/4 with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 24mm and Canon R5 at ISO 800. A mild Orton Glow added with Luminar Neo.
A moonlit scene of the Blakiston Valley in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, May 29, 2023. The waxing gibbous Moon is in the frame at top, providing the illumination and lighting Blakiston Creek. Moonlight is the same colour temperature as sunlight, so in a long exposure like this, a scene looks like daylight. This is a blend of eight exposures, from 20 seconds to 1/6 second, to record the dark forground without blowing out the disk of the Moon too much, all blended with luminosity masks. All at f/4 with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 17mm and Canon R5 at ISO 200. A mild Orton Glow added with Luminar Neo.
Venus as a bright evening star over the Blakiston Valley and Creek in Waterton Lakes National Park, May 29, 2023. Above Venus are the stars Pollux and Castor in Gemini. The valley was ravaged by a forest fire in September 2017. This is a blend of two exposures: 25 seconds for the dark ground, and 5 seconds for the bright sky, both at f/4 with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 31mm and Canon R5 at ISO 100. A mild Orton Glow added with Luminar Neo.
Venus in the evening twilight over Lundbreck Falls on the Crowsnest River, near Pincher Creek, Alberta on May 28, 2023. This is a two-section horizontal panorama, with different exposures for the sky and ground, so four images in total for the exposure-blended pano. With the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 19mm and f/4 and 3.2 seconds for the ground and 1.6 seconds for the sky, and at ISO 100 with the Canon R5. Blended in Adobe Camera Raw.
Evening Planets and Stars over Prairie Lake
A scene of the crescent Moon with Earthshine, planets and the last of the winter stars in the evening twilight, with a thunderstorm and lightning bolts added for a bonus, over the prairie lake near home, the Crawling Valley Reservoir. This was May 22, 2023. Venus is bright above the waxing crescent Moon, while dimmer Mars is at upper left, to the left of the pair of stars, Pollux and Castor in Gemini. At lower left above the storm clouds and lightning is Procyon in Canis Minor, while at far right is Capella in Auriga. They are all winter stars putting in their last appearance for the season, though from my latitude of 51°N Capella remains circumpolar through the summer. Glitter paths of reflected light from the Moon and lightning flash are in the water, but the high wind this night kept the water choppy. This is mostly a single 7-second exposure with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at 28mm and f/2.8 on the Canon R5 at ISO 200. I blended in a part of another exposure taken immediately afterward, that had the upward aiming fork of lighting. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo.
Moonrise over the Red Deer River Badlands
The rising Full Moon of May 5, 2023, coming up over the Red Deer River near East Coulee, Alberta. The Moon is illuminating the water with a fine golden glitter path. This is a blend with luminosity masks of 7 exposures to bring out the foreground while retaining details in the lunar disk, all at f/4 with the Canon RF70-200mm lens at 94mm, and Canon R5 at ISO 200. Site and angle planned with The Photographer's Ephemeris app.
Moonrise over Red Deer River Panorama
The rising Full Moon of May 5, 2023, coming up over the Red Deer River near East Coulee, Alberta. This is a panorama of the Badlands scene, with the site planned with The Photographer's Ephemeris app. This is a 5-section panorama, with each segment a 3.2-second exposure at f/5.6 with the Canon RF70-200mm lens at 94mm, and Canon R5 at ISO 100. A short 0.3-second exposure of the Moon taken moments after the last pan segment was blended in to preserve details in the lunar disk. The pan segments were stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
Thin Moon and Jupiter Setting (March 22, 2023)
The thin one-day-old crescent Moon just above Jupiter as both set on the evening of March 22, 2023. The Earthshine glow is obvious on the dark side of the Moon. The age of the Moon was about 31.5 hours this night at this time and longitude. This is a single 1.6-second untracked shot with the Canon RF100-400mm lens at 270mm and f/8 (wide open at this focal length), on the Canon Ra at ISO 3200 to keep the exposure time short and with the Ra's red sensitivity enhancing the twilight colours. Topaz DeNoise AI applied to smooth the high ISO noise. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo.
The Winter Milky Way over Badlands (with Labels)
A labelled panorama of the Milky Way on a February winter night over the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. The panorama extends from Canis Major low on the horizon to Perseus at top near the zenith. Orion is at right of centre, with Gemini to the left and Taurus and Auriga above Orion. Mars is the bright reddish object in Taurus aboce similarly coloured but dimmer Aldebaran, itself amid the Hyades star cluster. The blue Pleiades is at upper right. Sirius is the bright star at bottom. The image takes in the complete Winter Hexagon (aka the Winter Circle) of bright stars. The Milky Way is peppered with red nebulas, notably the large curving arc of Barnard's Loop, a suspected supernova remnant in Orion. The lowest stretches of the Loop get lost in the bright red airglow. The bright Orion Nebula shines in Orion's Sword, while east (left) of Orion is the round Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. At top is the finger-like California Nebula in Perseus. Several Messier star clusters also show up along the Milky Way. The cyan-tinted Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is above centre amid the Taurus Dark Clouds. Bands of red and yellow-green airglow tint the sky toward the horizon, as well as the glows from distant towns, notably Medicine Hat at centre. Some light haze added natural star glows — I did not use a starglow diffusion filter this night. But I did shoot the sky segments though an URTH broadband light pollution reduction filter, to help make the nebulas pop out more. This is a stitch of 6 segments (using Adobe Camera Raw) for the sky with segments taken at 15° intervals, each 1 minute with the tracker motor on and at ISO 1600. The resulting sky panorama is blended with a stack of 4 untracked images for the ground, each 2 minutes at ISO 800, taken about 40 minutes after the sky segments, when the waning gibbous Moon was rising to light the landscape with a warm side lighting. So this is a time blend. But the camera was not moved between image sets. All were with the Canon RF28-70mm lens at f/2.8 and 28mm, on the filter-modified Canon R camera from AstroGear. This was on the Star Adventurer tracker with an Alyn Wallace V-plate to keep the camera level and aid framing the panorama. Orton glow effects added to the ground with Luminar Neo, and to the sky with Radiant Photo and f/64 Diffusion actions. Star spikes added with AstronomyTools actions. A clean unlabelled version is available.
Orion and Sirius over the moonlit badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta on Feb. 4, 2023 with the waxing gibbous Moon providing the illumination on this very clear and mild night. This is a blend of two 30-second exposures: one untracked for the ground and one tracked for the sky, both with the RF28-70mm lens at f/4 and Canon R5 at ISO 200, on the Star Adventurer tracker. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo and star diffraction spikes added with AstronomyTools actions. It was a perfect winter night, with the temperature only at 0° C and no wind.
The Winter Sky over the Badlands (with Labels)
The sparkling winter stars and constellations over the moonlit badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta on Feb. 4, 2023. The waxing gibbous Moon is off frame at left providing the illumination on this very clear and mild night. Captured here in a vertical panorama from below the horizon to past the zenith. Orion is below centre, with his Belt pointing down to Sirius and up to Aldebaran. Above reddish Aldebaran is Mars, as it was on Feb 4, 2023. Above Mars is the blue Pleiades cluster. At top left is the bright star Capella in Auriga. Just above Capella is the tiny cyan-coloured fuzzy spot that is Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), again where it was this night as it was heading southward into Auriga and Taurus, after its closest approach to Earth 3 days earlier. It was nearly overhead this night and an easy sighting in binoculars. I could not frame Castor and Pollux in Gemini as the Moon was too close to that area. A better night for Moon position and lighting geometry would have been a week later with the rising waning Moon, but the clouds did not allow that. I took this night and made the best of it! This is a blend of seven 30-second exposures: one untracked for the ground and a stitch of 6 tracked for the sky, all with the RF28-70mm lens at f/4 and Canon R5 at ISO 200, on the Star Adventurer tracker. The camera was oriented in landscape format and moved upward in increments of 15° per segment. The panorama segments had to be stitched with PTGui, but even then with difficulty as it required adding a lot of manual alignment points for it to successfully stitch all segments. I used the Transverse Cylindrical projection to retain the straight horizon and rectangular image format. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo and star diffraction spikes added with AstronomyTools actions for a "sparkling" effect. It was a perfect winter night, with the temperature only at 0° C and no wind. It was just me there that night, me and the howling coyotes echoing across the valley. This version has labels. A clean version is also available.
The Winter Sky over the Badlands
The sparkling winter stars and constellations over the moonlit badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta on Feb. 4, 2023. The waxing gibbous Moon is off frame at left providing the illumination on this very clear and mild night. Captured here in a vertical panorama from below the horizon to past the zenith. Orion is below centre, with his Belt pointing down to Sirius and up to Aldebaran. Above reddish Aldebaran is Mars, as it was on Feb 4, 2023. Above Mars is the blue Pleiades cluster. At top left is the bright star Capella in Auriga. Just above Capella is the tiny cyan-coloured fuzzy spot that is Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), again where it was this night as it was heading southward into Auriga and Taurus, after its closest approach to Earth 3 days earlier. It was nearly overhead this night and an easy sighting in binoculars. I could not frame Castor and Pollux in Gemini as the Moon was too close to that area. A better night for Moon position and lighting geometry would have been a week later with the rising waning Moon, but the clouds did not allow that. I took this night and made the best of it! This is a blend of seven 30-second exposures: one untracked for the ground and a stitch of 6 tracked for the sky, all with the RF28-70mm lens at f/4 and Canon R5 at ISO 200, on the Star Adventurer tracker. The camera was oriented in landscape format and moved upward in increments of 15° per segment. The panorama segments had to be stitched with PTGui, but even then with difficulty as it required adding a lot of manual alignment points for it to successfully stitch all segments. I used the Transverse Cylindrical projection to retain the straight horizon and rectangular image format. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar Neo and star diffraction spikes added with AstronomyTools actions for a "sparkling" effect. It was a perfect winter night, with the temperature only at 0° C and no wind. It was just me there that night, me and the howling coyotes echoing across the valley.
The rising Full Moon of January 6, 2023 over the Badlands of Horseshoe Canyon, near Drumheller, Alberta. Here the Moon is set a dark blue crepuscular ray (or more correctly, anti-crepuscular ray) converging on the point directly opposite the Sun. The ray was a shadow cast by clouds in the west, which parted enough for a few moments for the setting Sun to light the foreground, making for a colourful contrast between ground and sky. This is a single exposure with the Canon R5 and Canon RF100-400mm lens at 236mm. Most processing in Adobe Camera Raw with ground and sky masks. A mild glow layer added to the ground in Photoshop with Luminar Neo.
The Rising of the Winter "Wolf " Moon
The rising Full "Wolf" Moon of January 6, 2023 over the Badlands of Horseshoe Canyon, near Drumheller, Alberta. The sequence demonstrates the changes in colour of the rising Moon from atmospheric absorption, and changes in its shape from atmospheric refraction. This night the Moon was full almost at the same time as it rose from my location. However, the Moon's high northerly declination — it was about 4° north of the ecliptic — meant that it rose far to the northeast and some 30 minutes before the Sun set, despite the Moon being opposite the Sun. As such, even for the last shot, with the Moon several Moon diameters in altitude, the Sun was still up and lighting the landscape. In fact, at that time the Sun broke through clouds in the southwest to light the foreground with warm light. In this blend, the ground and majority of the sky comes from the final image with the highest Moon and warmest landscape lighting. For the earlier shots the Moon came up in a very bright sky. And so, to better represent the scene, some of the sky coloration — the magentas and cyans — comes from earlier exposures blended in with broad-brush masks. Dark anti-crepuscular rays also added subtle sky colouration and bands of darker blue. This is a sequence of 9 images at an interval of 2.5 minutes, extracted from a set of 80 frames taken every 15 seconds with the camera on automatic exposure, as the sky and ground remained bright enough for an accurate meter reading. The first 8 Moons are masked and layered in with a Lighten blend mode. All images were the Canon R5 at ISO 125 and Canon RF100-400mm lens at 281mm and f/8. Most processing in Adobe Camera Raw with ground and sky masks. Glow and dynamic contrast filters added with ON1 Effects plug-in.
Winter Full Moonrise in Crepuscular Rays
The rising Full Moon of January 6, 2023 over the Badlands of Horseshoe Canyon, near Drumheller, Alberta. Here the Moon is set in the pink Belt of Venus and with dark blue crepuscular rays (or more correctly, anti-crepuscular rays) converging on the point directly opposite the Sun. The rays are shadows cast by clouds in the west, which parted enough for a few moments for the setting Sun to light the foreground, making for a colourful contrast between ground and sky. This night — and this year — the winter Full Moon (popularly called the Wolf Moon) was at a particularly high declination north of the ecliptic, about 4° above the ecliptic. So it rose more to the north than it normally would. This geometry is evident here in that the Moon lies well above (north of) the point where the shadows are converging to, which would be the position of the anti-Sun point on the ecliptic. This was the night of the Full Moon — in fact, the time of Full Moon almost exactly coincided with moonrise for me. However, the high declination of the Moon meant it rose about 30 minutes before sunset, so it rose into quite a bright sky, and was well up by the time the sky darkened enough to show these twilight colours. The next night the Moon, now a day past full, rose 30 minutes after sunset into a much darker sky. This is a single exposure with the Canon Ra and Canon RF70-200mm lens at 94mm. The red-sensitive Ra helps bring out the Belt of Venus colours. Most processing in Adobe Camera Raw with ground and sky masks. A mild glow layer added in Photoshop with the Radiant Photo plug-in.
Mars at Opposition in the Winter Sky
The red planet Mars in the winter sky lit by the waxing gibbous Moon, off frame at right. Mars is at centre, and nearly at its brightest for the year with it 4 days before its December 2022 opposition. It appears in Taurus, east of the Hyades and below the Pleiades, and above Orion. Sirius is rising at bottom just above the horizon. Procyon and Canis Minor is at lower left, with Castor and Pollux in Gemini above. At upper left is Capella in Auriga. The stars of Perseus at at top. Taken from home in Alberta, December 3, 2022, with the old rake as a foreground object. This is a stack of 4 images for the ground to reduce noise blended with one exposure for the sky, all 13 seconds at f/4 with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 16mm, on the Canon R5 at ISO 800. All untracked on a fixed tripod. Diffraction spikes added for artistic effect with Astronomy Tools actions.
Autumn Stars Rising at Lake Edith
The autumn constellations of Perseus and Cassiopeia above, with bright Capella in Auriga and the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus, at bottom, rising in the northeast over Lake Edith in Jasper National Park, on a clear autumn night. The Double Cluster is at centre, above the larger group of stars around Mirfak called the Perseus Association. This is a blend of a single tracked 2-minute exposure for the sky and water with the reflected stars, with a stack of two untracked 3-minute exposure for the rest of the ground, both at f/2.8 with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 17mm and Canon R5 at ISO 1600. I shot this October 16, 2022. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini. The reflected stars are trailed not just because of the water movement but also because the tracker is following the stars in the sky, not the water. Having untrailed reflected stars would require polar aligning the tracker on the reflected celestial pole, in this case some 53° below the horizon due north. Mild Orton glows added with Radiant Photo and Luminar Neo.
The constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, and the asterism of the Big Dipper low in the north over Lake Edith in Jasper National Park, on a clear autumn night. Arcturus is at left setting over Pyramid Mountain. Bands of airglow tint the sky, but also unfortunately, so does light pollution from the Park's service areas to the north of the townsite. This is a blend of a single tracked 2-minute exposure for the sky and water with the reflected stars, with a single untracked 4-minute exposure for the rest of the ground, both at f/2.8 with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 17mm and Canon R5 at ISO 800. I shot this October 16, 2022. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini. A mild Orton glow effect added with Luminar Neo. Diffraction spikes on stars added with Astronomy Tools actions.
Northern Stars over Lake Edith
A panorama of the northern stars in autumn over and reflected in the calm waters of Lake Edith in Jasper National Park, in the deep twilight. The Big Dipper and Ursa Major are at left, with Arcturus over Pyramid Mountain at far left. Capella is rising at right, and above it are the stars of Perseus and Cassiopeia. This was on a very clear mid-October night in 2022. This is a blend of two panoramas: a 4 x 1-minute tracked panorama for the sky at ISO 800, and a 4 x 2-minute untracked panorama taken immediately afterwards at ISO 1600, all with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at f/2.8 and 15mm, on the Canon R5. Stitched in Adobe Camera Raw. A mild Orton glow effect added with Luminar Neo. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini.
Northern Stars over Lake Edith in Twilight
A panorama of Lake Edith in Jasper National Park, Alberta, on a calm autumn night, looking north to the stars of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, and the Big Dipper in deep twilight. Arcturus is at far left setting in the northwest over Pyramid Mountain, while Capella in Auriga and the stars of Perseus are rising at right in the northeast. This was on a mid-October night when the Big Dipper rides low in the northern sky from this latitude of 53° N. This is a panorama of four segments, each 30 seconds untracked with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 15mm and f/2.8 and Canon R5 at ISO 1000. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
Big Dipper Over Pyramid Mountain at Moonrise
The stars of the Big Dipper over the iconic peak of Pyramid Mountain from Pyramid Island, a popular location in Jasper National Park, Alberta, for nightscape and aurora photography. This was on a very clear night in mid-October, 2022, with many aspen stands still in full autumn colour. The images for this scene were shot at moonrise, with the waning gibbous Moon off frame at right lighting the sky blue and landscape with warm alpenglow moonlight. As bonus, a short bright meteor and its orange "smoke" trail appeared on the sky exposures. I shot this during the first weekend of the 2022 Jasper Dark Sky Festival, and so there were quite a few people on the island and around Pyramid Lake this night enjoying the stars on this mild autumn night. This is a blend of: a stack of 4 x 1-minute tracked exposures for the sky at ISO 1600 plus a stack of 6 x 3-minute untracked exposures at ISO 800 for the ground, all with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 20mm and f/2.8 and Canon R5. The tracker was the Star Adventurer Mini. The tracked exposures were shot first, followed immediately by the untracked ground exposures timed to catch the alpenglow lighting of the mountain and trees. I enhanced the landscape slightly with the Radiant Photo plug in and added a mild Orton glow with Luminar Neo. Noise reduction was with ON1 NoNoise AI.