An Iridium flare, albeit partly obscured by cloud, in a wide-angle shot of the southern sky on an early evening on a December night from southeast Arizona. The Zodiacal Light is prominent across the sky from the southwest to high i the south, despite the thin cloud. Fomalhaut is the bright star right of lower centre, and Diphda the star above the Iridium flare. I shot this December 10 from the Quailway Cottage near Portal, Arizona. This is a stack of 3 2.5-minute tracked exposures to smooth noise plus one more exposure for the Iridium flare itself and that added the ground. All with the 15mm lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D at ISO 1600.
The dawn Zodiacal Light in autumn/early winter from Arizona, with a line of the Moon and planets defining the ecliptic across the eastern sky, tipped up at a high angle here, and showing how the Zodiacal Light lies along the ecliptic. The Zodiacal Light appears as the diffuse tower of light in the dawn sky and is caused by sunlight reflecting off cometary dust particles in the inner solar system. From bottom to top the worlds are: the waning crescent Moon (overexposed), Venus (bright), Mars (faint), then Jupiter (above centre). The star Regulus in Leo is at very top, and Spica in Virgo is just off the ecliptic line to the right of Mars and Venus. Bands of red airglow appear at left with some green airglow at right. This is a stack of 4 x 2.5-minute tracked exposures for the sky, and 2 x 2.5-minute exposures for the ground, but untracked to maintain sharpness. All at f/3.5 with the 15mm full-frame fish-eye lens, and Canon 6D at ISO 1000. The camera was on the iOptron Sky-Tracker. Taken from the field at Quailway Cottage near Portal, Arizona looking east to New Mexico.
