AmazingSky

A panorama of "night shining" noctilucent clouds across the northwestern horizon from southern Alberta on July 10, 2026.

This was at about 11:30 pm MDT, with the bright blue-white noctilucent clouds beginning to decline in brightness from the top down as the Sun dropped further below the horizon and the illumination of clouds began to decrease.

I have exaggerated the detail and contrast in order to bring out the structure and colours present in the NLCs and twilight glow. Capella is at right.

This was from latitude 51º North, 112º West. From my local "one tree" hill south of home.

Technical:
This is a pano of 8 segments, each 13 seconds with the Canon RF24-105mm lens at 56mm and f/4 on the Canon R5 at ISO 200. Stitched in Adobe Camera Raw.

Here's my latest review — of a unique product that combines a telescope eyepiece with a digital sensor to provide views through a small scope that rival or exceed what you can see through much larger telescopes. Yes, you are looking at a digital image, but the views are very exciting nonetheless! And they thrilled the public at the event I tested at.

Testing the PegasusAstro SmartEye Digital Eyepiece The SmartEye digital eyepiece from PegasusAstro enhances deep-sky viewing by combining digital imaging with traditional telescope use. It excels in capturing vibrant details in celestial objects bu…

A panorama of "night shining" noctilucent clouds from home amid a wheatfield in southern Alberta on July 9, 2026.

This was at about 11:07 pm MDT, with the bright blue-white noctilucent clouds shining behind dark foreground storm clouds to the north.

Venus is visible amid the clouds at far left. The streak at far right is an aircraft contrail.

This was from latitude 51º North, 112º West.

Technical:
This is a pano of 6 segments, each 2 seconds with the Canon RF24-105mm lens at 33mm and f/4 on the Canon R5 at ISO 400. Stitched in Adobe Camera Raw.

Here's my new music video of the July 3, 2026 all-sky aurora show, with real-time videos and time-lapses of the Northern Lights, shot from southern Alberta.

We are far enough north to get sky-filling shows in summer, but not so far north the sky is too bright to see them.

All the details are in the video description on YouTube. Do watch in full screen and in 4K if you can.

Enjoy!

Summer All-Sky Aurora This 5-minute video blends real-time video and time-lapses of the J...

A panorama from home in Alberta of the Kp7-level display of aurora borealis on July 3/4, 2026, along with a showing of bright noctilucent clouds on the northern horizon. They appear behind local dark tropospheric clouds. This was quite a night for a sky show!

Technical:
This is a panorama of 10 segments, each 10 seconds at f/2.8 with the Canon RF15-35mm lens at 35mm on the Canon Ra at ISO 800. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.

Here are two versions, with and without labels, of the summer Milky Way at Dinosaur Provincial Park, June 18, 3 days before solstice in a sky not fully dark. Special filters enhanced the many red nebulas around the galactic core. Tech details are in the individual photo descriptions.

This is a panorama of an arc of Northern Lights on June 24, 2026 a few days after the summer solstice, so the sky is bright to the north with perpetual twilight. And the waxing gibbous Moon is lighting the scene from behind the camera. This aurora never got any brighter or more structured than this in the time I was looking. Indeed, even these subtle vertical rays here were gone in the next set of images I shot for another panorama a few minutes later.

The aurora was at about Kp4.5 this night, which from my latitude in western Canada is enough to produce at least a horizon show.

At left behind the "lone tree on the prairie" the sky is bright with what might be a distant display of noctilucent clouds. The other clouds are normal weather clouds, mostly high cirrus.

The bright star Capella, circumpolar from this latitude of 51º N, is low at centre. The stars of Perseus are at right.

The bright area in the grass below the vertical curtains of aurora at right is an "opposition effect" back reflection of the Moon 180º away from that spot behind the camera.

I shot this from the east-west township grid road to the south of home where there is a "lone tree hill."

Technical:
This is a panorama of originally 16 segments covering about 220º from due west to southeast, but here cropped down to a smaller portion looking north and northeast framing the arc of aurora. Each segment was 13 seconds at f/1.8 with the Viltrox 35mm LAB lens on the Nikon Z8 at ISO 800, with the camera in landscape orientation. Stitched in ACR. The original is 19,000 pixels wide.