Blue
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A New Day Awaits
Morning fog in Algonquin Provincial Park.
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Blood Moon Setting, Toronto
Toronto awoke to a total lunar eclipse on March 3, 2026. This composite image captured the eclipse sequence unfolding behind the Toronto skyline, from the start of the partial eclipse at 4:50 am, till the eclipsed moon went behind the skyline at 6:14 am. Totality started at 6:04 am, just as the sky gradually brightened from the morning twilight. All the images in this sequence and the Toronto skyline were captured at 3-minute intervals from the same camera angle from Polson Pier.
A total lunar eclipse is also called a “blood moon”. The eclipsed moon is not totally dark – sunlight can reach the moon via refraction by Earth’s atmosphere. The reddish colour of the moon is due to the blue part of sunlight being scattered by Earth’s atmosphere, leaving primarily red and orange light reaching the moon – the exact same reason why the sun is orange during sunset.
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Blook Moon over Toronto, 2026
Toronto awoke to a total lunar eclipse on March 3, 2026. This image was captured from Polson Pier at 6:06 am, two minutes after the start of totality, just as the sky gradually brightened from the morning twilight.
A total lunar eclipse is also called a “blood moon”. The eclipsed moon is not totally dark – sunlight can reach the moon via refraction by Earth’s atmosphere. The reddish colour of the moon is due to the blue part of sunlight being scattered by Earth’s atmosphere, leaving primarily red and orange light reaching the moon – the exact same reason why the sun is orange during sunset.
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Misty Dawn in Algonquin
Morning fog in Algonquin Provincial Park.
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Zodiacal Light over Icy Lake Huron
Zodiacal light, captured in March by the Lake Huron shore, when spring is around the corner and ice on the lake starts to retreat. The zodiacal light is the patch of light extending from the centre of the image to the top left, passing through Taurus, Aries and Pisces, three of the constellations on the zodiac.
Zodiacal light is sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust orbiting the sun. Imagine the ecliptic plane on which Earth (and to a good approximation, most planets) orbits the sun. On this same plane is the dust cloud, from Earth’s orbit to just beyond Mars, that gives us zodiacal light. There are various theories as to the origin of this dust, from debris left behind by comets, to dust whipped up from Mars.
At mid-latitudes, zodiacal light is best observed around the spring equinox looking west just after the end of dusk, or around the fall equinox looking east just before the start of dawn.
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Blue in the City
“Urban Colour” series.
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Helix Nebula
The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula. It sits about 700 lightyears from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius, and spans about 3 lightyears across. As viewed from Earth, it is about half a full moon across.
Planetary nebulae, despite the name, have nothing to do with planets. They are formed at the end of life of a low to medium mass star, when all its fuel for nuclear fusion has been exhausted. The material in the outer layer of the star is ejected into space, while the core collapses into a white dwarf. The white dwarf continues to emit intense radiation, ionizing the ejected material and causing it to glow – hydrogen glows in red, while oxygen glows in blue-green.
Captured with my Skywatcher Quattro 8” telescope and QHY268M camera, with a total exposure time of 4 hours. Processed in HOO palette with RGB stars.
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Starlight Textures (the Pleiades)
The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, is probably the best-known star clusters. At only 400 lightyears away, its six brightest stars are easily visible to the naked eye as a tight, dipper-shaped cluster.
The Pleiades are traveling through an area in space rich in interstellar dust. In astrophotography, the Pleiades are surrounded by blue nebulosity with intricate texture. The blue colour is due to dust preferentially reflecting the blue light from the stars, the same physics that make the sky blue on Earth.
This image was captured in RGB with a total exposure time of 7.5 hours, using a Canon 300mm f/4 L telephoto lens on a star tracker.
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Ocean Dynamics
I spent half a morning photographing the surf from the Pacific Ocean. Every image was different and there wasn’t a dull moment. I loved all the action, how the stiff breeze sheared off the top of the breaking waves, and how the water turned into streaks of blue.
A black-and-white version of this image was selected to represent Canada in the 2024 Four Nations Competition, in which Team Canada won first place.
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Ocean Spirit
I spent half a morning photographing the surf from the Pacific Ocean. Every image was different and there wasn’t a dull moment. I loved all the action, how the stiff breeze sheared off the top of the breaking waves, and how the water turned into streaks of blue.
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Autumn Glory
Fall colours revealed themselves as the morning fog lifted around Rabbit Blanket Lake in Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario.
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Thin Ice Mosaic
A thin sheet of ice formed over the lake the night before as the temperature dipped to -12 degrees Celsius. As it warmed up the next day, the ice broke up into thousands of pieces, bobbing gently in the waves and grinding past each other as they were carried by the current. The blue hue from the late afternoon overcast sky makes the scene extra icy.
I used a long telephoto lens to isolate areas of interest. The possibilities were endless, with every piece of ice having a unique shape, and reflecting light a little differently. Out of the series I like this one the most, with the brighter pieces of ice forming subtle diagonal patterns.
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The Galaxy We Call Home
The summer Milky Way reveals itself during the evening blue hour.
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Underneath the Summer Sky
Milky Way, our home galaxy, can be seen year-round in the night sky. However, the most spectacular view can be found in the summer months, when the core of the Milky Way can be seen in the southern sky after dusk, as in this quintessentially Canadian nightscape. The summer Milky Way reveals itself during the evening twilight, as the sky darkens into a deep blue, behind the Georgian Bay landscape. The two brightest objects left of the Milky Way core are the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, both near opposition and shining brightly.
A 16-image stack renders the night sky with great details and low noise. The foreground was done with a 32-image stack.
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Snow Moon Blues
The February full moon illuminates the snowy field where a lone tree stands in solitude.
