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Spring Equinox Aurora
A severe (Kp 8) geomagnetic storm on March 23, 2023, just 3 days after spring equinox, produced colourful aurora visible in the outskirt of the Waterloo Region in Ontario. Aurora is driven by solar activities, which ebb and flow following an 11-year cycle. The current solar cycle is expected to peak some time in 2024. In addition, aurora activities also peak around the spring and fall equinoxes, when the sun’s magnetic field and the earth’s magnetic field are in better alignment, increasing the chance of solar wind particles reaching Earth’s upper atmosphere creating aurora.
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The Night Northern Lights Danced
One doesn’t have to travel to faraway northern locations to see the northern lights. This intense northern lights display was photographed in east Perth County, 20 minutes west of Waterloo, during a strong Kp 7 geomagnetic storm on September 18, 2023.
Northern lights come in different colours. Green is the most common, created when solar wind particles excite oxygen atoms in the atmosphere. Red is seen during more intense storms when oxygen atoms are excited at high altitude.
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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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Midsummer Night’s Wishes
Meteor photography is part planning, part luck, and lots of time spent under the stars – check for moon phase and clear sky, find a safe, dark location (which hopefully is not mosquito-infested), and shoot lots and lots of exposures. For the annual Perseid Meteor Shower I typically capture a few thousand exposures over several nights, using two cameras. Usually a few dozen exposures contain meteors, some bright and many other dim. This one is a rare gem – two bright, colourful meteors, streaking through the sky close to the Milky Way, both striking during the same 15-second exposure time, and both within view of the camera.
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Perseid Meteor Shower and Airglow
The Perseid Meteor Shower is formed when Earth travels through the debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. The meteor shower can be seen annually from mid July to late August, and peaks around August 11 to 13 where 100 or more meteors can be seen per hour under ideal conditions. Dark skies are needed for the best view, as in Manitoulin Island, Ontario where this image was taken. This image captures the Perseids within a span of 3.5 hours. All Perseids appear to originate from a point, the radiant, in the Perseus constellation off to the right of the image. The airglow, formed as air molecules in the upper atmosphere were excited by solar radiation, was very faint to the eyes, but showed up as a green and red glow throughout the sky under long exposure.
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Snow Moon Blues
The February full moon illuminates the snowy field where a lone tree stands in solitude.
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Moonrise into the Autumn Sky
The supermoon rose against a vibrant pink / blue glow in the sky on this autumn day. The glow, also called the “belt of Venus” (even though it has nothing to do with Venus the planet), is an atmospheric phenomenon that can be seen close to sunset time looking east (as when this photo was taken), and close to sunrise time looking west. The belt of Venus is a demarcation of day and night – the pink on the top comes from atmosphere lit by the sun, while the blue in the bottom comes from atmosphere in the shadow of the Earth.
Capturing this image requires paying attention to the alignment of time and space. This shot was taken on a clear day when sunset and moonrise were only a few minutes apart, and when the rising moon lined up with the tree. There are often only one of two days a year when all the conditions are aligned.
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Smoke Lake Milky Way
While scouting for locations for Milky Way shots, I found this bay that opened up to Smoke Lake in Algonquin Park in the south-southwest direction. I returned at 1:30 am to take the shot, while the Milky Way lined up with the opening to the lake. Fog was rolling off the surface of the lake due to the unseasonably cold air (7 degrees Celsius) for a mid-summer night. The shoreline and the fog were lit by two flood lights from the shore – no light-painting needed.
The sky was a 17-frame stack (255 seconds in total) and the land and lake were from a single 15-second exposure.
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Airglow over Misty Canisbay Lake
A one-hour star trails session taken over Canisbay Lake, Algonquin Park got an extra shot of vibrance from airglow. While the airglow wasn’t visible to the eyes, it readily registered on the camera. Even the fog on the lake picked up the colour.
Airglow is a type of chemiluminescence – the emission of light from chemical interactions between oxygen and nitrogen atoms, and other free radicals created from solar energy in the upper atmosphere. While airglow may look somewhat similar to aurora, the energy producing aurora comes from solar wind particles directed towards Earth’s atmosphere through interacting with Earth’s magnetic field.
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Moonrise, Lake of Two Rivers
This high dynamic range (HDR) composite image captured the summer full moon rising over an unnamed island in Lake of Two Rivers.
Even on a day when the full moon washed out most of the features in the night sky, there were opportunities for astro-landscape photography in Algonquin Park. Paying close attention to time of twilight, moonrise / moonset, and orientation of celestial objects and landscape, allowed me to capture moments of beauty at the right time and the right place.
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Windswept
“Windswept” captures the views around the Chikanishing River and Collins Inlet area. Our kayak gave us great vantage points from the water, unencumbered by land. This image started out as a regular photograph. Through creative digital edits, I worked on colours and texture, striving to bring out the feeling Killarney brings to me – tranquility, and an appreciation of the untamed beauty, sculpted by forces of nature.
“Rugged Killarney” series.
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Rugged
“Rugged” captures the views around the Chikanishing River and Collins Inlet area. Our kayak gave us great vantage points from the water, unencumbered by land. This image started out as a regular photograph. Through creative digital edits, I worked on colours and texture, striving to bring out the feeling Killarney brings to me – tranquility, and an appreciation of the untamed beauty, sculpted by forces of nature.
“Rugged Killarney” series.
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Standing Tall
“Standing Tall” captures the views around the Chikanishing River and Collins Inlet area. Our kayak gave us great vantage points from the water, unencumbered by land. This image started out as a regular photograph. Through creative digital edits, I worked on colours and texture, striving to bring out the feeling Killarney brings to me – tranquility, and an appreciation of the untamed beauty, sculpted by forces of nature.
“Rugged Killarney” series.
