Once the sky got dark, the Milky Way shone across the summer sky. Laser-guided tours of the night sky were popular, as expert astronomers pointed out the highlights of the summer sky.

Public and local astronomers gathered at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory on July 21, 2012 for one of the annual Milky Way Nights presented by the RAO. From 10 pm to 2 am several hundred people stargazed under clear skies, enjoyed the naked eye views of the Milky Way and telescopic views of deep-sky objects such as nebulas and galaxies. Volunteers from the Calgary Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and staff from TELUS Spark helped present the stars to the public.
Wide-angle of the northern winter sky, taken about 9 pm, January 16, 2010, from home. Taken with Canon 5D MkII camera at ISO 800, with Canon 15mm lens at f/4. Stack of 4 x 4 minute exposures, Mean Combine to blur landscape.
Winter sky in south; taken from home January 18, 2009. With Canon 20Da and 15mm Canon lens at f/4 and ISO 800 for stack of 3 x 4 minute exposures.
Winter Milky Way from Orion to Perseus, taken from hime January 18, 2009. With Canon 20Da and 15mm Canon lens at f/4.4 and ISO 400 for stack of 4 x 10 minute exposures.
Orion and northern winter Milky Way from Australia, March 2008. With Canon 20Da and 15mm lens at f/2.8 for stack of 3 x 5 minutes at ISO400, with 3rd layer Gaussian blurred to add glows around stars.
Twilight at Saskatchewan River Crossing, Banff, Alberta, Sept 4, 2011, with the waxing quarter Moon in the southwest sky. Taken from the overlook near the Sask River Resort off the Icefields Parkway. Looking toward the Saskatchewan and Howse Rivers, with Mt. Murchison the prominent peak at left. This is a 6-image High Dynamic Range stack of exposures taken at 2/3rd f-stop intervals, using the Canon 7D at ISO 100 and 10-22mm lens at 16mm and f/8.
Venus, in the daytime sky, 4 days after the 2012 transit. This was June 9, 2012, with Venus 6° west of the Sun. This is a picture-in-picture composite of two images: the larger full-frame image was taken with the Canon 60Da camera at the prime focus of a 130mm f/6 apo refractor, with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of about 1200mm. The inset is an image taken with the same telescope and Barlow but with the camera on Movie Crop mode. The inset is a single frame of a 640x480 movie, with Venus filling much more of the frame but at the same per-pixel image scale as the large wide-field frame.
Venus, in the daytime sky, 4 days after the 2012 transit. This was June 9, 2012, with Venus 6° west of the Sun. This is a picture-in-picture composite of two images: the larger full-frame image was taken with the Canon 60Da camera at the prime focus of a 130mm f/6 apo refractor, with a 2X Barlow for an effective focal length of about 1200mm. The inset is an image taken with the same telescope and Barlow but with the camera on Movie Crop mode. The inset is a single frame of a 640x480 movie, with Venus filling much more of the frame but at the same per-pixel image scale as the large wide-field frame.
Venus, low in twilight, 6 days before the June 5, 2012 transit. This was May 30, 2012, with Venus 9.5° east of the Sun. The crescent phase is visible in this frame under magnification, despite this shot being taken with just a 200mm telephoto lens. Camera was the Canon 60Da at ISO 100. A plane is flying just below Venus.
Orion and northern winter Milky Way from Australia, March 2008. With Canon 20Da and 15mm lens at f/2.8 for stack of 3 x 5 minutes at ISO400, with 3rd layer Gaussian blurred to add glows around stars.
Orion and northern winter Milky Way from Australia, March 2008. With Canon 20Da and 15mm lens at f/2.8 for stack of 3 x 5 minutes at ISO400, with 3rd layer Gaussian blurred to add glows around stars.
Orion and northern winter Milky Way from Australia, March 2008. With Canon 20Da and 15mm lens at f/2.8 for stack of 3 x 5 minutes at ISO400, with 3rd layer Gaussian blurred to add glows around stars.
See photo in original gallery.
All images © Alan Dyer
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