For a change of pace, I went out with my friend Nigel for another night shoot. It’s been a little while since I enjoyed some night photography. We decided to head over to Luther Marsh – somewhere close by, but still a little ways out of the city.
Luther Lake
There was a haze along the horizon. It looks like these hazy skies we were seeing could possibly be from the fires out west. As time went by the haze became worse and much more prominent in our photos.
Stars over Luther Lake
It got to the point where it was getting harder to see the stars.
Trail at Luther Lake
We decided it was time to pack up and head home. Hopefully, we will find another night to head out again soon. One preferably less hazy.
Since I had such good luck with the Milky Way last night, I decided to go out with my friend Nigel tonight to photograph more of the evening sky. It’s also the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower this weekend, so I had to try to get some meteors.
Meteor Shower over Barn
Luckily, I caught a few over this barn near Luther Marsh. Nigel mentioned that there was another old barn he found one of his recent outings that we should check out, so we headed over.
Milky Way over old Barn
Although the galactic center of the Milky Way was not behind this barn, it was still impressive. We tried lighting up the barn and tree with our headlamps. I think I may need a little more practice with this.
Turning in the opposite direction of this barn, I saw another barn (go figure) with the Milky Way core just above it.
Milky Way and Barn
I don’t love the light by the barn but the Milky Way looks so large and imposing in this shot. There is a lot more practice and learning required for me to capture the night as I envision it but one day I will figure it out.
In this week’s post, you’ll notice something a little different – I’m not in my neighbourhood. I’ve gone up to Balsam Lake with my best friend from grade school and my niece. It’s our ‘Aunts and Niece’ annual camping trip. Luckily for me, my friend likes to take photos and it wasn’t too hard to convince her to go out to do some astrophotography.
Jupiter and Saturn with the Milky Way
The Milky Way was looking particularly nice this evening. We had a bit of a glow from the nearby city of Orilla, but we did our best with what we had, and I have to say it worked out really well.
Milky Way Balsam Lake
My niece had brought up her telescope so she could check out the stars as we played with our cameras. I convinced my niece to pose for a photo on the nearby dock with her telescope.
Astronomer
This is my favourite shot from the evening. Although we were here only the one night, we had a blast and were able to walk away with some great memories and a couple good photographs to boot.
I’m back at Torrance Barrens with my friend Nigel, to photograph Comet Neowise. There were so many people here we could barely find a place to park. This doesn’t bode well for physical distancing. Luckily most people are staying off to the left of the entrance area so we were able to bypass that area and head a little further into the park. There are very few people here as we move further into the park so we can safely find some spots without running into anyone.
Neowise with the Setting Moon
The first place we stopped gave us a view of the comet and the setting moon over the foggy lake. I think this is one of my favourite photographs from the evening.
Perseids & Comet Neowise
As you can see Comet Neowise has a shorter tail than last week’s photos. I’m sad to see it go. The Delta Aquariid meteor shower is active in our skies right now and I was able to capture some meteors with the comet. We also have some airglow happening on the horizon.
After photographing Comet Neowise to death, I had a look around to see what else I could find. Just behind where I was shooting was an interesting boardwalk and as I took my photo someone walked by in the distance with a light. It made for an interesting photo and another of my favs from this evening.
Its that time of year again – our annual family & friends camping trip. Things are a little different this year with the COVID-19 restrictions. We had to pair down our group to just family. Although we missed our friends, we were happy to be out camping again, especially after being stuck in our homes for so long.
There are 3 of us who love to take photos and I suggested we head down to the beach to get some night shots. Little did I know that there was a comet in the sky. My brother pointed it out to me as we reached a lookout point over the water.
Comet Neowise
This was my best capture from the night of the comet, Milky Way and a meteor. You can see a galaxy to the right of the Milky Way as well. I also spent some time shooting just the Milky Way.
Meteor Shower & Milky Way
I really missed not getting out to shoot the Milky Way this summer. In the northern hemisphere we start to see the heart of the Milky Way in March, which is when the lockdown in Canada happened. The galactic centre can be seen until September so there are precious few months left.
Meteor
My plan is to get out at least once more for Comet Neowise before it fades away completely. Which means I need to get out again before the end of next weekend. So that means more star photos! Yay!
