Night Sky Panoramas

4-night panorama workshop with Aaron Priest & Vincent Lawrence on Maine's Bold Coast between Cutler and Lubec

Campfire at NEOC

A 43% moon rises to the left behind our campfire while the Milky Way shines to the right at New England Outdoor Center on October 13, 2017, 00:40. I set the camera in the shadow of a large pine tree lit by one of the cabins for this panorama; I liked the sharp patterns of the shadows across the lawn. The full 360° panorama can be explored here: https://roundme.com/tour/206481/view/561065/ Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 2500, 20 seconds (single exposures). Stitching data: 2 rows of 6 images for a total of 12 photos. This is a 3:1 crop from a 360 panorama. Equipment used: Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Nodal Ninja RD16-II, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod, leveling base, & pano/gimbal head. Edited in Lightroom, aligned with PTGui, and blended in Photoshop. Nadir patched with Pano2VR.

Milky Way over Little Hunters Beach

Taken last night at our three-night panorama workshop with Vincent Lawrence of Acadia Images Photography Workshops and myself on May 19, 2017, 23:35 at Little Hunters Beach in Acadia National Park, Maine. Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 20 seconds for the sky and f/2.8, ISO 6400, 4 minutes for the ground. Stitching data: 1 row of 3 images x 2 exposures. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod & pano/gimbal head, Nodal Ninja RD16-II rotator, and qDslrDashboard. Edited with Lightroom, aligned with PTGui, and blended in Photoshop. Noise reduction via PixelFixer. Planned with PhotoPills.

Crown Aurora

We had a beautiful crown of northern lights for a short while tonight over much of New England! This panorama was taken from my front yard in Lee, Maine, September 1, 2016, 22:33. The flare is most likely an Iridium satellite. The much dimmer streak is a legitimate meteor. Andromeda is to the right of our own Milky Way galaxy at the edge of the frame. Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 20 seconds, 3 stitched photos. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod & BH-55 ballhead. Long exposure noise reduction via Pixel Fixer, RAW conversion via Lightroom, aligned via PTGui, and manually blended via masks in Photoshop.

Milky Way Reflection & Moonrise

April 30, 2016, 1:40 – 2:33 AM I just got back from a camping/photo trip in the northern Maine woods with my good friend Garrett Evans, shooting the night sky from some new, unique locations. This is the Milky Way reflecting in Round Pond on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway with Mt. Katahdin in the distance. Even to the naked eye the reflection of the stars in the water was amazing! To the left is Chamberlain Bridge, to the right is Garrett shooting along the shore, and near the center is a 48% moon rising. This is a 3:1 crop of a 360° spherical panorama. It took a few days to blend and stitch as it’s really three panoramas blended together: I shot the sky at 17 seconds for sharp stars, the reflection at 30 seconds to make it a little brighter, and one minute exposures of everything else at a lower ISO after the moonrise for more foreground details, as well as separate frames of the moon and Garrett. I merged the exposures separately for each frame in Photoshop first with a combination of Raya Pro and luminosity masks, aligned everything with PTGui (including the two separate exposures of the moon and Garrett), and then blended everything together manually via masks in Photoshop. As a result there were a lot of layers and the .PSB file is about 12GB before flattening. Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 17 seconds for the sky; ISO 6400, 30 seconds for the water; ISO 3200, 60 seconds after moonrise for shadow details; ISO 1600, 1/125 & 1/30 second for the moon and reflection. Stitching data: 28 images merged into 2 rows of 6 columns and aligned with PTGui Pro. Blended with Photoshop. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod w/ leveling base & multi-row panning head. Edited with Lightroom. Long exposure noise reduction via PixelFixer. Planned with PhotoPills.

2016-04-30-35201 Fisheye

Boat Launch & Eta Aquarid Meteors

April 30, 2016, 12:27 – 1:21 AM This is the Round Pond boat launch at the top of the Telos Road on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in Maine. Chamberlain Bridge is to the left and seven Eta Aquarid meteors are overhead. You can’t see them all in this crop, but they are visible in the full spherical panorama on RoundMe: https://round.me/tour/43860/view/113082/ Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 5000, 17 seconds for the sky & ISO 5000, 120 seconds for the ground. Stitching data: 24 images merged into 2 rows of 6 columns and aligned with PTGui Pro. Blended with Photoshop. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod w/ leveling base & multi-row panning head. Edited with Lightroom. Long exposure noise reduction via PixelFixer. Planned with PhotoPills.

"Little planet" or stereographic projection

220° fisheye view

Carriage Road at Eagle Lake

This spherical panorama was taken on one of the carriage roads that goes around Eagle Lake on Mount Desert Island, July 14, 2015, 2:06 AM during a night photography workshop that I co-instructed with Mike Taylor and Vincent Lawrence. I positioned myself in the middle of the road where I would get a good reflection of trees on both sides. While I was setting up this shot a beaver crossed the road, bumped my tripod leg, and made a horrific splash on the other side. I’m not sure who was more startled at the brief encounter! The Milky Way arcs straight overhead at this time of year and hour, with alternating green and purple air glow. The Andromeda galaxy is visible to the north east over the light pollution of Bar Harbor. I shot two spheres of different exposures—one for the sky and one for the ground—and blended them via luminosity masks in Photoshop before stitching with PTGui Pro. The tripod was removed from the nadir afterward in Photoshop. I’ll be teaching how to do all this in an upcoming May workshop in Acadia: http://galleries.aaronpriestphoto.com/Workshops Camera settings: 10.5mm, f/2.8, ISO 5000, 30 seconds for the sky and 120 seconds for the ground. Stitching data: 1 row of 7 photos plus a dedicated zenith for each exposure, as well as a dark frame of each exposure. I wanted a lot of overlap to compensate for the softness of the 10.5mm fisheye around the edges. The finished panorama is 65MP, this image is a 3:1 crop out of the middle. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye (lens hood shaved off for full frame use), Panoneed robotic head, Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod w/ leveling base. Dark frame subtraction with Pixel Fixer, RAW conversion in Lightroom, exposure blended with Photoshop, stitched with PTGui Pro, and planned with my favorite app PhotoPills.

Otter Cove, Acadia National Park

250° fisheye view

Otter Cove, Acadia National Park

This was taken on July 12, 2015, 12:07 AM at Otter Cove in Acadia National Park during a night photography workshop that I co-instructed with Mike Taylor and Vincent Lawrence. The Milky Way arcs over Otter Cove while the Big Dipper shines over the triple-arched bridge of the Park Loop Road. Low tide was coming up at 2:16 AM. Usually I would shoot a multi-row spherical panorama with longer exposures of the ground for a brighter foreground and more details, but I didn’t want to take that much time during a workshop, so this is stitched from eight single exposures with a fisheye lens. I used a lot of overlap because the outer edge of the shaved fisheye lens is not that sharp. Camera settings: 10.5mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 30 seconds Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye (shaved lens hood), Promote Control, Panoneed robotic head, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod w/ leveling base. Long exposure noise reduction via Pixel Fixer, RAW conversion via Lightroom, stitched with PTGui, and planned with PhotoPills. We have some great night photography and panorama workshops scheduled this year in Acadia: http://galleries.aaronpriestphoto.com/Workshops

Otter Cove, Acadia National Park

220° fisheye view, the Big Dipper appears upside down from this perspective

Otter Cove, Acadia National Park

This was taken on July 11, 2015, 11:28 PM at Otter Cove in Acadia National Park during a night photography workshop that I co-instructed with Mike Taylor and Vincent Lawrence. The Milky Way can be seen above Baker Island Lighthouse on the horizon. The light reflecting over Otter Cove is from an old fishing shack that I have captured star trails over before. The Big Dipper can be seen shining brightly over the lights of Bar Harbor. Usually I would shoot a multi-row spherical panorama with longer exposures of the ground for a brighter foreground and more details, but I didn’t want to take that much time during a workshop, so this is stitched from eight single exposures with a fisheye lens. I used a lot of overlap because the outer edge of the shaved fisheye lens is not that sharp. Camera settings: 10.5mm, f/2.8, ISO 5000, 30 seconds Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye (shaved lens hood), Promote Control, Panoneed robotic head, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod w/ leveling base. Long exposure noise reduction via Pixel Fixer, RAW conversion via Lightroom, stitched with PTGui, and planned with PhotoPills. We have some great night photography and panorama workshops scheduled this year in Acadia: http://galleries.aaronpriestphoto.com/Workshops

"Little Planet" or stereographic projection

2015-06-18-11058 Little Planet

300° fisheye view

2015-06-18-11058 Full Sky

Milky Way from Ocean Path

Venkat Pakala and I shot this shortly before and during astronomical dawn on June 18, 2015, 01:27 – 02:53 AM from the cliffs of Ocean Path along the Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park, Maine. The outcrop into the ocean on the right is Thunder Hole in the foreground with Otter Cliff far off on the horizon directly below the galactic center of the Milky Way. On the left are the cliffs overlooking Sand Beach with Great Head on the horizon beyond, and dawn fast approaching. High tide was at 12:23 AM. A little bit of air glow is visible over the ocean’s haze. I shot two spheres of two different exposures and blended them in Photoshop, the shorter exposures of the sky first followed by the long exposures of the ground as it got brighter out. All of the photos were aligned in a single PTGui project since there was some discrepancy between the alignment of the two spheres, having shot them on a manual panning head without the accuracy of a robotic panning head or a click-stop rotator, and rushing to beat sunrise! I manually blended and masked all the individual photos and exposures in Photoshop. Each sphere consists of 2 rows of 6 photos, plus an extra shot of Venkat and I attempting to stand still! Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 5000, 20 seconds for the sky and 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 5000, 158 seconds for the ground. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod w/ leveling base & multi-row panning head. Long exposure noise reduction via Pixel Fixer, RAW conversion via Lightroom, aligned via PTGui, and manually blended via masks in Photoshop. Planned with PhotoPills.

Beehive Lagoon

I bumped into my good friend, Mike Taylor, teaching one of his one-on-one workshops in Acadia National Park. We hung out until sunrise shooting a few places around the park. This is Beehive Lagoon during astronomical dawn on June 17, 2015 at 3:12 AM. The Milky Way is rapidly fading from view over Sand Beach and Otter Point as nautical dawn approaches in ten more minutes. The Big Dipper is visible to the right of The Beehive behind the guys. The trees are lit up by vehicles in the parking lot, probably arriving to shoot sunrise. Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 5000, 20 seconds. Stitching data: 2 rows of 6 photos. Finished panorama is 167MP, this image is a 4:1 crop out of the middle. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Promote Control, Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod w/ leveling base & panorama/gimbal head. Long exposure noise reduction via Pixel Fixer, RAW conversion in Lightroom, stitched with PTGui, blended with Photoshop, and planned with PhotoPills. We have some great night photography and panorama workshops scheduled this year in Acadia: http://galleries.aaronpriestphoto.com/Workshops

Milky Way over Boulder Beach, Acadia National Park

May 16, 2015, 12:29 – 01:16 AM This is a ~220° fisheye view of the Milky Way over Boulder Beach in Acadia National Park during a night sky workshop that I co-instructed with Vincent Lawrence of Acadia Images Photography Workshops. I set my tripod in a natural bowl in the boulders on the beach and shot two spheres: one exposed for the sky and one exposed for the ground and refocused on the boulders. I blended the images together in Photoshop first via masks, then stitched them with PTGui Pro. I left the tripod in the nadir to show what a properly calibrated nodal slide should look like after stitching; it should be a smooth circle with no sawtooths. In fact, I hardly needed any control points at all in PTGui as it was already nearly perfectly aligned before stitching. I waited until the Big Dipper was outlined by the trees in the opposite direction of the Milky Way’s arch before shooting the panorama. Learn about this and more at our upcoming Night Sky Panoramas Workshop, May 5-8, 2016! Details here: http://galleries.aaronpriestphoto.com/Workshops/2016MayPanoramaWorkshop Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 20 seconds, 3786°K for the sky and 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 120 seconds, 4024°K for the ground. Stitching data: 2 rows of 6 columns x 2 exposures for a total of 24 photos. Finished panorama is 18192 x 9096 or ~165 megapixels. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod w/ leveling base & multi-row panning head. Long exposure noise reduction via Pixel Fixer.

Milky Way over Boulder Beach, Acadia National Park

May 16, 2015, 12:29 – 01:16 AM This is a crop of a spherical panorama that I shot of the Milky Way over Boulder Beach in Acadia National Park during a night sky workshop that I co-instructed with Vincent Lawrence of Acadia Images Photography Workshops. I set my tripod in a natural bowl in the boulders on the beach and shot two spheres: one exposed for the sky and one exposed for the ground and refocused on the boulders. I blended the images together in Photoshop first via masks, then stitched them with PTGui Pro. I left the tripod in the nadir to show what a properly calibrated nodal slide should look like after stitching; it should be a smooth circle with no sawtooths. In fact, I hardly needed any control points at all in PTGui as it was already nearly perfectly aligned before stitching. I waited until the Big Dipper was outlined by the trees in the opposite direction of the Milky Way’s arch before shooting the panorama. Learn about this and more at our upcoming Night Sky Panoramas Workshop, May 5-8, 2016! Details here: http://galleries.aaronpriestphoto.com/Workshops/2016MayPanoramaWorkshop Camera settings: 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 20 seconds, 3786°K for the sky and 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 120 seconds, 4024°K for the ground. Stitching data: 2 rows of 6 columns x 2 exposures for a total of 24 photos. Finished panorama is 18192 x 9096 or ~165 megapixels. Equipment used: Nikon D810, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod w/ leveling base & multi-row panning head. Long exposure noise reduction via Pixel Fixer.

Alex Jones shoots the Milky Way and aurora borealis at Caribou Wind Park near Bathurst, New Brunswick in Canada. This is a panorama of two images facing north. Halfway between the 47th and 48th parallels, this is the darkest sky I've ever shot! The brightest star is Capella. Above Alex's head is the Alpha Persei Cluster in the constellation Persues. To the right of that the Double Cluster is incredibly clear where the Milky Way becomes visible. Even further right, Cassiopeia is drowned out by all the stars in the Milky Way. Nikon D700 & 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 20 seconds I'm teaching a night sky workshop at Acadia Images Photography Workshops next weekend in Acadia National Park. We still have two spots open if you are interested. Visit http://acadiaimages.com/ for more details and a calendar of future workshops this year. #aurora #milkyway #nightsky #panorama #stars #windmill #winter

Time Warp on Cadillac Mountain

Everyone has been making these beautiful “twirl” photos in Photoshop lately, and it got me thinking that it might look really interesting in a spherical panorama of the Milky Way—half like a galaxy and half like a crazy time warp! So here’s my take on the abstract twirl… The Milky Way and green air glow that is behind the twirl were taken by Matt Pollock and I from Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, Maine on July 26, 2014. This is a crop of a spherical panorama, looking straight up like a fisheye lens. The full sphere consists of 5 photos of the sky blended with 4 photos of the ground. It took about 22 minutes to shoot from 11:30 – 11:52 PM. We spent the rest of the night shooting a timelapse for star trails. Camera settings: ISO 6400, f/2.8, 40 seconds, & 3550°K white balance for the sky blended with ISO 6400, f/2.8, 160 seconds, & 3786°K white balance for the ground. Hardware used: Nikon D810, Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 (lens hood shaved off for full frame use), Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod with leveling base & multi-row pano package. Software used: Edited with Lightroom, stitched with PTGui Pro, and blended with Photoshop. Pixel Fixer was used with a dark frame to remove hot pixels from long exposures at high ISO.

Airglow and Star Trails over Cadillac Mountain – Little Planet

On July 26, 2014, Matt Pollock and I captured a spherical panorama of green airglow, the Milky Way, and star trails over Bar Harbor from Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, Maine. This is a “little planet” projection of the panorama. I like how the star trails almost look like Earth’s magnetic field! The full sphere consists of 5 photos of the sky blended with 4 photos of the ground, plus another 249 images for the star trails (3 x 83) layered on top and can be explored on Roundme: http://round.me/tour/4844/view Camera settings: ISO 6400, f/2.8, 40 seconds, & 3550°K white balance for the sky blended with ISO 6400, f/2.8, 160 seconds, & 3786°K white balance for the ground. Star trails were shot at ISO 1600, f/2.8, 25 seconds, & 3550°K white balance. I removed several airplane trails before stacking. Hardware used: Nikon D810, Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8 (lens hood shaved off for full frame use), Promote Control, and Really Right Stuff TVC-34L tripod with leveling base & multi-row pano package. Dew-Not heater strip powered by a DewBuster controller and Goal Zero Sherpa 100. Software used: Edited with Lightroom, stitched with PTGui Pro, and blended with Photoshop. Pixel Fixer was used with a dark frame to remove hot pixels from long exposures at high ISO. Star trails were stacked with Advanced Stacker Plus.