Autumn Sky over Arch Rock

Last Saturday was my first opportunity to greet and capture Orion this season. I visited Joshua Tree National Park and was quite lucky because a few days before, thick smoke from the Los Angeles wildfires had blanketed the sky. However, just before my visit, shifting winds had completely cleared the air.

Four days before New Moon, full darkness lasted only 90 minutes between moonset and dawn, so time management for capturing this multi-panel sky panorama was pretty tight. On the other hand, this meant that not many photographers were milling around this famous spot. Actually, I had the whole place to myself and took the opportunity to set up my low-level lights.

The skies didn't disappoint either. The beautiful hydrogen emission nebulae from Orion to Cassiopeia are always a treat to photograph, and this fall, they are joined by the planets Jupiter and Mars, currently holding court in the constellations of Taurus and Gemini.

The light pollution from Palm Springs, visible in the lower right, was balanced by the zodiacal light starting the left and extending across the band of the Milky Way to the upper right of the frame.

EXIF

Canon EOS-R, astro-modified by EOS 4Astro

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 ART

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Low Level Lighting

Foreground:

Focus stacked panorama of 2 panels, each 5x 4s @ ISO800 during twilight

Sky:

Panorama of 8 panels, each a stack of 6x 45s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 105s @ ISO6400, filtered

Copyright: Ralf Rohner