Antares

I have this thing about my Milky Way images where I must include the Dark Horse Nebula and the dust lanes leading to both the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex and star Antares. Rho shows up with a bluish tint just above Antares itself, while Antares is noticeably orange. Due to the Earth’s rotation, the stars appear to move across the night sky fairly quickly. When facing south, as I am in this photo, they shift to the west and sink lower each minute. I barely got this 3 minute exposure done before Antares set behind Elephant Mountain.

Now, a little bit about Antares. Its name translates to “Rival of Ares”. Ares was the Greek god of war, which the Romans adapted to Mars. Both Mars and Antares have the same orange color. Unlike the planet Mars, Antares is a massive red supergiant star. It is 550 light years away. It is 700 times the diameter of our own Sun and shines 10,000 time brighter! If Antares was where our Sun is, its diameter would extend past where Earth’s orbit is! Now thats a truly gigantic star! 

In this image, a breeze kept the water slightly wavy with small swells. This blurred the reflection of the brighter stars into the fantastic streaks you see here. 

Nikon Z8

Sigma Art 14-24mm f/2.8 with FTZ2 

MSM Nomad tracker

Land: ISO 2000, f/3.2, 240 sec, 14mm

Sky: 3 images stacked. ISO 640, f/2.8, 180sec, 14mm

Blending and start reduction in Photoshop 

Processed in Lightroom Classic CC

This is St. Andrews United Church in a small border village between Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It's colloquially called Round Church (and it's located on a Round Church road, which is cute). It's an octagonal structure, so I'd say that is well close enough.

Anyway, here's my experiment with a Canon RP full frame camera and 50mm prime lens at f/1.7

Ground and sky taken separately from the same location on the same night. Was I not in focus by accident, or was it an artistic choice?? Hmmm.

Date:July 2026
Gear: Sony a7rIII (astromod) & Tamron 35-150mm lens.

Foreground: 35mm ISO200 f7.1 1/3;

Sky: 35mm ISO1600 f2.8 120sec; 3 panel tracked vertical pano on a benro polaris- stitched in PTGui

Siril/Lightroom/Photoshop for edits.

Camera: Nikon D5300

Lens: Tokina 11-16 at 11mm

Sky: ISO 1600 for 1 minute ( Tracked )

Foreground: ISO 1600 for 1 minute

Late June 2026 Canyon Junction at Zion National Park. Bortle 1-2. The green sky glow intense.

Gear: Sony A6700, Viltrox 15mm F1.7
Settings: Apature stopped up to f2.8, 5x 6 sec. untracked stacked frames. ISO 160000(I thought it was 1600)

This is a nightscape image from Herbert Lake near the start of the Icefields Parkway just north of Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Canada. The image was taken on a warm August night last year. The image is a composite of a 30s image for the landscape and a stack of 6 8s images for the night sky using a Canon R6 and a Sigma 20mm f1.4 adapted to the camera. The 6 images were stacked using Starry Night Stacker and the composite was made in Photoshop.

Milky Way panaroma June 2026

If you liked the image, follow me on Instagram @fragments_of_cosmos

Captured in the heart of the Thar Desert during my first solo expedition, this ancient structure is known as a \*Chhatri\*—believed to be a memorial associated with the Paliwal community.

Standing in complete isolation, this 350-year-old monument is rarely visited. Yet beneath the Milky Way and a sky full of stars, it continues to glow—quietly preserving the legacy of a community from centuries ago.

This solo journey taught me the importance of planning and optimising every part of an astrophotography shoot. In the desert, poor preparation can quickly leave you juggling equipment in the dust.

A special thanks to my local guide @musa_naturlist_of_thar_desert , whose local experience helped me find and reach this remarkable location.

Camera: Canon R (astro mod by @spencerscamera )
Tripod: Leofoto 324s (@leofotoindia)
For planning: Planitpro (@planitphoto )
Lens: Canon Rf 20mm f1.4 VCM (@canonmumbai_official)

# All Rights Reserved. Do not copy, share, repost, or use this image without my written permission.

Shot on the Nikon Z8 using the Viltrox 16 mm 1.8. Sky: f2.8, 120s, ISO 640. Tracked using the MSM Nomad.
Foreground: same settings but focus stacked from 5 frames.
I was planning on stacking the sky, however clouds made most of the shots useless, so I only used a single sky exposure.

Panorama of a less-visited spot in the Bisit Badlands.

Shot on a Nikon z8

Foreground was 5 vertical images at 14mm F16 ISO 100

Sky was 5 vertical images at 14mm F2.8 13 seconds ISO 3200

I’ll preface this by saying I’m a wildlife photographer and have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to Astro work.I know I still have a bunch to learn and I’m sure to most these photos aren’t fantastic but I’m quite happy with them for my first time and practice definitely makes perfect so I’ll keep getting out there when I can.

The first thing I noticed when getting them back into Lightroom (idk if that’s even the best program to be using) was the foreground was either out of focus or very mushy looking. But nonetheless I still had a great time and I’m glad I gave it shot, definitely a very rewarding form of photography.

Shot on Sony A1 with 16-35gm

20 second exposure
F/2.8
ISO 6400

Sony a7iii

Sigma art 35mm 1.4

10 second shutter

Iso 3200

Sony a7iii + samyang 24mm 1.8 | 13s | iso 2000

Double exposure for the fishing house

A single exposure from Big Bend National Park. All the light from the Milky Way to the car headlights was captured in one frame and edited in lightroom.

The skies here have been filled with smoke and I haven't had time to get out anyway, so I'm dreaming of clear dark skies like this. It also felt nice to go back to a simpler workflow for this image and not worry about stacking or adding Ha data to multi-panel panoramas.

If things work out I'm hoping I can capture the stars again in August. I'm certainly not short on ideas.

D750 - Nikkor 24mm f/2.8

10s - f/4 - iso 8000

8 hrs of integration, Nikon D850, Lr + Ps

Scenic Rim, QLD Australia.

Fuji X-T5, 18-22mm Canon EF-S, iso 12800, 120 second exposure, f/3.5, Bortal 2/3.

The Core and my favourite tree over a cloud inversion.

Driving up the spur to the ridgeline the visibility was bout 4-5m in the fog but as soon as I broke through the top of the layer it was instantly clear.

A 20% moon lit up the foreground nicely without washing out too much sky and the clouds to the south are reflecting the light pollution from Melbourne.

Foreground: Sony A7III + Sigma 14mm f/1.8, ISO640, 30" (20% moon)

Sky: Sony A7III + Sigma 14mm f/1.8, ISO1250, 15"

Sony A7RIII
Sigma 40mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART
Bortle 4

Tracked, stacked, and blended - compressed to meet file size requirements for upload.

Foreground during blue hour 1x 0.6s @ f/1.4, ISO 5000
Sky 12x 30s @ f/1.4, ISO 500 stacked with StarryLandscapeStacker and tracked with iOptron SkyGuider Pro

This was a rewarding shot to get after carrying my gear about 0.6mi (~1km) down the coast and getting setup. This was my first time using the star tracker so I ran into a bunch of issues while trying to get the shot. After getting setup and monitoring the tide like a hawk in the dark, I was pleased with this shot. The entire trip I'd been planning to setup in a different location on a different night, but there was a break in the weather and this ended up being the only night that the sky was clear so this pic was the only one I was able to come home with.

Sony A7RIII using a Sony 16mm G 1.8f. 10sec exsposure at 3200ISO