Amazing Sky by Alan Dyer

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Light Pillars Panorama (Nov 10, 2018).jpg

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A rare sight from home in rural Alberta — a sky filled with light pillars, an atmospheric phenomenon caused by flat ice crystals in the still air, reflecting the lights below, in this case from farms and gas plants, and from towns in the distance. I had never seen these from home before; they are more common within cities with the greater abundance of lights. The effect was short-lived. It was fading out even 15 minutes after I took this.

There was just enough icy haze or fog (it had snowed earlier in the day so the air was moist) to produce the light pillars but not so much as to obscure the stars. The Big Dipper is at left; Polaris is at top left; Auriga, Taurus and the Pleiades are rising at right.

The red foreground is from lights on my deck.

This is a 4-section panorama with the Venus Optics 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 3200 for 20 seconds each. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.
Copyright
© 2018 Alan Dyer
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9397x3363 / 10.3MB
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Contained in galleries
Haloes, Alberta & Saskatchewan Nightscapes
A rare sight from home in rural Alberta — a sky filled with light pillars, an atmospheric phenomenon caused by flat ice crystals in the still air, reflecting the lights below, in this case from farms and gas plants, and from towns in the distance. I had never seen these from home before; they are more common within cities with the greater abundance of lights. The effect was short-lived. It was fading out even 15 minutes after I took this. <br /> <br /> There was just enough icy haze or fog (it had snowed earlier in the day so the air was moist) to produce the light pillars but not so much as to obscure the stars. The Big Dipper is at left; Polaris is at top left; Auriga, Taurus and the Pleiades are rising at right. <br /> <br /> The red foreground is from lights on my deck. <br /> <br /> This is a 4-section panorama with the Venus Optics 15mm lens at f/2 and Sony a7III at ISO 3200 for 20 seconds each. Stitched with Adobe Camera Raw.