Milky Way Panorama With Airglow and Weak Aurora

Capturing the Milky Way arcing over a cove of sea stacks and cliffs

The Milky Way arcs over a cove of cliffs and sea stacks on the coast of Newfoundland.

The slight magenta glow on the left side of the frame is aurora (Northern Lights) from a very low level solar storm, but being this far north the camera picked up a little bit of it. I couldn’t see any color from the aurora with my eye. The green glow in the middle and right side of the frame is airglow, a natural phenomenon that can occur all over the globe. Airglow is very faint and I’ve never seen the color with my naked eye, but it shows up beautifully on camera.

Nikon Z6 with NIKKOR Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S lens @ 14mm and f/2.8 for all shots. Blend of two panoramas for dynamic range, sky and foreground, shot in the same spot on the same night. Each panorama was stitched from 9 exposures, then aligned in Photoshop and blended together for detail in the sky and foreground. I used PTGui to do the pano stitching, which is dedicated panorama software and has the best stitching and alignment that I’ve seen.

I used 20 seconds @ ISO 6400 for all exposures of the sky pano. This captures relatively streak-free stars (minimal trails) but the foreground is very noisy and unusable because there just isn’t enough light reflecting off the dark foreground in 20 seconds, so a separate foreground pano was used.

The foreground was captured in the same spot immediately after I took the sky exposures without re-framing the camera, using the same panning increments (30 degrees between shots). I used 2 minutes @ ISO 3200 for each foreground pano exposure. The 2 minute exposures captured much more light in the foreground.

I could have used star stacking to get lower noise in the sky, but that would require a lot more work for each frame of the sky pano. Not impossible but I’ve just never bothered to star stack with panos, I’m far more concerned about having an interesting foreground than a perfect sky. I do star stack all the time with non-pano night shots, though, since then the effort is limited to just one frame instead of 9 or 10!

Not sure what all that means? Check out my book or my free Milky Way Crash Course webinar to learn all about star stacking and separate foreground exposures. Or join me in person on my 2026 Maine Milky Way workshops.

2026 Maine Milky Way Workshops

Join me under the stars on my 2026 Maine Milky Way workshops! These are all held in Lubec, Maine, just 2 hours east of Acadia National Park.

Jul 14-17 (3 nights)
Aug 11-14 (3 nights)
Sep 8-11 (3 nights)

Come explore the Bold Coast of Maine! These workshops focus on Milky Way photography but we will also capture dramatic sunsets with rugged coastline, lighthouses, and lobster boats as our foreground. There are also opportunities to photograph wildlife including bald eagles, seals, porpoise, and whales.

You’ll get 10% off lodging as part of the workshop.

2026 Fall Colors in Cape Breton Workshop

2026 Cape Breton Fall Colors Photography Workshop

October 18 - 23 — 6 days, 5 nights

Max 5 students — 4 spots currently available

Join me for a photography adventure in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada during peak fall colors! Cape Breton is a magical place in the fall, with foliage covered mountains meeting the ocean, valleys of orange and red leaves, and beautiful waterfalls. We will tour the famous Cabot Trail along the coast and through the mountains of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

2026 Newfoundland Iceberg Workshops

I only have one spot left on my May 2026 Newfoundland workshop!

Join me for the adventure of a lifetime on the Canadian island of Newfoundland during peak iceberg season. Each spring icebergs from Greenland and Labrador show up along the northern coast of Newfoundland after making the two year journey. We’ll also photograph dramatic landscapes, iconic fishing villages, puffins, and more.

Twillingate - Fogo Island - Bonavista
May 25 - June 1, 2026 (7 nights, 8 days)
5 spots total, 1 spot remaining
This workshop will start in Twillingate, one of the regular hot spots for icebergs in Newfoundland. We’ll then spend a couple nights on Fogo Island capturing more icebergs and iconic red fishing sheds, then head over to Bonavista for a lighthouse, icebergs, and puffins that can be photographed from land!
Learn more here!

Night Sky Photography Book

My book Night Sky Photography: From First Principles to Professional Results is an Amazon best-seller and has almost 500 ratings! Thanks everyone!

Free Milky Way Crash Course Webinar

My free Milky Way Crash Course webinar is back up for viewing! Many of you have seen this already, but if you haven’t it can get you up and running with Milky Way photography pretty quickly. It covers camera gear, camera settings, shooting with stacking and exposure blending in mind, and planning basics.

Milky Way Master Class Video Tutorials

In my Milky Way Master Class videos I show you how to create stunning Milky Way photos with pinpoint stars and low noise, in focus from the foreground to the stars.

Step by step videos will guide you through the entire editing process, from star stacking, to exposure blending, to creative edits. Plus there are bonus modules for Milky Way Panoramas and Planning with PhotoPills.

Join me LIVE at the 2026 Night Photo Summit Feb 13-15!

This is the premier virtual conference dedicated to all things night photography, back for its sixth year! Produced by National Parks at Night, it will be held February 13-15 and features presentations from dozens of photographers.

My talk will feature a number of my 50mm Milky Way landscape photos along with how I got each shot, technical details, lens considerations, planning, and more! I’ll be speaking on Sunday, February 15, at 11:30am. You can watch the recording if you can’t make it live.