SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Olivier Lardière
Location of Photo:
Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park (Xwaaqw'um), Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada.
Date/Time of photo:
Feb. 10, 2026, first half night.
Equipment:
Canon EOS R6 astro-modified. Sigma 40mm f1.4 Art. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i tracker. Optolong L-Quad filter, IDAS NBZ-II and Tiffen Double Fog 3 filter mounted in Kolari empty frames for Canon EF-R filter adapter.
Description:
The northern Milky Way is rarely the main subject in nightscapes, yet I find the region around the constellations Cepheus and Cassiopeia incredibly diverse and rich with star-forming regions—the red glowing patches you see here, and dark lanes of dust. Some much fainter nebulae are also visible, far from the Milky Way’s plane on both sides. Notably, the Polaris Flare surrounding the North Star (Polaris), and Sivan 2, a large red-green nebula that appears between the “W” of Cassiopeia and the Andromeda galaxy. The red glow comes from ionized hydrogen, while the green hues are from ionized oxygen atoms. It's amazing to think Andromeda galaxy is a distant twin of our home Milky Way galaxy, with its own star-forming regions.
