July 18-20, 2021 Midwest Smokey Skies from Canadian Wildfires

[Ethan Schisler]

Several snapshots I got over the past few days with the Canadian wildfire smoke. I borrowed a 400mm F/2.8 GM lens with the 2.0x TC from a friend and turned my A7RIII into APS-C mode along with 2x CIZ and was able to zoom into around 2,560mm and capture detail that would have not otherwise been possible without burning my eyes out or destroying the camera sensor (I've done this many times with wildfire smoke, no harm to the camera at all). Here are a few snapshots:


July 18, 2021 Emiquon NWR area (Sony A7RIII + 400mm F/2.8 GM + 1.4x TC, no APS-C mode, full 42mp).



July 18, 2021 Same settings as the image above and lens/camera combo.


July 19, 2021: Sony A7RIII + 400mm F/2.8 GM + 2.0x TC in APS-C mode (1.6x crop) with 2.0x CIZ added and then re-enlarged into Topaz Gigapixel back to 42mp.


July 19, 2021: Same specs as the above image, no change.


July 19, 2021: Sony A7RIII + 400mm F/2.8 GM with no TC or APS-C mode. Full 42mp.


July 19, 2021: Sony A7RIII + 400mm F/2.8 GM + 2.0x TC in APS-C mode (1.6x crop) with 2.0x CIZ added and then re-enlarged into Topaz Gigapixel back to 42mp.


July 20, 2021: Sony A7RIII + 400mm F/2.8 GM with no TC.

Probably going to go out again tonight and get some more.

 

[Rick Schmidt]

I shot something similar from Topeka. I took it with a 500mm, and darkened it a bit to show the smoke better.

 

[Ethan Schisler]

I shot something similar from Topeka. I took it with a 500mm, and darkened it a bit to show the smoke better.View attachment 22028
[/QUOTE
Very nice!! It has been weird being able to see it this vividly in the evening and mornings. This AM it wasn't even visible until a solid 20 minutes after sunrise due to the heavy smoke in the air. Aside from being in the Pacific NW/California, I've never seen anything like it these last 2 years in IL/IA.

Mods, if we could change the name of this thread so its just generalized sunsets/moonsets from the wildfire smoke, I think that would work better. I think we will be seeing this for a while and there is no point in creating additional threads when we can merge them into one!

 

[Ethan Schisler]

Shot a few more images this morning of the moonset and then again the other day down in Eastern Missouri while visiting my family.


Moonset over rural McDonough County. Shot using my Sony A9 II and 135mm F/1.8 GM lens at 135mm F/1.8


Moon starting to set with 136 in the foreground that goes west into Missouri this morning before sunrise.


Using the 400mm GM lens with the TC attached to it, the haze gave the moon a very odd orange/red glow.




Sunrise this morning showing how much haze is in the air.

Since ST limits me to 7 photos, the next 2 are my favorite's from Eastern MO on July 22nd:

 

[James K]

I took this one back on June 15 in CO.
There have been ofcourse been plenty of other 'red-sun' evenings both June & July since then.
I haven't thought about looking to see if the moon is red here (those pic's are really cool!), but considering how bad the haze/smoke gets on some days (especially lately), I'm sure it is. Might have to go look tonight if I remember & its not cloudy.