“It’s almost like you’re standing right there.”

That’s what one of the judges said about Jeanine Holowatuik’s breaktaking image of noctilucent clouds, which wins Photo of the Week June 26, 2020.

Shooting from Greenwater Lake Provincial Park, Saskatchewan, Holowatuik said she took the image June 7, 2020 at 11:15 p.m. She said she used a one-second shutter, ISO 400, f/3.2 at 50mm. Her camera was a Canon 6D, and the lens was a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens.

“I’d seen them in my photos for the first time two years ago, and learnt about noctilucent clouds,” she wrote. “Last year, I saw them just a few times, but this year I have seen them quite a bit. I have photos of them from a few separate nights and have seen them many more times. I’m not sure if their frequency is increasing? Or maybe it’s just the year. They sure are beautiful! It lights up the northern horizon so brightly.”

The very honourable mention this week goes to Shakeel Anwar for his beautifully-composed image of the Venus-Moon conjunction as seen from Mississauga, Ontario on June 19.

Anwar said he used a Canon 6D mounted on 8″ Meade SCT. He set the camera to f/10, and exposed the image for 1/40 of a second.