Toronto - a gem of a city for celestial photography?
A city like Toronto doesn’t jump to mind when contemplating astrophotography. After all, light pollution is abundant and constant. Indeed, rare are the nights when stars and galaxies litter the night sky. But don’t let that deter your camera from chasing celestial light. Toronto’s cityscape and location by Lake Ontario offer unique images of the sun and moon, sometimes accompanied by planets and a few (co)stars.
Toronto sunrises and sunsets
Like most people, I am easily transfixed by a colorful sunrise or sunset. In fact, I have coined the adjective redsplendent to describe the crimson ascent and descent of the sun. But it’s not just about color. During the pandemic lockdown in 2019, I developed the daily habit of photographing the sunrise in Toronto, and ended up studying how Toronto sunrise is a unique phenomenon, shaped by its travel over Lake Ontario to reach our city.
TorontoHenge
The astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson coined the term ManhattanHenge to mark the once-a-quarter alignment of the sunrise or sunset with the east-west streets of New York City. Toronto photographers have long discovered and demonstrated that the same phenomenon occurs here with the same frequency, and with the same redsplendent spectacles.
Toronto moonshots
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