Matthew Cimone

Lightning storm in front of constellation Scorpius at my grandfather's cottage on Shebandowan Lake in Northwestern Ontario - circa 2015. Another photo revisit, I could never get it to look right but this is the best I've done with it.
I've always wanted to get a bolt of lightning with a starfield. In this case, lightning was illuminating the clouds in the foreground. The red star in the image is the Red Supergiant Antares. At a distance of 500 light years, Antares is 800 times the radius of our Sun and nearing the end of its stellar life. Placed at the centre of our solar system, Antares would reach out to the orbit of Jupiter.
Like Betelgeuse in Orion, Antares could go supernova tomorrow, or in the coming millennia putting on an incredible lightshow. Either of these stars would create a bright orb in the sky. Unlike diffuse Moonlight, the supernova would be a bright pinpoint light source casting shadows with defined edges. It may possibly be bright enough to allow your eye to see the colour of objects at night beyond the silver grey of moonlight.

#space #astrophotography #scicomm #shebandowanlake