Skylon Tower wins for twilight shots.

Skylon Tower.

Twilight is about stability and width of frame, and Skylon gives you both. You’re 775 feet up, stationary, and you can point a camera in any direction for as long as you need. The SkyWheel is 175 feet up and constantly rotating, so your angle keeps changing and you’re fighting motion blur in low light. For the exact same reason, the Skylon captures the full arc of the falls plus the city lights coming on, while the SkyWheel only gives you a slice at a time — and that slice is fixed to wherever the gondola happens to be.

If you want to nail a long-exposure twilight shot of the Horseshoe Falls with the sky going purple, the Skylon is the play. The SkyWheel is fun for a quick spin, but it’s not where you go for the keeper shot.