Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Polaris The North Star

Polaris is a pretty cool star. It is located in the constellation of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. The easiest way to find Polaris is to find the Big Dipper. The two end stars that make up the end of the pot of the dipper (not the handle) point downward almost directly at the North Star. That is why they are sometimes called the pointer stars. One of the most amazing things about Polaris is the fact that it sits directly above the North Pole of the earth. If you were to stab a giant pin through the axis of the earth from the south pole to the north pole it would point directly at Polaris. Because of this if you take a long exposure of the sky at night with your camera the star trails formed will create circles around Polaris! This image was made with an exposure of close to an hour and a half.It's pretty easy to find Polaris at the center of the circles just barely above the treeline. Enjoy and God bless, chris
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4 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 11, 2013 at 1:49 AM

    Superb pic Chris!

    http://picsonia.blogspot.com

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  2. Isabelle ZitaDecember 13, 2013 at 9:08 AM

    So cool! Wish I could try this sometime, but I don't think the Nikon D90 I use will let me set the shutter that long.

    Anyway, great picture! I love how the stars look different colors. :)

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  3. ChristhephotogDecember 13, 2013 at 11:23 AM

    Thank you very much Shravan K for the visit. I appreciate the comment as well.

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  4. ChristhephotogDecember 13, 2013 at 12:17 PM

    Hi Isabelle Zita,
    I did some research on your Nikon D90 and you can do 30 minute exposures using a remote for triggering your shutter. It's called the ML-L3 not too expensive either. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/207373-USA/Nikon_4730.html. Alternatively and more cheaply you can do something that I do sometimes. It is called stacking. You take a whole bunch of 30 second exposures and put them together together using a great FREE program called Star Stax.You can do all kinds of beautiful stuff at night with it. http://download.cnet.com/StarStaX/3000-12511_4-75914684.html there is also one for MACs if you look for it. Good luck and have fun.

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