A teaching Image

Last night was a really nice night but after a day working in the yard (it’s spring here) I was too tired to stay out late. I did set the camera up for 400 images for both a star trail and time lapse but they are not that impressive to post here. I did post them on Facebook to impress my non-astrophotographer friends. This single frame I also posted as a teaching aid to those friends. All of you do not need this lesson but it turned out okay for a simple post here. I would like to thank Steve Lantz for all the lessons he sent me on Photoshop.

On Facebook I said: Ursa Major – aka the Big Dipper

At night I need to align my camera/lens and mount to Polaris, the North Star so the mount will compensate for the rotation of the Earth as I try to image an object in the night sky. The easiest way to find Polaris is to use the Big Dipper. I have labeled the stars of the Big Dipper. If you align the two stars at the end of the dipper, Merak and Dunhe and draw a line they will point to Polaris.