Circumpolar star trails over the moonlit Mimbres Valley near Lake Roberts in the Gila National Forest, in southern New Mexico. I
Circumpolar star trails over the moonlit Mimbres Valley near Lake Roberts in the Gila National Forest, in southern New Mexico. Illumination is from the waxing gibbous Moon. Polaris is at upper left, while the stars of the Big Dipper are rising at right, with just the Bowl’s Pointer stars visible at the start of the sequence, then rising to bring the entire Dipper above the horizon, with Alkaid, the end star of the handle, just clearing the ridge at right. (I had to wait till 10 pm for the star to appear so the entire Dipper would be in the final frames.) The sequence was shot over 3 hours. This is a stack of 340 frames, each 32 seconds at and ISO 800 with the 24mm lens and Canon 6D. The ground comes from a final 2 minute exposure at f/8 for greater depth of field in the foreground. Stacked with Star Circle Academy’s Advanced Stacker Actions using the Elastic Stars effect. I used LRTimelapse to also vary the color balance over the sequence as the illumination shifted and clouds changed the sky colour. This will be more noticeable when the frames are exported into a time-lapse movie.
Size: 5400px × 3600px
Location: Mimbres Valley, The Gila National Forest, Southern New Mexico.
Photo credit: © Alan Dyer / VWPics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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