Public stargazing at the Rothney Observatory Open House on November 21, 2015, on a cool but clear late autumn night, with the Big Dipper low in the north over the Visitor Centre, and the waxing gibbous Moon providing the illumination. About 400 people attended.
The Big Dipper (at right) trailing over Pyramid Mountain in Jasper National Park, on a moonlit night on October 24/25, 2015. An Iridium satellite, in fact two following each other on the same path, streak at left. This is a stack of 130 exposures, each 15 seconds at f/4, for the star trails with the ground coming from 8 of the frames, to reduce the lack of contrast from the moving moonshadows, with the ground layers mean combined stacked to smooth noise. The point-like stars at the end comes from an additional exposure taken a minute after the last trail frame. Stacking of the trails performed in Photoshop with the Advanced Stacker Actions from StarCircle Academy.
The Big Dipper over Pyramid Mountain at Pyramid Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta, on Oct 24, 2015. Illumination is from a waxing gibbous Moon. This is a stack of 4 exposures, mean combined, for the ground to smooth noise with one of the exposures adding the sky, to prevent trailing. Each was 15 seconds at f/4 and ISO 800 with the Nikon D750 and Sigma 24mm lens.
