The northern spring constellation of Ursa Major framed to include the three pairs of stars at bottom that mark his paws and that are also known as the “Three Leaps of the Gazelle” from Arabic star lore. This asterism is very prominent to the naked eye as a series of similarly paired double stars across the sky, high overhead in spring. The Big Dipper asterism is at top, aka the Plough or Saucepan, or Wagon. I framed this to also include the Coma Berenices star cluster, Mel 111, at lower left. This is a stack of 6 x 1-minute exposures with the Canon 35mm L-series lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 800, plus two similar exposures with the Kenko Softon A filter to add the star glows, with those exposures blended in with a Lighten mode. Taken from home on the Mach 1 mount April 29, 2019.
The Big Dipper with its handle pointing toward Arcturus rising in the early spring sky in the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, on March 29, 2019. This serves as an illustration of the Big Dipper handle pointing across the sky to Arcturus, in the “arc to Arcturus” star finding tip. The Coma Berenices cluster is below the Dipper at right. Polaris is at the edge at left. This is a stack of 4 x 30 second exposures for the ground to smooth noise and a single 30 second exposure for the sky to minimize trailing, all at f/2.8 and ISO 4000 with the Sigma 14mm Art lens and Nikon D750. I added an Orton glow effect to the landscape with Luminar 3 plugin.
Auroral curtains in an overhead coronal burst swirling at the zenith during a fine display on March 1, 2019, as seen from the deck of the Hurtigruten ferry ship the ms Trollfjord, while in port in Båtsfjord, Norway. The Big Dipper is at upper right; Cassiopeia at lower left, and Polaris in the centre amid the aurora. This is a single 1-second exposure at f/2 with the Venus Optics 15mm lens and Sony a7III at ISO 3200. It was taken from port with the ship stationary and amid the port lights.
