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 f/2.8 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.
The constellations of Orion and Canis Major in star trails over the Gila National Forest, New Mexico. Taken January 27, 2015 under the light of waxing quarter Moon off frame at upper right. This is a stack of two exposures: a short 25-second exposure at f/4 and ISO 3200 for the point-like stars at the start of the trails, followed after a gap in time by a single 10-minute exposure at f/9 and ISO 400, for the long trails, with the small f/9 aperture providing greater depth of field for foreground sharpness. The ground comes from the longer exposure. All with the 24mm lens and Canon 6D.
