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Big Dipper & Arcturus over Waterfowl Lake (16mm Z6III).jpg

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The Big Dipper and Ursa Major, with the bright star Arcturus over Lower Waterfowl Lake in Banff National Park, Alberta, in a sky lit by moonlight from the waxing gibbous Moon low in the southwest off frame to the left. The Moon is lighting the mountainside at right. The peak at left is Mount Chephren.

This shows all of Ursa Major and illustrates the "arc to Arcturus" finder method. Ursa Major is Mista Muskwa in the local indigenous Cree tradition. This also shows the three pairs of stars below the Dipper known popularly as the Three Leaps of the Gazelle from African sky lore tradition.

Technical:
This is a blend of identical 13-second untracked exposures:
- A stack of 5 for the ground and
- A single image for the sky.
All at f/2 with the Viltrox 16mm lens on the Nikon Z6III at ISO 1600. The ground stack helps smooth noise even more. The single sky image at 13 seconds observes the "NPF Rule" for untrailed stars. This serves as a demo of short untracked exposures, which suffice for moonlit skies. All frames processed with Adobe DeNoise AI in Camera Raw.
Copyright
© 2024 Alan Dyer/AmazingSky.com
Image Size
6048x4032 / 11.5MB
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Contained in galleries
My Latest, Alberta & Saskatchewan Nightscapes, Scenics, Big Dipper
The Big Dipper and Ursa Major, with the bright star Arcturus over Lower Waterfowl Lake in Banff National Park, Alberta, in a sky lit by moonlight from the waxing gibbous Moon low in the southwest off frame to the left. The Moon is lighting the mountainside at right. The peak at left is Mount Chephren. <br /> <br /> This shows all of Ursa Major and illustrates the "arc to Arcturus" finder method. Ursa Major is Mista Muskwa in the local indigenous Cree tradition. This also shows the three pairs of stars below the Dipper known popularly as the Three Leaps of the Gazelle from African sky lore tradition. <br /> <br /> Technical:<br /> This is a blend of identical 13-second untracked exposures: <br /> - A stack of 5 for the ground and <br /> - A single image for the sky. <br /> All at f/2 with the Viltrox 16mm lens on the Nikon Z6III at ISO 1600. The ground stack helps smooth noise even more. The single sky image at 13 seconds observes the "NPF Rule" for untrailed stars. This serves as a demo of short untracked exposures, which suffice for moonlit skies. All frames processed with Adobe DeNoise AI in Camera Raw.