The Big and Little Dippers

Two of the most famous asterisms in astronomy, the Big and Little Dippers hover above the pine trees at Carranza Field in the New Jersey Wharton State Forest. The Big Dipper is fairly bright and apparent in even the most light polluted skies, however, the Little Dipper requires considerably dark skies to see. The rightmost star in the handle of the Little Dipper shown above is the North Star, or Polaris and is aligned with the polar axis of the Earth.

Image Specifications:

     •  Instrument:  Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Lens @ f2.8
     •  Camera:  Canon 20Da
     •  Filters:  None
     •  Mount:  Fixed tripod
     •  Guiding:  None
     •  Time / Date :  October 30, 2005, 6:30PM EDT
     •  Location:  Carranza Field, NJ
     •  Weather:  Clear, 50degF
     •  Primary Exposure :  Single 15sec exposure, ISO 400, JPG mode
     •  Calibration Frames:  None
     •  Image Processing :  Photoshop CS2, NoiseNinja - Note: Stars in the Big and Little Dippers emphasized for presentation