Star Trails Around Polaris
Death Valley National Park, California – January 13, 2015
— Ralph Paonessa
Canon EOS 7D Mark II * Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC * ISO 6400 * 30 sec
These star trails show the movement of the sky (due to Earth's rotation) around the North Celestial Pole, very close to Polaris, the North Star. The setting is the remote Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park at a rock formation known as the Grandstand. This is one of the darkest places I have ever been.
The image was composed from about a hundred frames of 30 seconds each, shot back-to-back on a tripod at ISO 6400.
The frames were stacked in Adobe Photoshop CC using the Advanced Stacker Plus actions from Star Circle Academy. These frames could also be used to create a time lapse video.
Photo ID: 20150113 star trails 1