Just a quick post today about a really neat night of star trail photography I had back in December. The forecast was supposed to be right around -10 degrees, with dead calm air, which was perfect for a crisp, clean, perfect night sky. I drove out into RMNP and set up my tripod for a couple of shots. This one was roughly a 20 minute exposure...anything longer and the battery would have froze! Luckily the hike back to the car from the spot was short, so I was able to listen to sports radio during the exposure. When I got home and uploaded the image, I was really surprised to see that I had honed in perfectly on the North Star which, because of its positioning near the northern rotational axis of the earth, appears to have all the other stars rotating around it. I hadn't even really planned on it (I think my mind was mainly focused on my numb fingers), but was very excited with the end result! Another surprising aspect of the photo is how bright the forest looks. That was due to moon reflection lighting up the whole scene!Taken on a Nikon D90, Tokina 11-16mm, f/8, 20 minutes, ISO 400
