Merrit Dam Reservoir Dipper Trails

The Big Dipper reflects in the waters of Merrit Dam Reservoir in north-central Nebraska. The interesting distorted trails on the lake were caused by differing wind conditions. When the wind really picks up it pretty much kills star reflections on a lake. Oh and just to restate the obvious, light pollution in much of Nebraska is very low-- a great place for astro-viewing!

The different colors for star trails are a product of how hot the underlying stars are, with blue the hottest and red cooler. You can also see how the apparent length of the trails increases as you move away from the N. Star.

Shot Notes: 115 stacked exposures of 25 seconds at F/3.2, 3200 ISO, at 16mm (yes you can use the Tokina 11-16 at 16 mm in full-frame mode for a small edge penalty). It all adds up to a total of around 47 minutes of star trails. Oh yeah, this makes me crave a fisheye. Big time. ;-)))

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