Big Dipper | Jay R. Thompson

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Photographer:

Jay R. Thompson

Location of Photo:

Clarkston, Michigan

Date/Time of photo:

Dec. 24, 2012, at 12:14 AM

Equipment:

Nikon D3100 DSLR on tripod with 30-second exposure at F-stop 11.

Description:

Over the holidays my sweetheart and I visited her family a little north of Detroit. Around midnight, I took my camera and tripod out the driveway to see if my eye could find more than what we can see from Baltimore, where we live. In addition to my first photo of the Orion nebula, I shot this view of the Big Dipper. Since the hour was far from dusk or dawn, and since I was looking north-ish away from Detroit, I can only guess that the light along the horizon was refracted through the atmosphere from the sun on the other side of Earth. It's a stretch, but it remains my best guess.