This picture was taken in mid-August, 2000 at my home in Colfax, CA, over a period of about 2 hours and 10 minutes. The stars that make up the Little Dipper in Ursa Minor are visible rotating around the North Celestial Pole (NCP). Polaris is the very bright star with the shortest trail, due to its proximity to the NCP. The stars in the leftmost 1/3 of the picture are in Draco, the dragon.



This picture never should have come out. I set up the camera and opened the shutter at around 11PM or so, then went inside and set an alarm to wake me up so I could end the exposure after about 4 hours. However, I never woke up until after the sunrise. The only thing that saved the picture was the fact that after holding the shutter open for just over 2 hours, the camera battery had failed, ending the exposure. I didn't know when the exposure had ended, or even if the picture had been ruined, until after it was developed, when I was able to determine the exposure time by measuring the angle of the star trails.

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