• Thursday-What'sUP June 9 - 07:56 pm

Bob Gilreath recently expanded his horizon in the field of photography...he's shooting the stars of the Keweenaw night sky. Bob said his first shot was a work in progress for a couple nights, where he did his best to place the top of his flagpole as close to Polaris (the North Star), as he could. This was taken at 2:00 a.m. and he used a 30 minute exposure to get the effect he did. Quite unique, in that it doesn't even look like it's dark outside, but more like dusk. Bob's other two shots show the dark of the night, with the stars shining brightly, looking north over the Mason smoke stack and the last shot with the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), plainly in view.

Doesn't matter if it's a bright, sunshiny day or the dead of night, the Keweenaw always gives us a good show.

I would have much preferred a night last night as these pictures show! Straight line winds 80 m.p.h. blew a tree down on the fence, our horses were running loose, thankfully not in the direction of the road. It was after midnight before we got things "patched' up to hold til today to finish up. ugh!

WOW....Bob...what GLORIOUS pictures!

And JanieT..sorry to hear about that mess! We had neighbor horses as kids...and they'd get out and come and chow in my Grandpa's gardens. He didn't like that. Glad to hear it's patched and the equines are rounded up.

Astonishing shots, Bob. I miss those starry skies.

Awesome, awesome pictures!!!

Great pics Bob!

Interesting!

What Bob has done here (and very well, I might add) is use a photographic technique called star trail photography. Since the Earth rotates, the stars are not at fixed places in the sky but appear to move, more or less towards the west. To photograph the tracks the stars make across the sky, all you need is a camera that remains fixed to ground and have it expose for an appreciable amount of time. Any camera will work, but an SLR is the best choice because of the control such cameras give the operator. Such photos can be quite artistic, as Bob wonderfully exhibits......

Great pics!