Mount Assiniboine and the Milky way

Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE On August 19th, 2020 we arrived at the lodge via helicopter. We collected our bags and then went to Lake Magog. We scouted the area for the best milky way photo and the gear we needed to carry. We decided after that day’s events that the best place was just before the lodge overlooking the valley with Lake Magog. Our camera equipment and our star tracker weighed about 45 lbs., and although we wanted to climb the Nublet and take a milky way shot up there, we could not hike due to an injury. Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE At 11pm on August 19th, 2020 we made our way to the location outside the lodge and setup the equipment. The star tracker requires a polar alignment to make sure the tracker is in perfect balance with the motion of the earth. With the clouds cleared the stars were brilliant and we had trouble finding the North star or Polaris. The brightness of the stars meant we could not see the constellations in the sky, and we had difficulty finding the big dipper and then following the stars on that constellation to the Polaris in the little dipper. Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE Our first photo taken that night was a 4-minute exposure that had star trails. We had the wrong star for the polar alignment. Using an app on the phone we searched for Polaris and re-did the polar alignment. The second photo was also a 4-minute exposure and behold there were no star trails. We then took 9 shots at 4-minute exposures of the Milky way as it was above Mount Assiniboine. These were stacked and the foreground added as the 10th photo. This is the result of two hours.

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