Mount Rushmore's Starry Night
Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (TWAN)
Posted on 07/04/2009 5:42:12 AM PDT by sig226
Explanation: This starry night sky sparkles above the Black Hills of South Dakota and the United States' Mount Rushmore National Park. The historic site features enormous sculptures of four US presidents; George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, carved into the southeast face of granite cliffs. Above the monumental symbols of the country's independence and early history, the night features stars and constellations familiar to northern skygazers around the world. Most noticeable are the stars of Ursa Major and the asterism known as the Big Dipper, almost resting upright along the cliff edge near picture center. Follow the arc of the Big Dipper's handle to get to Arcturus, the bright yellowish star in the lower left corner. Of course, a line extending through the dipper's two right most stars points to the upper right toward Polaris, planet Earth's North Star.
it looks faked in as much as the trees in the foreground are illuminated and can be seen in green color....
of course the heads may be illuminated by flood lights, I dont think you would see the stars that clear and the foreground with all the ambient light.
also in contradiction to the text....polaris does not line up with the big dipper as it points to the second star in Ursa minor and not polaris....
Arcturus does appear in the right spot.
It looks like the trees are illuminated by lights form a visitors center or parking lot. They are illuminated form a low angle up so it might be the same lights as the heads. It looks like a time laps photo to me. I took some time laps photos of a city and did not notice they were night until I looked closely at the lights and the windows.
and the other thing I mentioned about polaris not lining up could be because the sky is more like a dome...and the picture is flat....but if you draw a line along the outer edge of the big dipper it should line up with polaris which is the last star in the handle of the little dipper and it doesn't. but like I said it could be the 3 dimensionality compared with 2 dimensions.
Happy Independence Day and time-lapse photography bump.
Time lapse for sure, maybe a longer-than-normal shutter? I’m not a photographer, but I know enough to be dangerous.
Also, agree on the Polaris part. The straight line is an easy way to find the reference, but that second star is not Polaris.
Good catch!
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