Night Sky Photography -- 01-21-2020 -- The Big Dipper & Constellation Ursa Major

Greetings and salutations fellow stargazers!

Well folks, this is my first official night sky photography of the new year and the new decade. 

This evening after midnight I went out into my backyard and took several photograph of the main stars of the Constellation Ursa Major, also known as The Great Bear, which appeared just over the tops of the trees in the northern sky. 

Ursa Major is visible throughout the year for most of the northern hemisphere, primarily known from the asterism of its main seven bright stars, which has been called the Big Dipper. Six of these stars -- Dubhe, Merak, Phecda, Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid -- are second magnitude while the other one, Megrez, is third magnitude. 

The star Mizar on the handle of the dipper is part of a binary star system with a smaller third magnitude star, Alcor, which can be seen with the naked eye, or a really good pair of binoculars. 

Two of its stars, Dubhe and Merak, can be used as the navigational pointer towards the place of the current northern pole star, Polaris in Ursa Minor -- the Little Dipper.

Ursa Major is the 3rd largest constellation in the night sky.

In the first shot I was able to get all seven of the Big Dipper's main stars, as well as faint Alcor right next to Mizar. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a very clear shot of the tops of the bare trees to serve as foreground for the shot. You can just barely seen them at the bottom of the photo.

In the second photo I managed to capture all of the stars of Ursa Major perfectly. As you can see from my perspective here in South Carolina, The Great Bear appears upside down. I highlighted Ursa Major in red and the Big Dipper in white.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed these photos. Happy New Year, have a wonderful Dixie Day, and keep looking to the night skies, y'all!