Circle Of Stars At Echo Hill

Star trails wheel around Polaris, the North Star (top), in this image taken from the parking lot at Echo Hill Presbyterian Church in Marion, Iowa. The image is a product of a stacked group of nine three-minute exposures taken from 11:29-11:55 PM on Friday, June 24, 2011. Each exposure was shot at f/3.5, 250 ISO and 18mm focal length. The grayish-brown areas at bottom are encroaching clouds which obscured the entire sky less than an hour later. The night was calm, the air temperature cool--around 60 degrees F--with no pesky insects. The bright group of stars at upper left is the pan area of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major). The bright stars at far right make up the constellation Cassiopeia.