Santa's Coming From This Direction

Merry Christmas! Stars wheel around Polaris (the North Star, seen just right of the branches at left center) in this two-minute exposure at f/3.4, 500 ISO and 18mm focal length taken around 2:25 AM, Friday, December 23, 2011 from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The two bright stars at upper right are Aloith and Mizar, located in the handle of the Big Dipper. Now, normally I would not get up at this hour and go out into 20-degree F temperatures with a freshly sprained left ankle, but this was supposed to be peak time for the Ursid meteor shower. As it turned out, in about 45 minutes of observing, I saw nary a one in a clear sky--not even a faint streak--so this image became one of my "consolations."