Astro show at Big Rock...

Description

Captured this image during the Perseid meteor shower with the Milky Way and Big Rock! If you look closely there are 3 meteors streaking through the image. Big Rock is just outside of Okotoks Alberta. The erratic measures about 41 by 18 metres (135 by 60 feet) and is 9 m (30 ft) high and weighs approx. 18000 tons. It was was deposited on the Alberta prairie during the glacial retreat of approx. 14000 years ago and has been tracked through core samples to come from an area in Jasper National Park near Mount Edith Cavell. It is suspected the rock was striped and fell onto the glacier as it retreated eventually being unceremoniously dumped in it's current position. For thousands of years the people of the Blackfoot First Nation used Big Rock as a landmark for communication and direction finding a crossing over the Sheep River (where Okotoks stands today) long before European settlement. The town's name, Okotoks, is derived from "o'kotok" [ˈokətok], meaning "rock" in the Blackfoot language note, some info was taken from Wikipedia.

Taken By

James Anderson

Taken On

June 2, 2024

Tagged

big rock milky way okotoks nature night outdoors astronomy milky_way nebula outer_space atmosphere sky world natural_landscape galaxy astronomical_object atmospheric_phenomenon star