Star Trails: Focus the lens to #infinity Star trails are the paths left by stars, as seen from the Earth. As the Earth spins, the stars appear to move and encircle the sky. But it is the movement of the Earth that you see, not that of the stars, since the Earth is the one that moves and the stars, from our point of view, are almost fixed. In long exposure photos, one single frame can capture the movement of the entire night sky. With the camera fixed to a tripod while Earth rotates, each star above carves a graceful arc through the night sky. The concentric arcs are centered on the north celestial pole, presently near the bright star Polaris, or the south celestial pole, located in the dim constellation Octans, the Octant. The trails close to a celestial pole are the shortest, and the ones halfway in between poles (to the east and west) are the longest. #Stars #Startrail #astro #astrophotography #circumpolar #galaxy #longexposure
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 10:49:19 +0000