star trails

801_6265 [star trails]

This was an experimental attempt to record star trails by turning the camera to an unusual direction. Instead of shooting the Northern star (Polaris) and the stars seemingly moving around it - a fact that would lead to a recording of concentric trails - we turned the camera South aiming slightly over the horizon to see what happens.

The resulting photograph (a combination of 404 photographs stacked in StarTrails v.2) seems to be interesting. Curved trails in the upper right corner belong to stars that seem to be revolving around the Northern star, the ones in the lower left corner (having an opposite curvature) belong to stars that seem to be revolving around the Southern Cross (Crux), while in between one can notice star trails forming an almost straight line. Why a straight line is up to you to find out. My astronomy knowledge is too poor to explain something like that, as obvious as that might be. So any clarifying contribution to that point would be more than welcome!


Photographed on Cape Sounio on July 30, 2014