Starship Asterisk*

Lovely presentation (and a lot of work stitching it together!) At Mr. Brady's site we really like the Devil's Tower photo - very "starry night-ish'.

Who needs LSD when we have PhotoShop?

[quote="Psnarf"]Polaris appears stationary. Is that because of the short exposure time? Longer such exposures show Polaris circling a point above Earth's rotational axis. Perhaps the 13Kyr precession has put Polaris back in its place above our Celestial North Pole?[/quote]
Polaris is 0.7° from the pole, so it definitely is seen to rotate. But the wider the field, the less apparent the rotation. And in this image, the rotation is going to manifest mainly as an elongation (which I believe we can see, although the geometric aberrations may mask it), and even that is partly hid by exposure saturation.

Polaris appears stationary. Is that because of the short exposure time? Longer such exposures show Polaris circling a point above Earth's rotational axis. Perhaps the 13Kyr precession has put Polaris back in its place above our Celestial North Pole?

The star trails have a similar appearance to field lines.

[attachment=0]Field Lines.jpg[/attachment]

[quote="Nitpicker"][quote="Nitpicker"]Not sure what caused the few wobbles in the trails ... possibly a stitching line, so as to split at a more aesthetic point? Seems to be a bit shy of 360[char]deg[/char], too, but still very interesting.[/quote]

Oops, just read that this image was composed from many sub-exposures using 4 cameras operating concurrently, pointing in different directions. I misread the caption's "this image captured in a single frame" as though it was a single exposure from a single camera.[/quote]

I did the same thing :)

Really interesting picture!!

OH my! :o

Looks like "A Starry Night" by Van Gogh. All those swirls.

Awesome!!!

:---[===] *

[quote="Nitpicker"]Not sure what caused the few wobbles in the trails ... possibly a stitching line, so as to split at a more aesthetic point? Seems to be a bit shy of 360[char]deg[/char], too, but still very interesting.[/quote]

Oops, just read that this image was composed from many sub-exposures using 4 cameras operating concurrently, pointing in different directions. I misread the caption's "this image captured in a single frame" as though it was a single exposure from a single camera.

Stellar fireworks! Nice! :D

Ann

[quote="Case"][quote="APOD Robot"]As a result, prominent star trails are visible.[/quote]
What an unusual way to display star trails! :D
It seems each star starts as a clearly visible point in the sky and then fades out over the duration of total exposure time.
Lovely different from other star trail images.[/quote]

I think each star trail is [u]ending[/u] with a more prominent point. Looks like the focus was tweaked a little at the end. Can also see the Milky Way rising in the East.

Not sure what caused the few wobbles in the trails ... possibly a stitching line, so as to split at a more aesthetic point? Seems to be a bit shy of 360[char]deg[/char], too, but still very interesting.

[quote="APOD Robot"]As a result, prominent star trails are visible.[/quote]
What an unusual way to display star trails! :D
It seems each star starts as a clearly visible point in the sky and then fades out over the duration of total exposure time.
Lovely different from other star trail images.

[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140317.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_140317.jpg[/img] [size=150]Warped Sky: Star Trails over Arches National Park[/size][/url]

[b] Explanation: [/b] What's happened to the sky? A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too. The [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg-vgGuTD8A]time warp[/url] occurs because [url=http://www.vincentbrady.com/planetarypanoramas]this image[/url] captured in a single frame a two and a half hour [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19M1DBubDeE]exposure of the night[/url] sky. As a result, prominent [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trails]star trails[/url] are visible. The space warp occurs because the picture is actually a full [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070508.html]360 degree panorama[/url], horizontally compressed to fit your browser. As the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010110.html]Earth rotated[/url], stars appeared to [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwSlkJG8gTU]circle[/url] both the North [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_pole]Celestial Pole[/url], on the left, and the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100711.html]South Celestial Pole[/url], just below the horizon on the right. The [url=http://www.vincentbrady.com/planetarypanoramas]above panorama[/url] over [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arches_National_Park]Arches National Park[/url] in [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah]Utah[/url], [url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html]USA[/url], was captured two weeks ago during early morning hours. While the eye-catching texture of ancient layered [url=http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow1/rocks/expert/sandstone.htm]sandstone[/url] covers the image foreground, twenty-meter tall [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxPFrQ5Yywg]Delicate Arch[/url] is visible on the far right, and the distant arch of our [url=http://casswww.ucsd.edu/archive/public/tutorial/MW.html]Milky Way Galaxy[/url] is visible near the image center.

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