Starship Asterisk*

Star Trails Over Indonesia

Explanation: Both land and sky were restless. The unsettled land included erupting Mount Semeru in the distance, the caldera of steaming Mount Bromo on the left, flowing fog, and the lights of moving cars along roads that thread between hills and volcanoes in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java, Indonesia. The stirring sky included stars circling the South Celestial Pole and a meteor streaking across the image right. The above 270-image composite was taken from King Kong Hill in mid-June over two hours, with a rising Moon lighting the landscape.

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Magnificent image! Thank you.

I live in Jakarta, Indonesia, and has several times visited the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, the scenery there is amazing but I have never seen anything like this, this is amazing

I'm curious to know what the diagonal white streak is that appears on the central face of Mount Semeru.

rwlott wrote:I'm curious to know what the diagonal white streak is that appears on the central face of Mount Semeru.

The "hills and volcanoes" link indicates the white line to be hikers on the trek up the volcano. Quite the photo composite!! Thanks for the beautiful look onto this part of our world and a glimpse into their skies.

I noticed on the full-size image that the South Celestial Pole star remains a dot; in similar photographs, Polaris is off-center leaving a small streak. If the perceived motion of Polaris off center is the result of Earth's precession, why then doesn't the South Pole star wander as well?

Nevermind. There is no bright star marking the South Celestial Pole. I learned that today, thus answering my own question.

Psnarf wrote:I noticed on the full-size image that the South Celestial Pole star remains a dot; in similar photographs, Polaris is off-center leaving a small streak. If the perceived motion of Polaris off center is the result of Earth's precession, why then doesn't the South Pole star wander as well?

There is no central star in this image, just a couple of dim ones very close to the SCP. They do show very short trails.

The motion of Polaris over the course of a day has nothing to do with precession. It is simply that Polaris lies 0.7° from the NCP. Over long periods, precession results in the position of the NCP changing against the background stars, meaning that Polaris isn't permanently close to the pole.

North or south, there are stars extremely close to the poles. In the north, Polaris is the closest which is visible without aid. In the south, the closest star to the pole that can (barely, and not by everyone) be seen with the naked eye is more than a degree from the pole.

WOW....what a picture...so much going on...at first, I thought it was AN ARTIST'S RENDITION OF PREHISTORIC TIMES!!!!!

Thought that was LAVA going through there...but CAR LIGHTS????? Well, I am glad for that.

And you do EXPECT to see KING KONG at any moment, as well....

Interesting Pic.

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Psnarf wrote:Nevermind. There is no bright star marking the South Celestial Pole. I learned that today, thus answering my own question.

The nearest star to the South Celestial Pole is the faint star Sigma Octantis in the constellation of Octans.

starsurfer wrote:

Psnarf wrote:Nevermind. There is no bright star marking the South Celestial Pole. I learned that today, thus answering my own question.

The nearest star to the South Celestial Pole is the faint star Sigma Octantis in the constellation of Octans.

There are stars much closer than that.

Wow! This is one of the more amazing APODs ever. This photo really blew me away. Congratulations!