APOD: Rio at Night (2014 Jun 20)

[APOD Robot]

Rio at Night

Explanation: In this night skyscape setting stars trail above the western horizon over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a venue for the 2014 World Cup. Gentle arcs from the bright, colorful stars of Orion are near the center of the frame, while the starfield itself straddles planet Earth's celestial equator during the long exposure. Of course, trails from more local lights seem to create the strident paths through the scene. Air traffic smears an intense glow over an airport at the far right, while helicopters fly above the city and boats cruise near the coast. Striping the waterfront are tantalizing reflections of bright lights along Rio's central beaches, Botafogo and Flamengo. Near the horizon, the brightest fixed light is the famous Cristo statue overlooking Rio at night.

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[Ann]

That is a very interesting and striking picture.

For once, I was able to identify some of those star tracks. That's really Orion up there, pretty much dead center - well, a bit to the left. But what about that bright white, almost yellow-white streak to the upper left of Orion - is that Sirius? Colorwise, it looks more like Jupiter. Speaking about Jupiter, where is it? I can see the twins, Pollux and Castor, right of center, but Jupiter is nowhere to be seen.

I assume that the striking blue track at far left is Adhara, Epsilon Canis Majoris, a B1 or B2-type giant star.

Well, it is a fascinating picture, and I had fun trying to identify the stars!

Ann

[Beyond]

But Ann, you completely left out Rio at night. I was wondering if you had as much fun looking horizontal as when you were looking around vertical.

[Nitpicker]

That is a very interesting and striking picture.

For once, I was able to identify some of those star tracks. That's really Orion up there, pretty much dead center - well, a bit to the left. But what about that bright white, almost yellow-white streak to the upper left of Orion - is that Sirius? Colorwise, it looks more like Jupiter. Speaking about Jupiter, where is it? I can see the twins, Pollux and Castor, right of center, but Jupiter is nowhere to be seen.

I assume that the striking blue track at far left is Adhara, Epsilon Canis Majoris, a B1 or B2-type giant star.

Well, it is a fascinating picture, and I had fun trying to identify the stars!

Ann

Yes it is Sirius. I don't think Jupiter is in frame. I suspect this is an image from 2012 or earlier. I think the brightest blue streak at top-left is Canopus, which doesn't normally appear blue.

[alter-ego]

That is a very interesting and striking picture.

For once, I was able to identify some of those star tracks. That's really Orion up there, pretty much dead center - well, a bit to the left. But what about that bright white, almost yellow-white streak to the upper left of Orion - is that Sirius? Colorwise, it looks more like Jupiter. Speaking about Jupiter, where is it? I can see the twins, Pollux and Castor, right of center, but Jupiter is nowhere to be seen.

I assume that the striking blue track at far left is Adhara, Epsilon Canis Majoris, a B1 or B2-type giant star.

Well, it is a fascinating picture, and I had fun trying to identify the stars!

Ann

Yes it is Sirius. I don't think Jupiter is in frame. I suspect this is an image from 2012 or earlier. I think the brightest blue streak at top-left is Canopus, which doesn't normally appear blue.

I see 4 blue streaks: The faint one furthest left (not intersecting the top edge) is 41 Eridanus (HIP20042), moving up and to the right, the next brighter 3 (intersecting the top edge) are Wazn and Phact in Columba, then Furud in Can Maj.

[Nitpicker]

I see 4 blue streaks: The faint one furthest left (not intersecting the top edge) is 41 Eridanus (HIP20042), moving up and to the right, the next brighter 3 (intersecting the top edge) are Wazn and Phact in Columba, then Furud in Can Maj.

Now that makes more sense. Thanks. (Go Brazil!)

[Boomer12k]

Rio is BUSY....

How busy is it?

Rio is sooooooo busy...even the STARS ARE BUSY!!!!!

LOL...

What a busy and interesting picture of Rio....a busy place.

:---[===] *

[Didier Jamet]

I'm afraid there's a mistake in the name of the beaches, as one of the readers of the French version explained it. The famous Ipanema and Copacabana are completely out of the frame, on the left. The brightly lit beaches are Botafogo and Flamengo.

Didier

[Astrolandscaper]

I'm surprised not to see more light pollution !? Rio is well a very big city .... In Belgium, the sky is always orange, even if i'm in the countryside 30km from Brussels.
(sorry for my poor english, it's not my natal language )

[hmacedo]

Yes, those are indeed Botafogo and Flamengo beaches. You can see the lights of Ipanema beach on the top left of the picture, between two cliffs. Copacabana cannot be seen.

Haroldo Macêdo

I'm afraid there's a mistake in the name of the beaches, as one of the readers of the French version explained it. The famous Ipanema and Copacabana are completely out of the frame, on the left. The brightly lit beaches are Botafogo and Flamengo.

Didier

[TunaMan]

Did you notice how the star trails appear as two independently concentric circles with individual "center" points?

Would this be polar north and polar south, with the two "circles" converging at the equatorial center?
or simply the effect of the curvature of the planet as realized from this view near the eqautor?

Either way, thats an awesome view of the heavenlies .....

[Tupi]

Great image! But the light between the two hills is not Ipanema (Beach) either. The lights belong to the Jockey Club.

[Chris Peterson]

Did you notice how the star trails appear as two independently concentric circles with individual "center" points?

Would this be polar north and polar south, with the two "circles" converging at the equatorial center?
or simply the effect of the curvature of the planet as realized from this view near the eqautor?

Any star trail image approximately centered on the celestial equator will show this effect. There have been many APODs, imaged from many places on Earth, which show star arcs around both the northern and southern poles.

[starsurfer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[othermoons]

Is time a measure of change? or does change happen because we have an illusion of time passing? This might be a phylosophical question, but looking at this picture it seems stars move and change positions relative to our illusion of time, and the city seems still relative to the stars but its changing just at a slower pace. I guess I am just trying to understand time!

[neufer]

Is time a measure of change? or does change happen because we have an illusion of time passing? This might be a phylosophical question, but looking at this picture it seems stars move and change positions relative to our illusion of time, and the city seems still relative to the stars but its changing just at a slower pace.

• Tribal Wisdom?

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[Ann]

alter-ego wrote:
I see 4 blue streaks: The faint one furthest left (not intersecting the top edge) is 41 Eridanus (HIP20042), moving up and to the right, the next brighter 3 (intersecting the top edge) are Wazn and Phact in Columba, then Furud in Can Maj.

Thanks, alter-ego!

Note, however, that Wazn in Columba is not a blue star. It is a star of spectral class K1.5III (according to my software), with a B-V index of +1.146.

Ann

[alter-ego]

alter-ego wrote:
I see 4 blue streaks: The faint one furthest left (not intersecting the top edge) is 41 Eridanus (HIP20042), moving up and to the right, the next brighter 3 (intersecting the top edge) are Wazn and Phact in Columba, then Furud in Can Maj.

Thanks, alter-ego!

Note, however, that Wazn in Columba is not a blue star. It is a star of spectral class K1.5III (according to my software), with a B-V index of +1.146.

Ann

Yeah, I saw that too. At first I wasn't going to include Wazn but as is appears as a bluish streak to me, I bundled it with the others.

[DavidLeodis]

In regard to the stars in the image the caption to it in Babak's 'Dreamviews' website states:-

"Stars trail over the lights of Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. The timelapse photo sequence has captured a lot of activities. Planes flying from the domestic airport at the right edge; helicopter tours flying near Corcovado where the world-famous Cristo statue is brightly illuminated on the top of mountains, overlooking Rio; Boats move in the Guanbara Bay; and flooding lights of Rio beaches fade away the stars in the sky. Still some of the brighter stars are captured in this image. Sirius (top) and prominent constellations Orion, Gemini, and Taurus are visible in the sky.". That was brought up through the "In this night skyscape" link in the explanation to the APOD.

It's a great time-lapse image that must have been hard to do with all the light pollution around.

[neufer]

Striping the waterfront are tantalizing reflections of bright lights along the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.

The word "Ipanema" comes from the Tupi language and means "stinky lake", from upaba ("lake") and nem ("stinky").

Striping the waterfront are tantalizing reflections of bright lights along Rio's central beaches, Botafogo and Flamengo.