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" A full, all sky, night on the Equator line (Ecuador)."

(First ever !) Virtual Reality Night Time Lapse Movie.

© Stéphane Guisard, Los Cielos de América

The following animation is not just a Time Lapse Movie, it is not just a Virtual Reality image neither ... it is both together, something like 900 Virtual Reality images put together, what I will call a "Virtual Reality Night Time lapse Movie" (and apparently the first one ever created).
These 900 images were taken during a whole night in Ecuador (the country), near the Equatorial line, at an altitude of 4850 meters. If you just let the movie load and run (it might takes several minutes depending on your connection speed to load the 35Mb of data file), the automatic pan motion will show you successively Orion constellation and bright Sirius setting at West, the Southern Cross and coal sack to the South with an extremely bright meteor that will pass close to them. You will then see the rising of our galaxy, the Milky Way, above Chimborazo volcano ... but there is much more to see (see how on the explanations below the movie window ...)

A large version (720x480 pixels and 75Mb file) of this interactive movie is available here.

... if you have missed something (and this is the interest of this Virtual Reality Time Lapse Movie) just move into the movie by yourself : click on the movie window and use the mouse (or arrow keys) to move in all directions, zoom in and out with the mouse wheel (or by using 'Shift' and 'Ctrl' keys). If you want to take your time to look around, freeze the movie by Pausing it. You can also move the movie backwards or forwards in time by using the buttons on the window .
There is something (else) that is specific to this movie : it was taken very close to the Equator Line. As a consequence both Southern and Northen celestial poles are located on the horizon. Check it !!! Go North and look at the anti-clockwise rotation of the big deeper around the North Pole or move to South and look at the clockwise rotation of the Southern cross around the Southern Pole. If you go East and West however, you will see the stars rising (resp. setting) vertically !!!

... enjoy that (cold) night as many times as you want!