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Star Trail from the Equator (Ecuador)
"From Southern Pole to Northern Pole"
© Stéphane Guisard, Los Cielos de América
The following image is an unprecedented star trail image taken from the Equator (this imaginary line that splits the Earth into the two hemispheres) in Ecuador (the country). If you stand on the Equator line you can see the Southern Pole at the horizon to the South (left of the image) and the Northern pole at the horizon on the opposite direction. The Earth rotation will make all the sky and stars look like they rotate around these two points, making them appear as concentric circles (which look like ellipses on this distorsioning fish eye image).
Note that on this image, that cumulates 10 hours of exposure starting 1 hour after sunset and finishing 1 hour before sunrise (nights and days always last 12 hours on the Equator, it is a permanent equinox), more than 90% of the sky is 'visible', this is another particularity of being on the ecuator line : you can observe the largest part of the sky during any night.
An extremely bright meteor appeared during that night and seems to be pointing at the Southern Pole (extreme left of the image). Image processing done with Prism software.
If you want to see the movie of the true sky rotation explained above (and showed in all these pictures) by moving the camera yourself, you MUST have a look at this "Virtual night Time Lapse Movie", the first one ever made.
Virtual Reality tour of the all sky star trail view. You can move the panorama yourself with your mouse or use the arrow keys (click & drag the mouse to move Left/Right/Up/Down, Shift/Ctrl Keys or mouse wheel to zoom In/Out). Note that their is also a full-screen mode (Click the arrowed 'X' on the animation command symbols). Several "hot spots" have been defined on the panorama, find them with your mouse pointer and the description will appear (Southern Pole, Northern Pole, Orion, Mars, Big deeper ...).
If you want to see the movie of the true sky rotation explained above (and showed in all these pictures) by moving the camera yourself, you MUST have a look at this "Virtual night Time Lapse Movie".
Equirectangular projection of the all sky view. Southern celestial hemisphere is on the left and Northern celestial hemisphere on the right.
If you want to see the movie of the true sky rotation explained above (and showed in all these pictures) by moving the camera yourself, you MUST have a look at this "Virtual night Time Lapse Movie".
Southern view, Southern pole is the center of the circles made by the stars due to the Earth rotation and is located on the horizon. A bright meteore left its "footprint" on the picture near the Southern pole.
If you want to see the movie of the true sky rotation explained above (and showed in all these pictures) by moving the camera yourself, you MUST have a look at this "Virtual night Time Lapse Movie".
Western view. On the Equator line, the stars set vertically to the West (and rise vertically to the East).
If you want to see the movie of the true sky rotation explained above (and showed in all these pictures) by moving the camera yourself, you MUST have a look at this "Virtual night Time Lapse Movie".
Northern view. The Northern pole is the center of the circles made by the stars due to the Earth rotation and is located on the horizon.
If you want to see the movie of the true sky rotation explained above (and showed in all these pictures) by moving the camera yourself, you MUST have a look at this "Virtual night Time Lapse Movie".
