Credit & Copyright: Robert Schwarz
(South Pole Station)
Explanation:
No star dips below the horizon and the Sun never climbs above it
in this remarkable
Lewin's Challenge image of 24 hour long
star trails.
Showing all the trails as complete circles, such
an image could be achieved only from two places on
planet
Earth.
This example was recorded during the course of May 1, 2012,
the camera in a heated box on the roof of MAPO, the
Martin
A. Pomerantz Observatory at the South Pole.
Directly overhead in the faint
constellation Octans
is the projection of
Earth's rotational axis, the South
Celestial Pole,
at the center of all the star trail circles.
Not so well placed
as Polaris and the North Celestial Pole,
the star leaving the small but still relatively bright circle
around the South Celestial Pole is
Beta Hydri.
A shimmering apparition of the
aurora australis also visited on this
24 hour night.
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Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day