Explanation:
What's happened to the sky?
A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too.
The time
warp occurs because the
above image
captured in a single frame a four hour exposure of the night sky.
Prominent and picturesque
star trails
are visible.
The space warp occurs because the above image is actually a full
360 degree panorama, horizontally
compressed to fit your browser.
As the Earth rotated,
stars appeared to circle both the South
Celestial Pole, on the left, and the
North Celestial Pole,
which occurs just below the horizon on the right.
The
above image
captured the sky over
Mudgee,
New South Wales,
Australia,
including the domes of two large telescopes artificially lit by red light.
A horizontally unwarped image is visible by clicking on the above image.
