Categories: AstrophotosObservingVideos

See a Glowing ‘Honey Moon’ and Unique Star Trails in New Night Sky Timelapse

A unique 'glowing fireball' resembling a meteor is actually a giant 'honey moon,' and the trailing effect used by tracking the rotation of the Earth's axis over several hours. Credit and copyright: Sunchaser Pictures/Gavin Heffernan.

The “stars” of a new 3-minute timelapse are some very unique star trails and a glowing fireball that is actually a giant ‘honey moon‘ — the full Moon in June. Gavin Heffernan from Sunchaser Pictures and Harun Mehmedinovic from Bloodhoney.com teamed up for this video, filming in gorgeous mountain locations in the Southwestern US, showcasing gathering storm clouds and stunning night sky scenes.

At about 1:50 in the video, you’ll see a unique “split” star trail effect, where it looks like the trails are cascading down the sides of a mountain. At 2:02, the Moon appears to burn through the sky like a meteor.

See imagery from the footage below:

This video is part of the Skyglow Project, which is an initiative to protect the night skies and raise awareness of the light pollution and its dangers. It was produced in association with BBC Earth.

Interestingly, Heffernan said some of the footage seen here was also featured this summer by The Rolling Stones in their Zip Code Stadium Tour, after Mick Jagger saw some of their previous timelapse videos.

The footage was shot in Monument Valley, Arizona, Trona Pinnacles, California, and Red Rock Canyon, California.

Thanks to Gavin Heffernan for continuing to share his wonderful work!

A star trail sequence from the timelapse video “Pinnacles.” Image credit: Harun Mehmedinovic. Used by permission.

PINNACLES – Southwest Timelapse Medley from Sunchaser Pictures on Vimeo.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004. She is the author of a new book on the Apollo program, "Eight Years to the Moon," which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible. Her first book, "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond.