Stunning Star Trails Mania

By Nancy Atkinson - December 3, 2012 at 5:05 PM UTC | Stars
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You like star trails? We've got star trails! One of our favorite timelapse gurus, Gavin Heffernan from Sunchaser Pictures shot this stunning footage, and as he says, no special effects of any kind are needed to create star trails: just leave your shutter open and the natural rotation of Earth takes care of the rest!

But wait... there's more!

Have you ever compared how different star trails look in the northern hemisphere compared to the southern hemisphere? César Cantú has:From the northern hemisphere, stars appear to move counterclockwise around the north pole of the sky; but if you stand at any point in the earth's southern hemisphere, the stars appear to move clockwise around the south pole of the sky. César, who mans the Chilidog Observtory, took star trail footage from Mexico and Africa and combined the two to create an incredible "Hemispheric Countersense" video. See more about it here.Combining star trails from Mexico and Africa. Credit: César CantúScene from Sunchaser Star Trails. Credit: Gavin Heffernan. Footage shot in Big Bear Lake, Joshua Tree, and also Canada. Used Canon 5D & 7D, with a 24mm/1.4 lens and a 28mm/1.8. SUNCHASER STAR TRAILS from Sunchaser Pictures on Vimeo.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com