Wavelight: Riveting New Night Sky Timelapse

By Nancy Atkinson - November 18, 2014 at 10:46 AM UTC | Observing
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Sandstone formations can be amazing, and if you've ever seen or heard about the legendary and hard-to-get-to "

Wave

" formation in Arizona, you'll agree it would be a stunning location for a night sky photography shoot. Our friend and timelapse guru

Gavin Heffernan

was commissioned by the BBC to shoot a timelapse video from this location, and it is absolutely stunning.

"As far as I know, this is the first astrophotography timelapse ever filmed at this amazing location," Gavin told us via email. "We had seen many beautiful night pictures taken there but no actual timelapses, so we went for it!"

Enjoy the video above, as well a some imagery, below:

This is a video where star trails and rock trails collide! It was assembled from over 10,000 stills snagged on two grueling trips. Check out more of Gavin's work at his

Sunchaser Pictures website.

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Another still image from the WAVELIGHT timelapse (vimeo.com/112008512) by Gavin Heffernan (SunchaserPictures.com) and Harun Mehmedinovic (Bloodhoney.com). Created in association with BBC Earth. Used by permission.

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WAVELIGHT 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