Sauropod Star Trails

Star trails and sauropods after sunset.

Maleny Astro Night

An hour of Earth's rotation is captured in a minute, with a stacked version of the photos in the last few frames.

Earth Rotation

A video of stills from the previous Star Trail stack to show the movement of the night sky. The beautiful Scorpio and the galaxy core can be seen passing over the zenith, then just before dawn you will see Orion begin to rise.

Star Trails Test

A test of a Star Trails camera setup to watch the night sky near Beerwah. It certainly makes a very cool photo, just need to find a better position without a building in the way.

Celestial South

A view of the celestial south pole as seen from outside Beerwah, and above the skyglow of Brisbane.

Star Trails

Star trails on the sky, left by the rotation of Earth on our axis.

Starry Gorge

A spectacular starry sky over an isolated gorge in Northwest Queensland.

Star Trail Mirror

Star trails and flashes of moonlight as thin clouds pass in front of the crescent Moon and scatter the light into a bright halo. And reflected almost perfectly in the still water of the Broadwater Waterhole Billabong are the Moon, Venus and stars.

Crater Stars

Star trails behind the impact craters of the Henbury meteorites in the Northern Territory.

Marble Streaks

The trails of stars against the orange granite of the Karlu Karlu boulders.

Isfjordradio Stars With Guest

The evening of the Total Solar Eclipse saw this scene over the Isfjordradio station just before midnight. I set the camera up for some star trails and went back inside for some warmth while the camera did all the hard work. When we came back out (with a wonderful guide on polar bear watch) we saw this hint of Miss Aurora flashing to life. We stood in awe and amazement for some moments as we silently watched the amazing display grace the skies with her beauty. A truly spectacular and unforgettable moment.

Remarkable Stars

The stars pass over Remarkable Ridge and Battle Mountain near Mount Isa. The Moon was 68% and waxing, illuminating the sky and foreground.

Bright Lights And Stars

The bright city lights of Mount Isa and the stars above merge to one in this panoramic sky scene.

Star Pool

An impression of the stars partly reflected in a turkey's nest dam on Kalala station near Daly Waters in the Northern Territory. It was perfect timing for a trip to the Territory for astro shots in dark skies with a new Moon setting early.

Silhouette

The same termite mound as yesterday's post in silhouette. You'll notice the star trails are shorter. This is as long as I could get without any passing vehicle lights in the shot. It still makes for a nice shot but I prefer to see longer arcs.

Raining Stars

After playing around with a  great little program called StarStax, I produced this image. I like the effect it created.

Battle Mountain Stars

Brightly lit Jupiter sets behind the summit of Battle Mountain at the end of a warm clear day. This is a significant place for the Kalkadoon people of Western Queensland. It was the site of a lengthy battle between the Queensland police and Kalkadoon people in 1884.

Fifteen Degrees

Fifteen degrees of arc equals one hour of time. This photograph illustrates the correlation between time and angle.

South Pole

The south celestial pole becomes evident in this star trail image.  The large and small Magellanic Clouds can also be seen.  This is approximately 15 minutes of exposure time.  If you look very closely just to the right of the celestial pole you will notice a distinctly green 'star trail' (nearly vertical).  That is actually comet Lemmon (C/2012 F6).  Thanks to Len for finding this one for me.

Star Trails

This is one hour and ten minutes of exposure time looking toward the Southern Cross and the south celestial pole.  A neat little program called StarStax did this, check it out.

PS - check out this video time lapse sequence of the Southern Cross as we spin past.