Warped Sky: Star Trails Panorama

Explanation: What's happened to the sky? A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too. The time warp occurs because this image captured in a single frame a four hour exposure of the night sky. As a result, prominent star trails are visible. The space warp occurs because the picture 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 , just below the horizon on the right. The image captured the sky over Mudgee , New South Wales , Australia , including the domes of two large telescopes illuminated by red lighting. A horizontally unwarped image is visible by clicking on the image.

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