Explanation:
No star dips below the horizon and the Sun never climbs above it
in this remarkable image of
24 hour
long star trails.
Showing all the trails as complete circles, such
an image could be achieved only from two places on
planet
Earth.
This example was recorded during the course of May 1, 2012, the
digital camera in a heated
box on the roof of MAPO, the
Martin
A. Pomerantz Observatory at the South Pole.
Directly overhead in the faint
constellation Octans
is the projection of
Earth's rotational axis, the South
Celestial
Pole,
at the center of all the star trail circles.
Not so well placed
as Polaris and the North Celestial Pole,
the star leaving the small but still relatively bright circle
around the South Celestial Pole is
Beta
Hydri.
The inverted umbrella structure on the horizon at the right of the
allsky field of view is the ground shield for the
SPUD telescope.
A shimmering apparition of the
aurora australis also visited on this
24 hour night.
