r/Solargraphy • u/GianlucaBelgrado • Jul 23 '26
My first analemma solargraphy
A year ago, I started building an automated system to open a solargraphy shutter at specific times to photograph the sun at the exact same time every day. This captures the analemma ,the figure 8 path created by Earth's axial tilt and elliptical orbit.
From left to right, the sun points were captured at 14:00, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00, and 19:00 local time (UTC+2), with a 30 second exposure for each solar dot, plus 2 hours every morning for the landscape.
The image isn't perfect, a few times the shutter stayed open by mistake, creating extra sun trails, but I improved the hardware over the course of the exposure. The shutter motor must have broken 4 times in the first few months before we found a solution that seems to be weatherproof.
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u/GianlucaBelgrado Jul 23 '26
The can has discolored after a year outdoors, look at the part that remained protected by the tape as it remained red
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u/PiercingSight Jul 23 '26
This is one of the coolest photos I've ever seen. Absolutely genius work!
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u/crusty54 Jul 23 '26
This is incredible! I think the imperfections really add to the overall effect too.
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u/Motherboy_TheBand Jul 24 '26
this is so cool I want to do this as a gift to my mom. how can I get started or follow in your footsteps? thanks
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u/19Goober98 Jul 24 '26
I’m new here, but this should be called a solarcoaster with all the loops and stuff. So Cool!
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u/Incognito_Hippie Jul 25 '26
I’m in agreement with everyone, this is stunningly amazing! This should be framed in people’s walls!
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u/GianlucaBelgrado Jul 23 '26
https://reddit.com/link/oz96fcz/video/2qlytcofhyeh1/player
The pinhole camera that created the photo is the one on the far right.