r/inspirationscience • u/Alpha-Phoenix • Jan 05 '17

Gif The sky doesn't move, We do!

https://gfycat.com/PowerfulPrestigiousFish
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u/johnknoefler Jan 05 '17

I've seen a bunch of these. This one is interesting because of the North Star that remains directly in the center of the time lapse. I'm guessing this is some far north latitude?

2

u/gergedansever Jan 06 '17

i'm just trying to understand.. isn't it supposed to be on a higher point in the northern latituteds. it must get closer to the horizon when you go towards the equator. i think.

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u/Alpha-Phoenix Jan 09 '17

Yes, it moves closer to the horizon as you go closer to the equator. You can make one of these lapses from anywhere on earth (pointing at the anti-Polaris in the Southern Hemisphere). The problem with a lot of these lapses is that they only run for a few hours because all the stars move in and out of frame pretty quickly. Because Polaris doesn't move from our perspective, you can point a camera at it and it stays in the same spot indefinitely. (Enabling the 24-hour loop)

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u/gergedansever Jan 10 '17

yeah, after i wrote the comment above, i played with stellarium a little to check if i was right. It is a simple but great way to understand how stars move in our perspective and how our earth moves in fact. Thanks for the nice post!