As the earth rotates, there is a point in the sky where the stars seem to spin around, one full rotation every 24 hours. This is known as the North Celestial Pole for people in Europe, US and Canada, and the South Celestial Pole for us who live in Australia. It mid-winter here, and the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, was a few days ago. Fortunately it was a clear night, with a setting moon.
I pointed my camera at the South Celestial Pole, and programmed it to take a photo every 15 minutes for 7 hours. I had a lens warmer on to prevent fogging and frost on my glass, and an external battery so the camera could do its thing all night.
I went to bed and collected the camera the next day. I stacked all the shots to create a single image.
Tech details for those who are interested: Sony A7RV, Laowa 15mm lens, f/2.8, ISO 400, 2 min exposures, stacked in Affinity Photo.
![image showing [OC] On the longest night of the year I took a photo of the celestial pole every 15 min for 7 hrs](383bf252-376b-53eb-9e39-043450bc4b12.jpg)
LottimusMaximus on June 29th, 2025 at 10:47 UTC »
Nature is magic
walker_in_the_rain on June 29th, 2025 at 10:47 UTC »
Stuff like this is reassuring - all the bullshit in little corners of this small blue marble of ours really doesn't matter very much.
hairy_quadruped on June 29th, 2025 at 10:49 UTC »
As the earth rotates, there is a point in the sky where the stars seem to spin around, one full rotation every 24 hours. This is known as the North Celestial Pole for people in Europe, US and Canada, and the South Celestial Pole for us who live in Australia. It mid-winter here, and the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, was a few days ago. Fortunately it was a clear night, with a setting moon.
I pointed my camera at the South Celestial Pole, and programmed it to take a photo every 15 minutes for 7 hours. I had a lens warmer on to prevent fogging and frost on my glass, and an external battery so the camera could do its thing all night.
I went to bed and collected the camera the next day. I stacked all the shots to create a single image.
Tech details for those who are interested: Sony A7RV, Laowa 15mm lens, f/2.8, ISO 400, 2 min exposures, stacked in Affinity Photo.