20201103 NCP ipod star trail no starstax preprocess
8 hours of sky recorded with an iPod Touch. It's very clear here that Polaris is not exactly the celestial north polar star and it traces out a circle that is about 3 times the width of the full moon. This is also a project my astro students are working on with their smartphones. It is amazing that all this takes is a $3 app and free photostacking software for any modern laptop. I also have my students read Longitude, by Dava Sobel, which is about the greatest problem that faced humanity in the 18th century: accurately measuring longitude. To do so involves a reliable clock, which did not exist until someone spent their whole life making one work. Measuring time and location is something we take for granted and recording star trails are an opportunity for students to experience part of how we solved the problem.
#startrails #nightphotography #skyphotography #startimelapse #startrail
20201103 NCP ipod star trail no starstax preprocess
8 hours of sky recorded with an iPod Touch. It's very clear here that Polaris is not exactly the celestial north polar star and it traces out a circle that is about 3 times the width of the full moon. This is also a project my astro students are working on with their smartphones. It is amazing that all this takes is a $3 app and free photostacking software for any modern laptop. I also have my students read Longitude, by Dava Sobel, which is about the greatest problem that faced humanity in the 18th century: accurately measuring longitude. To do so involves a reliable clock, which did not exist until someone spent their whole life making one work. Measuring time and location is something we take for granted and recording star trails are an opportunity for students to experience part of how we solved the problem.
#startrails #nightphotography #skyphotography #startimelapse #startrail