EarthSky Community Photos

Submit your photo here. Comment or upvote on photo pages. Search via photographers' names. More improvements coming! To help, please donate.

Mohammad Adeel
Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
11/12/2023
08:40 pm

Equipment Details:

Canon EOS 1300D
Canon kit lens 18-55

Post-processing Details:

120 images of 30 sec each at 18mm
Stacked in Starstax and processed in PS

Image Details:

Star trails over Lahore Airport!

Star trails show the motion of the stars over the sky during a period of minutes or hours. Star trails reflect Earth’s rotation, or spin, around its axis. The Earth makes a complete rotation relative to the backdrop stars in a period of about 23 hours and 56 minutes which is also known as a sidereal day.

Earth’s spin makes star trails - What this means is that, if you’re standing out under the stars, you see them move across the sky as the night progresses. Stars near the celestial poles produce the smallest circles, while those near the celestial equator produce the largest. Each and every star moves 15 degrees westward in one hour.
Here in this image which I took by pointing my camera towards the north star (the one which looks stationary) all the stars appear to move in circles around the north star which lies exactly above the Earth's north pole. The trails in the bottom left of the image are of aeroplanes taking off from Lahore Airport and banking towards West showing a curve.