Analemma 2013

Masayuki Shiraishi in Japan recorded the sun’s position in the sky throughout 2013. He took these photos at the same time every day (7 a.m.). The figure-8 path that resulted is called an analemma. Shiraishi wrote:

My analemma project started on December solstice in 2012 and finished on December solstice in 2013.

This photo contains the sun images from Jan. 18 to Dec. 22, that is, all the sun images are only in 2013.

Analemma photography requires an astronomical precision alignment, so I used a triple alignment; fixing the mount to the mark on window bar, a rough alignment of the field of view using 2 corner points in the camera view, and a precise alignment of the images using ridge lines of 2 buildings with rotation by 0.01 degrees and magnification by 0.1% on Photoshop. (Each sun image with ND was taken sequentially with the scene without ND and overlaid for the third alignment)

Nikon COOLPIX P510 digital camera;
ISO 100, F3.0, 1/4s to 1/30s exposure, f=24mm, ND 100000 for the sun, taken at 7:00 am using a radio-clock.
ISO 100, F3.0, 1/2000s exposure, f=24mm for the scene to building alignment (not used in the final image).
ISO 100, F8.3, 1/400s exposure, f=24mm for the background of analemma, taken on Jan. 19, 2013.

Thank you for allowing us to publish your work, Masayuki Shiraishi.