Another Pen for Western Culture: Mystery photo

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

This is one of my all-time favorite photo subjects. Can you explain it?

I doubt it will be a mystery to anyone, but you never know.

Do you want the "rotational axis" explanation or the "long shutter speed" one?

By Anonymous, at 3:29 PM, March 02, 2006
I think that just about covers it! But I really like the former. Funny that the first comment comes from a great photographer. (Have you ever done one of these?)

By S., at 8:28 PM, March 02, 2006
Obviously Carter got it--but a little bird told me the comments above were still not enough. So here's the deal: It's time-lapse photography looking toward the north star. All the other stars appear to rotate counter-clockwise, but actually it's the earth that is rotating on its axis.

Anyway the north star (a group of three stars we call Polaris) seems not to rotate, because the earth's axis almost bisects it. But our axis is one degree off, so the north star makes its own tiny circle every night....

By S., at 9:33 AM, March 09, 2006
I hate to admit my ignorance, but I had no idea and would have never figured it out in a million years.

By Anonymous, at 10:02 AM, March 09, 2006
You just haven't read enough books about sailing. I think I learned more astronomy from "Adrift: 76 Days at Sea" than from any other source. (Interesting book about a guy who spent 2.5 months in a tiny raft--after a storm destroyed his sailboat--using two pencils and a rubber band to figure out his latitude and how long it would take to drift into the major shipping lanes....Survived on fish he speared and distilled water...)

By S., at 10:06 AM, March 09, 2006

Another Pen for Western Culture