APOD 3.9

I was too far along in this post to quit. Plus, I liked this picture. Enjoy the extra APOD for this quarter.



This picture is called "Warped Sky: Star Trails over Arches National Park." The sky does look "warped", in a sense, but the dizzying lines appear due to a two-and-a-half hour exposure of the night sky over Arches National Park. The lines are star trails-- the long exposure captured the stars' movement due to the Earth's rotation. This picture is intriguing: it's actually a full 360º exposure, compressed horizontally. You can see what appear to be clouds of sparkling dust in the center-- that's the Milky Way; and the two circular orientations to the right and left are the stars circling the North and South Poles, respectively.