I stabilized an 8-hour timelapse to show the Earth rotating (with airglow and meteor)

Описание: Here is a timelapse I made to illustrate the Earth's rotation. It represents a full night of 8hours and 15 minutes.
I captured it in the Canary Islands during an astrophotography trip, on the island of La Palma, which truly lives up to its reputation as one of the best night skies in the world.


If you're interested, you can find more of my work on Instagram:
  / tinmar_g  


As you know, our planet Earth spins on its axis. This is what we call Earth's rotation. The best way to witness this phenomenon is to observe an astral object and watch it move across the sky. You could look at the Sun, but it is even more impressive to watch the stars, as you can see the entire sky shifting.

Astro timelapses are perfect for this. By speeding up the night sky, they make Earth’s motion more obvious. But to really emphasize the effect, you can stabilize the stars instead, making the Earth appear to move beneath the sky. That is exactly what I aimed to do here.

To achieve this, I used an equatorial mount (the Star Adventurer) to track the stars and keep them steady while the landscape rotates.

What can we see in this timelapse?

Sea of clouds. A beautiful sea of clouds slowly forms and fills the lower part of the frame.

Thick mist. A dense mist lingers just below my position, visible in the distance as it traps the light pollution.

Strong airglow. Green clouds cover the sky — that is airglow. It is a faint natural glow emitted by the Earth's atmosphere, visible even in the absence of moonlight or direct sunlight. It is caused by chemical reactions between atmospheric particles at high altitudes and can appear as green, red, or bluish bands in the night sky.

Headlights. Occasional flashes from rare cars taking the road about 200 meters away.

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Settings: 660 pictures at f/2.2 – 45 sec – ISO 2500
Canon 6D (astro-modded) – Skywatcher Star Adventurer – Sigma ART 14mm


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P.S.: Did you notice the meteor at the beginning?


#Timelapse #Astrophotography #EarthRotation #NightSky #Stars #LaPalma #CanaryIslands #StarTracker #EquatorialMount #AstroTimelapse #LongExposure #MilkyWay #Airglow #DarkSky #AstroPhotography #Nightscape #StarAdventurer #Space #earth