Rotation of the Sky - South Polar

From near Winton, Qld, Australia

Uploaded 8/19/06

Select an image size for a larger view: 1290 x 960 1600 x 1200

 In the Southern Hemisphere, the entire sky appears to rotate each day around a point equal to your southerly latitude above the southern horizon. At -22 S latitude, this point is fairly low in the sky. The left panel is with the trackers drive turned on for the ten minutes of exposure. Can you find Sigma Octans - the South Star? It is not so obvious as the northerly counterpart, Polaris.

The right panel tells the whole story. With the drive turned off, the sky's rotation shows stars as arcs around the south pole, with Sigma Octans near the center of the rotation. Look at the larger images to see the very center of the rotation. Sigma is off the pole about a degree.

Still Cant find the Pole or Sigma? Click HERE for a labeled chart I made!

Instrument: Canon 17 - 40mm L @ 17mm at f/4.5 Platform: Robotic Barn Door Camera: Canon 10D @ ISO800 Exposure: 10m Filters: UV Location: Near Winton, Queensland, Australia (-22 S Latitude) Elevation: 700 ft. Sky: Seeing 9/10, Transparency 10/10 Outside Temperature: 45F Processing Tools: Photoshop CS, Maxim DL, PixInsight, Pixmantec RAW HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS FastCounter by bCentral