Starship Asterisk*

Namibian Nights

Explanation: Namibia has some of the darkest nights visible from any continent. It is therefore home to some of the more spectacular skyscapes, a few of which have been captured in the above time-lapse video. Visible at the movie start are unusual quiver trees perched before a deep starfield highlighted by the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. This bright band of stars and gas appears to pivot around the celestial south pole as our Earth rotates. The remains of camel thorn trees are then seen against a sky that includes a fuzzy patch on the far right that is the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. A bright sunlight-reflecting satellite passes quickly overhead. Quiver trees appear again, now showing their unusual trunks, while the Small Magellanic Cloud becomes clearly visible in the background. Artificial lights illuminate a mist that surround camel thorn trees in Deadvlei. In the final sequence, natural Namibian stone arches are captured against the advancing shadows of the setting moon. This video incorporates over 16,000 images shot over two years, and won top honors among the 2012 Travel Photographer of the Year awards.

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Excellent time lapse: I like the movement of the camera that gives the impression of a 3D view while the sky is rotating; also interesting lighting.

Oh, to be able to be under such wonderfully clear skies! This is the first time I've seen a photograph of the Milky Way that is so stunning.

Margarita

Awe inspiring. Humbling. Stunning. Simply outstanding work. How does one say, 'wow', in Namibian?

Sure, I give a thumbs up too. He deserves the top honors for this...

Thanks for sharing.

I wish someone could create this in the Philippines some year too!? There's some very dark sky here away from the city smoke -- be it remote island or isolated mountain top -- complete with some pretty rich, exotic natural wonders of our own to mesh seamlessly with our beautiful Milkyway backdrop. We have a super comet passing overhead here too in November I heard, I can't wait for that!

Good luck all.

Great image of our Milky Way!

SouthEastAsia wrote:
How does one say, 'wow', in Namibian?

• Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia.
  Official language: English Language

Beautiful landscapes, beautiful skyscapes . . beautiful photography!

can't see the doodad ! speed of darkness must be slower than the speed of light...

Wow then! Love to be in Nambia at night. Makes one to want to live under dark skies. Thanks for the video.

The pictures of this video were so very beautiful, the music was also so very beautiful, but what made this short video so very terrible was the slow downloading that caused the jerking, jumping, and lapsing that made something so very beautiful into something so very horrible.

Dale61cool wrote:The pictures of this video were so very beautiful, the music was also so very beautiful, but what made this short video so very terrible was the slow downloading that caused the jerking, jumping, and lapsing that made something so very beautiful into something so very horrible.

Vimeo is slow, but excellent quality. I usually open them at vimeo, make sure HD is on, start the video, pause it. Then I go do something else while the video loads. I come back later after the video is loaded and watch it without the jerking.

Too many trees getting in the way of the sky. Grumble.

Very interesting. The image of the Galaxy Milky Way is very good.
Namibian Nights.
Nights of stars.