Astronomy Picture of the Day -- 45 Days in the Sun

NASA ^ | February 21, 2015 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: From January 11 to February 25 2013, a pinhole camera sat in a field near Budapest, Hungary, planet Earth to create this intriguing solargraph. And for 45 days, an old Antonov An-2 biplane stood still while the Sun rose and set. The camera's continuous exposure began about 20 days after the northern hemispere's winter solstice, so each day the Sun's trail arcs steadily higher through the sky. These days in the Sun were recorded on a piece of black and white photosensitive paper tucked in to the simple plastic film container. The long exposure produced a visible color image on the paper that was then digitally scanned. Of course, cloudy days left gaps in the solargraph's Sun trails.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit and Copyright: Csaba Kovács]

[SunkenCiv]

2015 APoD Calendar

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[9thLife]

Off the charts cool.

Suggestions of how time looks from Eternity...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Very cool. But how in the world did the photographer avoid over-exposing the film? 45 days of open aperture?

[Squawk 8888]

Photo paper is very low-speed (ISO 1 and lower), and judging from the clarity of the image the pinhole is very small. Also, the paper was never developed; development increases the sensitivity by several orders of magnitude.

[onyx]

[left that other site]

I like the plane!

[TheOldLady]

That’s incredibly beautiful, Mr. Civilizations!

Thank you for the post and ping.

[SunkenCiv]

I love classic tractors. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

:’) It’s rudderly wonderful.

[mikrofon]

‘Looks like the plane is protected by some kind of force-field bubble… Very creative astro-terrestrial pic!

[left that other site]

You elevated my mood and gave me a lift with the way you framed that pun!

[SunkenCiv]

I’m glad I didn’t start a flap.

[left that other site]

That was one HUGE bomb of a pun. And the fuse is large, too.

[SunkenCiv]

I didn’t want it to be a drag.

[left that other site]

I am glad Yaw’l pitched that to me!

[SunkenCiv]

Wow, that last one of yours was altogether fitting and propeller!

[left that other site]

Indeed, she replied with a Lear.

[left that other site]

Of course, I would prefer to aileron the side of caution!

[SunkenCiv]

It bothers me that the photo shows a biplane — couldn’t they find a heteroplane for this shot?