NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) featured a star trail image captured at the ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile on August 28, 2026. The image demonstrates the Earth’s rotation by showing arcs traced by stars over time.
The photograph was created by stacking 300 consecutive 25-second exposures using a tripod-mounted camera. These arcs are centered on the south celestial pole, which is the southern hemisphere extension of Earth’s axis of rotation. The Earth’s surface at the observatory’s latitude (approximately 25 degrees south) moves eastward at a speed exceeding 1,500 kilometers per hour, though this motion is normally imperceptible.
One of the observatory’s 1.8 meter auxiliary telescopes, designated AT 3, is visible in the foreground, faintly illuminated. The image illustrates how the apparent rotation of the night sky can reveal the planet’s movement. NASA also announced that its APOD site is moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod.
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