Warped Sky: Star Trails Panorama

What's happened to the sky? A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too. The time warp occurs because the above image captured in a single frame a four hour exposure of the night sky. Prominent and picturesque star trails are visible. The space warp occurs because the above image is actually a full 360 degree panorama , horizontally compressed to fit your browser. As the Earth rotated , stars appeared to circle both the South Celestial Pole , on the left, and the North Celestial Pole , which occurs just below the horizon on the right. The above image captured the sky over Mudgee , New South Wales , Australia , including the domes of two large telescopes artificially lit by red light. A horizontally unwarped image is visible by clicking on the above image.