24HR view of the Sky

Photographer Chris Kotsiopoulos; Chris’ Website
Summary Author: Chris Kotsiopoulos
 
After wondering for some time whether it was possible to image the sky from one morning to the next where he lives in Athens Greece, Chris decided to give it a try.

After hours of planning and preparation, and a full day of shooting, the image above is the result of this labour of love.

It took about 12 hours to pull together and process a single image that included over 500 star trails, 35 shots of the Sun and 25 landscape pictures.

The plan was to make the image on the day of the solstice (December 21) when the Sun’s stay in the sky was short (in the Northern Hemisphere) and the star trail durations were long.

Of course, trying to find clear weather for a given 24-hour period is not an easy chore. However, he was very patient, and the weather eventually cooperated (on December 30-31, 2010).

He had to stay at the same place for approximately 30 hours. In addition, he was on location 2-3 hours before sunrise to make the preparations and conduct some test shooting.

He also needed to stay an extra 2-3 hours the second day to shoot part of the Sun's sequence, which was lost the first morning due to clouds.

Chris chose Sounion (Temple of Poseidon) as the setting for this project. Click on image to see labels.