Pole to Pole

The equatorial region is the only place on the Earth that you can see both the southern and the northern sky. TWAN photographer Stephane Guisard was right at the zero degree latitude in the country of Ecuador to make this unique all-sky image. As noted by the photographer “If you stand on the Equator line you can see the Southern Pole at the horizon to the South (left of the image) and the Northern pole at the horizon on the opposite direction. The Earth rotation will make all the sky and stars look like they rotate around these two points, making them appear as concentric circles. This image made by a fish-eye lens is a total exposure of 10 hours started an hour after sunset and finished an hour before sunrise (nights and days always last 12 hours on the Equator, it is a permanent equinox).” More than 90% of the whole night sky is traced in this long-exposure image while an extremely bright meteor (a fireball) appeared during the night and seems to be pointing to the Southern Pole.