The Star Trails of Kilimanjaro
Credit & Copyright:
Dan Heller
The night had no moon, but
the
stars were out.
And camped at 16,000 feet on
Mt. Kilimanjaro,
photographer Dan Heller recorded
this marvelous 3 1/2 hour long exposure.
Here the landscape is lit mostly by
the stars.
Flashlights give the tents an erie internal radiance while
the greenish glow from the
distant city lights of Moshi, Tanzania filter through the clouds below.
The view from this
famous
equatorial African mountain is
toward the south, putting
the South Celestial Pole close to the horizon on the far left,
near the center of the graceful concentric
star trail arcs.
In the thin air and clear dark skies, even the ghostly
Milky Way
left a faint triangular glow as it swept across the middle of
the dreamlike scene.