star trail

noun

star trail

noun
1

Arts, Astronomy, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Natural sciences, Photography The line of light recorded on a photographic medium when a time exposure is made of a star in the nighttime sky using a camera on a fixed mount, caused by the rotation of the earth during the period of time when the camera's shutter is held open.

  • The idea behind photographing star trails is wonderfully simple. Just take your old mechanical camera, point it skyward, and leave the shutter open.2001, Eric DeBolt, “Happy Trails”, in Astronomy, volume 29, number 7, page 74:
Related terms
time exposure

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.