The Earth is always rotating. Despite some hair-brained theories that the Earth is flat, all you need to see evidence of the Earth’s rotation and its roundness is to set up a camera and record the changes in the sky. That’s exactly what photographer Eric Brummel did a few years ago, and his beautiful timelapse showcases the Earth’s rotation in a breathtaking fashion.
Brummel created the time-lapse by capturing several images of the sky while having the camera locked to the Earth’s rotation. This allowed him to capture various images of how the sky’s appearance changed as the Earth rotated, giving us different views of the Milky Way and the night sky as a whole.
It’s a breathtaking argument against the theory of a flat Earth, and the timelapse was created using a star tracker and a camera. The star-tracker allowed Brummel to rotate the camera at the same speed as the Earth but in the opposite direction. This makes it appear as if you can see the Earth’s rotation exactly in the video, which is absolutely striking for any photography fan.
We’ve also seen other photographers capturing the night sky in similar ways. Photographer Aaron Jenkins has shared multiple images and videos from captures of the night sky and the Milky Way on Instagram. All of these images and videos really drive home the fact that we’re living on a constantly moving rock.
Some commenters on the videos and timelapses say that while they knew that the Earth’s rotation worked this way, it’s still a bit eery to see it actually happening on video. And honestly, they aren’t wrong. It’s beautiful but equally unsettling at the same time.
Of course, the real trick to capturing time-lapses like this is to go places where there is going to be as little light pollution as possible. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have those crisp and clear views of the night stars and the Milky Way spreading across the sky.
