September 11, 2004
On your birthday, photons that left distant stars before humans walked the Earth finally completed their journey. You began yours.
The Star Trails of Kilimanjaro
Birthday · September 11, 2004
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published September 11, 2004. Credit: Dan Heller. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
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.
Image credit: Dan Heller