{"id":6354,"date":"2026-03-16T11:13:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/the-magic-astri-trails\/2026\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:46:25","slug":"the-magic-astri-trails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/the-magic-astri-trails\/2026\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"The magic ASTRI trails"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-mmt2r4h1-de3f4a1c47942b30fa9a5738a22eeb0b\">\n#top .av-special-heading.av-mmt2r4h1-de3f4a1c47942b30fa9a5738a22eeb0b{\npadding-bottom:10px;\n}\nbody .av-special-heading.av-mmt2r4h1-de3f4a1c47942b30fa9a5738a22eeb0b .av-special-heading-tag .heading-char{\nfont-size:25px;\n}\n.av-special-heading.av-mmt2r4h1-de3f4a1c47942b30fa9a5738a22eeb0b .av-subheading{\nfont-size:15px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='av-special-heading av-mmt2r4h1-de3f4a1c47942b30fa9a5738a22eeb0b av-special-heading-h3  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_two_third  avia-builder-el-first '><h3 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >The magic ASTRI trails<\/h3><div class=\"special-heading-border\"><div class=\"special-heading-inner-border\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div  class='flex_column av-3hvdvp-5bc1b21d27c610bde254ce155fe7c924 av_two_third  avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_heading  el_before_av_one_third  first flex_column_div  '     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-mmt32paj-f7124515663559a181dc08a035cd21ec '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><p>Stunning star trails streak across the night sky and reflect on the segmented primary mirror of one of the telescopes of the <strong>ASTRI Mini-Array<\/strong> in this image taken at the Teide Observatory, on the island of Tenerife. The telescope in the foreground is <strong>ASTRI-6<\/strong>, one of the nine Cherenkov telescopes for gamma-ray astronomy installed at the Spanish site as part of the ASTRI project.<\/p>\n<p>The image was created using the <strong><em>star trail<\/em><\/strong> photographic technique, which makes the apparent motion of stars caused by Earth\u2019s rotation visible. By pointing the camera toward the south-east, the stars do not form the classic concentric circles around the North Star, but instead cross the sky as long, slightly inclined and almost parallel streaks, creating a dynamic pattern of light cutting diagonally across the night sky.<\/p>\n<p>The photograph was taken by <strong>Giovanni Lombardi<\/strong> (INAF) using a Canon EOS R mirrorless camera with a Canon 16\u201335 mm f\/2.8 lens mounted on a fixed tripod. The star trail effect was obtained by capturing a continuous sequence of 40-second exposures for a total time of about one hour and thirty minutes. The images were then combined in post-production using a <em>stacking<\/em> technique, allowing smooth and continuous stellar trails while minimizing digital noise and sensor overheating.<\/p>\n<p>The final result is a striking visual representation of the motion of the celestial sphere above one of the most advanced instruments in contemporary astronomy, where the dynamics of the cosmos and the technology developed to explore it meet in a single scene.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<div  class='flex_column av-2kpbrp-c94f2956b3e613722848ffff89ed0aae av_one_third  avia-builder-el-3  el_after_av_two_third  avia-builder-el-last  flex_column_div  '     ><style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-mmt34q9y-26bc338061f4fe0a56f0d4b51d720030\">\n.avia-image-container.av-mmt34q9y-26bc338061f4fe0a56f0d4b51d720030 img.avia_image{\nbox-shadow:none;\n}\n.avia-image-container.av-mmt34q9y-26bc338061f4fe0a56f0d4b51d720030 .av-image-caption-overlay-center{\ncolor:#ffffff;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='avia-image-container av-mmt34q9y-26bc338061f4fe0a56f0d4b51d720030 av-styling- avia-align-right  avia-builder-el-4  avia-builder-el-no-sibling '   itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" ><div class=\"avia-image-container-inner\"><div class=\"avia-image-overlay-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class='wp-image-6364 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-6364 avia_image ' src=\"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ASTRI_startail.jpg-2.jpeg\" alt='Star trails cross the sky above the ASTRI-6 telescope of the ASTRI Mini-Array at the Teide Observatory (Tenerife). The image, obtained using the star trail technique, shows the apparent motion of the stars caused by Earth\u2019s rotation.' title='ASTRI_startail.jpg'  height=\"400\" width=\"267\"  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"  \/><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Star trails sweep across the sky above the ASTRI-6 telescope of the ASTRI Mini-Array at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife. Captured by Giovanni Lombardi (INAF) using the star trail technique, the image reveals the apparent motion of stars caused by Earth\u2019s rotation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6354"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6367,"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6354\/revisions\/6367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astri.inaf.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}