Hawaiian Starlight

The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) produced a video called Hawaiian Starlight for the International Year of Astronomy. We just had a lunchtime screening of the movie today for observatory employees.

Hawaiian Starlight consists of time lapse photography of the mountain interspersed with images from the heavens. There is no narration at all so this is intended more as a visual treat than a serious educational video. But is sure is a sweet visual treat! You can see clouds rolling around the mountain, telescopes tracking stars through the night, sunrises and sunsets, the movement of the stars (sometimes they show you star trails, sometimes not) from many different vantage points around the mountain. Look closely at some of the time lapse sequences and you can see planes taking off and other planes passing over on trans-Pacific flights.

The video is about 40 minutes long and you can buy it online. Minor complaint is that they have only done a standard DVD...I think this would look sweet on Bluray. I applaud them for making the DVD region free (although be sure you get the NTSC or PAL version depending on where you live!)

They don't have the movie online, but the trailer gives you a nice sample.

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.