Near-Semicircular Star Trails Over Taipei

Last night, after nearly 12 hours of continuous imaging, this photograph records the north sky over Taipei, where Earth’s rotation traces star trails spanning roughly 180 degrees, forming an almost semicircular pattern.
Located at 25° north latitude, Taipei experiences frequent winter rain and strong urban light pollution, making all-night star-trail imaging difficult. On this rare clear night, I began shooting about one hour after sunset (6:26 p.m.) and continued until around 40 minutes before sunrise (6:03 a.m.), successfully capturing the longest winter night.
Near the center of the pattern is a small circular arc traced by Polaris, showing that the North Star lies slightly offset from the north celestial pole. Directly beneath Polaris stands Taipei 101, the city’s most iconic landmark, aligning the axis of the rotating sky with a vertical symbol of the city below.
In addition to the city lights, multiple aircraft trails from takeoffs and landings are visible, while low-level haze softens the sky, reflecting the real conditions of observing the night sky from a major metropolis.

Canon EOS R6 with Tamron SP 24-70mm F2.8 Lens

This image is a composite of 1268 consecutively taken photos, edited with Sequator 162r2. The photos were taken between 6:26 PM on January 13th and 6:03 AM on January 14th, with each photo having a 30-second exposure, for a total of 11 hours and 37 minutes.