The accelerated motion of my favorite star.

I’ve noticed recently that the sunsets that I see out my office window happen quite quickly. So one day, I set up my video camera and recorded a video of it. Unfortunately, unlike other days, the atmospheric properties of that particular day didn’t make for a very beautiful sunset.

What’s interesting about this video, however, is that it isn’t made in the normal way of making timelapse videos: 1) take a single frame, 2) wait a bit, 3) repeat. This was actually recorded at full speed. The whole video was about five minutes. And then I sped it up digitally with my video editing software.

Is the title too sensationalist?

Can you see the green flash?

For multiple viewings and better slider control, download the video.

The vertical stripe is caused by the CCD being overloaded by the direct sunlight. I can’t find a good web page explaining it, but I’ve seen it happen on all digital cameras I’ve ever used.